For long term residents and visitors that stay at least one month in Suderbyn, the rent and food allowance is proportional to the amount of working hours per week dedicated to the community. You can see at the bottom of this page what is considered as a working hour.
Not all rooms are as confortable, and they differ in sizes. That is why they are divided in 5 different categories.

Here is the sliding scale for the monthly rents, in swedish crowns :

Note : If you are a member of the cooperative, you automatically slide down one case to the right (if you worked an average of 20h/week, you pay the 25h/week status).

For the food allowance, there are two categories. The “internal” category, for community members that eat every meals in Suderbyn, and the “external” category, for community members that eat lunches outside.
Here is the sliding scale for the monthly food allowance, in swedish crowns :

Monthly rents for minors (under 18 years old), in swedish crowns

Time outside of Suderbyn
For a total of 1 month per year, long term residents (and explorers) can leave Suderbyn without making their room available for others to occupy, without having to pay rent for it. Cooperative Members are granted 1 extra month (2 months total).

For all weeks that exceed this threshold, if a long term resident leaves Suderbyn without making their room available to occupy, they pay 100% of the rent (20h/week Status).
If a long term resident leaves Suderbyn with making their room available to occupy, they pay 25% of the rent (35h/week status), whether it is rented or not by someone else.

What does “making the room available for others to occupy” mean ?
It means consenting to having the room rent to someone else while you are away ; cleaning the room before leaving ; changing the sheets ; and emptying the room of personal belongings (clothes, personal items)

How to apply for a long term visit or Explorer procedure ?
The process to apply for a long term visit is very easy !
You just need to send us an email at info@suderbyn.se that contains :
1) A short presentation of yourself and your motivations to come to Suderbyn
2) The estimated dates of your visit (as accurate as possible when writing the email)
3) An indication if you want a single room / are willing to share a room / are willing to stay in a tent
4) A confirmation that you have read our information for visitors and our co-living principles and that you consent to them

By reception of your email, your request will be relayed to the community meeting, and sociocratically voted. If you are thinking of moving to Suderbyn, we recommend visiting first, to see the place, how we live, and how we work together. If you like Suderbyn and feel that you would like to live here,
You are welcome to come back and become a “Suderbyn Explorer”. However,  you can also come as a Suderbyn Explorer directly.If you want to move in

​If you want to move in
If you are thinking of moving to Suderbyn, we recommend visiting first, to see the place, how we live, and how we work together. If you like Suderbyn and feel that you would like to live here,
You are welcome to come back and become a “Suderbyn Explorer”. However,  you can also come as a Suderbyn Explorer directly.

Explorer procedure
In order to become a long-term resident, you must first go through the “Explorer procedure”. This is a try-out period that lasts one year.
On a daily basis, Suderbyn Explorers are like any long-term residents : they are responsible of their own schedule, and are paying a rent and food allowance proportionally to their working hours for the community.

During this year long procedure, there will be five feedback sessions : the first one after one month of living in Suderbyn, the second one after 3 months, the third one after 6 months, the fourth one after 9 month, and the last one after 12 months.
During these sessions, you and the present community members will reflect on how your integration is going and how your presence benefits the community, and how the community is benefitting you.
At the end of each feedback session, the community members that have live at least 3 months with you, and will live at least 3 more months with you if you stay, will vote on your continued stay. In order for the Explorer procedure to keep going, the vote must result in at least 75% of “active yes” and less than 10% “
During your time as an explorer, you can choose to have a “buddy”, a person who helps you integrate and give feedback.

After the 5th feedback session, you and the community make the final decision about whether you and Suderbyn are a good fit. If both sides consent, you will officially become a Suderbyn resident. 

Sheets, towels and working clothes
We have towels and sheets which you can use, but please make sure to wash them before you leave. Or, if you leave early in the morning, ask someone from the community to help you. Feel free to bring some work clothes/shoes, but we also have community work clothes which you can borrow. We also have a ‘freeshop’ in which you can find lots of clothes and donate those you no longer want.

Ecological and biodegradable products
We support buying only ecological food products when buying personal food. We use ONLY biodegradable personal hygiene products, such as shampoo, tooth paste, etc.,  and we expect the same from our guests. If you do not have 100% natural (biodegradable) personal hygiene products, you can buy them in Suderbyn. We urge you not to use non-biodegradable products because they will end up in our water supply.

Cooperative membership
In the current structure, every community member pays for their rent and food. There is a possibility to become a member and co-owner of our cooperative, “Suderbyn People-Care” when these requirements are met:
– Signing a membership contract with the cooperative
– Having lived in Suderbyn for at least 6 months
– Making a one-time donation of 10 000 SEK to “Suderbyn Earth-Care”, the  foundation that owns the land
– Making a refundable contribution of 5 000 SEK to “Suderbyn People-Care Cooperative”

The perks that come with the cooperative membership are :
1 – having a voting right during the General Assemblee
2 – Automatically sliding one column toward the right of the rents sliding scale. This benefit only applies if one has done a minimum of 5h/week.
3 – One more month per year being outside of Suderbyn without paying rent (see the paragraph “time outside of Suderbyn”)

Working hours
Work in Suderbyn is defined as any energy put into a project whose benefits can be directly enjoyed by at least 5 Suderbynians (including oneself).
For example, cooking dinner for oneself is not work, but cooking dinner for 5 people is.
The project doesn’t need to be beneficial to 5 or more Suderbynians if and only if the project is part of the coordinated work, or part of employee responsibilities.
Participation to the Monday Morning Meeting, the Community Meeting, the Domain Meeting, the Sharing Circle, and any Working Group meeting, counts as work.
Participation to the coordinated work obviously counts as work.
Participation to the social well being of Suderbyn (hosting and preparing circles, hosting and preparing activities, mentoring sessions, mediating a conflict transformation) counts as work.
Participation to the hygiene maintenance of communal spaces counts as work. Cleaning one’s own bedroom does not count as work.
Participation to the essentials counts as work.
Participation to a project that benefits the ReLearn NGO counts as work, even if the ReLearn project does not benefit Suderbyn directly.
A project that only benefits oneself does not count as work : assuming that by making you more happy, thus a nicer roommate, it will be beneficial to the rest of the community, is not a valid argument.
On arrival, new Suderbynians are introduced to a task list where they can get ideas of how to be useful to the community.
For projects that are not listed in the document, one needs to make sure, before putting energy into it, that the rest of the community agrees that it is a beneficial project to commit to.
For example, if one paints a wall without asking the community / domain coordinator, this will not count as working hours, because nobody wanted the wall to be painted in the first place.
The way to get this feedback is to approach the coordinators of the relevant domains ; ask the core team during a core meeting ; or ask directly to the community in a morning meeting or a community meeting.