tl;dr: book the Nice Room!
With spacious personal rooms and common spaces, as well as plenty of food to go around, co-ops like Cloyne are designed for sharing with our guests. This page gives an overview of the options you have to host someone, the informal procedure for doing so cooperatively, and formal Cloyne and BSC guest policies.
Basics on Hosting
Whenever you take or let someone who is not a member into the house, you become their host. Your guest may eat food, hang out in common space, participate in events, study quietly or in groups, sleep over, etc. They are expected to be cooperative just like anyone else in our house, which includes following our community agreements and our policies. As a guest’s host, you are responsible for ensuring their cooperativity, and for being a liaison in the case of any issues. There are additional things to know when you have a guest sleep overnight, which will be explored below.
Possible Locations for Hosting Overnight
First of all, you are more than welcome to host guests in your room! Just be sure to communicate with your roommates if you have any. If hosting in your room is not possible or the best option, the Nice Room is another option! The Nice Room is a large common space on the second floor of the central wing that can also be used at night to host guests.
You may also make a use-of-space request to host guests in other common spaces. This has been used to host more people than could fit in a host’s room and the Nice Room combined. For example, some cooperative members in the past have hosted conference-goers from other schools and Alternative Break participants in places like our Makerspace, Library, and Lib-Ed.
Before Hosting a Guest in the Nice Room
Remember to sign up your guest on Cloyne’s Guest Calendar if they’re planning to use the Nice Room overnight! If another member has already signed up for a time you wanted to host a guest, feel free to reach out to the other host to see if you can’t arrange something cooperatively.
However, please keep in mind that guests can use the Nice Room at 10:00 pm and must check out at 10:00 am. When the Nice Room is not being used as a guest room between 10:00 am and 10:00 pm, it is common space first and foremost. So please put personal belongings away, or at least out of the way, during the day.
More information on Cloyne’s Guest Room policy can be found here. The BSC-wide guest policy is that guests may stay overnight for a total of 7 days in a semester. Once those 7 days are up, you may receive permission for 7 more days through Cloyne’s council, for a total of 14 days in a given semester.
Checklist for Hosting Any Guest
- Make sure your guests understand Cloyne’s Substance-Free Policy, any relevant community agreements this semester (e.g., about nudity, noise, etc.), and the guest room rules outlined above
- For overnight guests, please send an email to the house (clones@cloyne.org), including the name(s) of your guest(s), their photo(s), and your contact info (email, cell phone, Facebook, etc.)
- This can also be a helpful way to ask the house not to be nude while your parents visit (for example)!
- Consider donating to Cloyne’s Karma Box (Venmo: @Cloyne-KarmaBox) for any parking, food/meals eaten, and/or use of guest room. Donations help us pay for food for 140 members and our guests, but no guests are turned away for lack of funds.
- Another option, especially for extended guests, is helping out with workshift where you can—whether that’s assisting a cook crew with dinner or washing dishes. We always need more workshift done, and the house will really appreciate your help! But again, this is optional and not required or expected.
Written by Miranda Hurtado (member) in Fall ‘18