ELS/Norms

To encourage a reduction to the mean, here are some ELS conventions which will not encode cleanly in a blockchain.

ELS is a cooperative living space

Every cooperative is different! In ELS, living cooperatively, means:

• We buy food and drink as a group and share them. We expect guests to participate in the cooperative by contributing to purchases of food and drink for the house and by consuming things that the house buys.
• We're rather informal about things. We don't do formal splitting of bills for groceries and house items. That means if you haven't purchased stuff for a while, maybe you should buy something written on the fridge! The details of the cooperative—in terms of payment, what is purchased, and special items that belong to one person, etc.—is always up for discussion.
• We have dinner together most nights and we'd really love it if you ate with us at least a few nights nights each week. We typically eat rather late (9-10:30pm most nights) but things are flexible and we try to work around each other's schedules. We typically start cooking—and drinking cocktails—closer to 8-8:30pm each night and we'd love it if you joined us for that too.
• Don't expect the same level of privacy that you would get in a hotel or apartment. The guest room leads to the sun room, and others may pass through to work from that space. The walls are fairly thin. We do respect closed doors.
• If folks are staying for a while, we expect them to help out with house chores. These are also done in an informal way; tasks typically involve picking up dishes, cleaning up the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher, wiping down the tables, taking out trash/compost and so on.

Other things you should know about us

• ELS is vegetarian. You don't have to be vegetarian, but we do ask that you be vegetarian in the parts of your life that take place here. We do not buy or cook meat and would prefer that you do not bring meat to cook or eat in the house either (at least not while we are around). Dairy products and eggs are not a problem.
• We are a bike friendly space. There are extra bikes. We hope you like bikes. It's OK if you don't like riding them since we're also very close to transit.
• Stays at ELS should be put on the calendar in advance. We only host guests with fixed terms. Guests of guests are generally fine although we ask folks to announce guests at dinner, on the house email list/Signal group, and put it on the calendar so we don't get overbooked. We'll ask you every time we're thinking of hosting somebody—yell at us if we don't!—so please do try to keep us in the loop.
• We host a "Community Dinner" every Thursday. Cooking starts at 7:30pm and eating starts at 9:00pm. We never eat a moment later than 9pm. You should come and you should invite folks over that you'd like us to meet!
• Most of us head off to a stammtisch each Sunday at 8:30pm called Beowulf Cluster (Seattle). You should bike over with us or meet us there!
• If you're staying here, you should definitely sign up for the community mailing list and, if you can, join the IRC channel so you can be plugged into the broader community of folks around the house. Details are on the ELS website.

Rulez

• Shoes off inside.
• No Smoking.
• Food that isn't labeled is expected to be communal; and we rarely label food.
• If people are sleeping in the morning, it's definitely preferred to shower downstairs.
• Compost / Recycling / Trash out on Tuesdays.
• Lock the basement door inside the garage when coming/leaving.
• The garage door is flaky, so make sure that it closes all the way before leaving/coming inside.

We have a few extra rules that pertain to the ELS/Hot tub:

• We don't wear clothes in the hot tub. It's a little easier to maintain it if you don't either but we can talk about it if you'd rather not.
• Please shower before tubbing every time.
• In order to not make guests feel uncomfortable, we don't use the hot tub when guests are over. We definitely don't do hot tub parties. If someone is staying with us for a few days, we try to give them a heads-up that we use the tub without clothes and we make it clear that they'd be welcome to join if they'd like—but that there is no pressure to do so or expectation that they will.

The Acetarium heritage is perhaps evident in the similarity of these items.