Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Membershhip charges

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

  Most things are charged for by square foot of space
rather than by number of people.  It makes the
bookeeping simpler and it also makes sense, generally
more square footage equates with more usage.  All
adults on the deeds of ownership are members.  We also
have participating non-members (renters, visitors,
kids).  The two major exceptions are meals and laundry
which are by person or load.  The meals are broken
down by adult person whether member, participating
non-member, or guest.  We don't charge for kids under
the age of 4 because the quantities of food consumed
are so negligible in those toddler years.  In the
laundry we keep track of the number of loads of wash
or dry that we do and pay for those 2 or 3 times a
year.  This makes sense because a couple of people
have their own washer/dryer and don't use the common
facilities at all and the rest of the various families
use them differing amounts generally depending on
number and age of kids they have.  Generally when
setting up systems you want to remember that YOU will
be managing this stuff and adding up all these numbers
over the years so you don't want to set up systems
that would make you work harder.  Couples split,
singles hook up, kids grow up and go off to college,
come back in the summer or not, are maybe in and out
for years. People rent rooms, or sometimes their whole
place, periodically, have long term guests.  If you
base your HOA dues on #'s of people rather than square
footage you will be doing a lot of chopping and
changing and it won't be worth it, trust me on this.
                Bonnie Fergusson
                Swan's Market Cohousing
                Oakland, CA


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com