Chores

All members are expected to complete four to five hours of weekly chore duties for their house. Each house self-manages their own chore system, including assigning chores to members, deciding what the responsibilities of each chore are, deciding how many "hours" each chore is worth, and assigning "dirty chores" to members who fail to complete their weekly chores.

Although the houses manage their chore systems independently, both houses tend to have similar chores. This page describes the responsibilities typically expected of various chores. You should check your house's policies to see exactly what chores your house has, but if your house doesn't have written chore descriptions yet, the way your house does it is probably similar to the chore descriptions below.

Your house's House Admin keeps track of the chores assigned to folks in your house, and makes sure people are completing their chores. The House Admin will assign penalty chores, known as "dirty chores", to members who fail to complete their weekly chores. If you can't complete your weekly chore some week, talk to your House Admin, or see if someone else in the house can swap with you for another chore.

In addition to normal weekly chores which have an hour/point value, both houses expect members to complete occasional "Dish Nights" and to attend weekly meetings. Missing a Dish Night or missing a meeting without permission will incur a "dirty chore", the same as missing a weekly chore.

List of Weekly Chores

This is a list of chores both houses TEND to have. It may not accurately reflect the chore system your house currently uses. For chore descriptions from before MOSAIC's split into two houses, see here.

Meal-Related Chores

These chores are all involved in some aspect of getting meals on the table for people to eat.

Cooks: Prepare dinner for the house once a week; clean up dishes used during cooking.
Food Coordinator(s): Prepare shopping list for shoppers, based on recipes sent in from cooks and (if applicable) inventories of needed "common food" in the kitchen.
Shoppers: Shop for groceries, based on the shopping list prepared by the Food Coordinator(s). Requires a car, obviously.
Bulk Cook(s): Make use of leftover ingredients to make "bulk foods" for people to enjoy.

Cleaning Chores

These chores all involve cleaning in one way or another.

After-Dinner Clean ("AD Clean"): After a meal, put away leftovers, put away late plates, and clean the pots and pans used to serve the food.
Kitchen Konquerors ("K2"): Kitchen cleaning that isn't included in AD Clean or Dish Night. Do a deep-clean of the kitchen every week, focusing on counters, stove tops, the floor, the pantry, washing dirty rags, and other necessary cleaning.
Trash/Recycling: Empty the trash/recycling bins in the kitchen when they get full. Take the outdoor trash/recycling bins to the curb on the appropriate night of the week. May include managing the compost bins too.
Common Clean: Clean common areas. May be general, or assigned to a specific common area.
Private and Common Fridge Clean: Clean the fridge every week by throwing out moldy or expired food, organizing the contents of the fridge, and so forth.
Bathroom Clean: Clean a particular bathroom each week.

Administrative Chores

These chores all involve performing some kind of administrative task for the house.

Accountant: Manages finances for the house, collecting rent from members and answering members' financial questions.
House Admin: General manager for the house. Primarily holds people accountable for doing their chores. Also serves as liaison with the house's landlord, letting the landlord know when maintenance issues arise.
Recruitment Officer (Winter/Spring only): Works with MOSAIC's VP of Membership to coordinate interviews with applicants who've applied to their house. Helps advertise the co-op by making flyers, posting on social media, and putting together events like recruitment brunch.

Miscellaneous Chores

These chores didn't fall into one of the other categories.

Board Rep: Some houses choose to compensate their House Rep on the Board of Directors with chore hours. You can read more about what each house's House Rep does here (LINK).
Other Chores: Your house will certainly have other chores that are unique to it. Check your house's policies, or ask your housemates!

Dish Nights

In addition to weekly chores, both houses require members to occasionally complete "Dish Nights."

Dish Nights are a rotating nightly chore that exists to make sure the kitchen starts clean every morning. In theory, there should never be dirty dishes abandoned in the kitchen; in practice, of course, dirty dishes pile up, and at the end of each day, sometimes a cup or two or ten are leftover in the sink. This is where Dish Night comes in.

Every night, someone will be assigned to Dish Night. The House Admin creates a calendar with Dish Night assignments at the beginning of each month and puts it on the fridge. The calendar rotates through everyone in the house. If you see you have a Dish Night coming up and you know you won't be home that night, simply swap nights with someone else.

How To Dish Night

As part of Dish Night, you're expected to complete the following tasks (may vary slightly by house):

Empty the draining racks
Empty the dishwasher if it's clean
Clean all dishes left in the sink, on counters, or on the stove, either by washing them immediately and putting them in the draining rack, or by putting them in the dishwasher. Same with all dishes left in other common areas (dining room, living room).
(If it's full) Start the dishwasher, AND empty it in the morning
Wipe down all kitchen counters using a rag + vinegar cleaning solution (look for the spray bottle that's labelled half-vinegar, half-H2O)
Wipe down the sink, remove any gunk from the drain
Sweep the floor to clean up any major food debris

When you finish your Dish Night, cross off your name on the calendar on the fridge.

Missed Chore Policy

Each house has its own policy regarding missed chores. If your house doesn't currently have a written missed chore policy, refer to the pre-split policy here (bottom of the page)