Re: Costs for Shared Services | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com) | |
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 06:35:34 -0700 (PDT) |
On Apr 2, 2014, at 4:54 PM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com> wrote: > I am the bookkeeper here at Mosaic Commons. Whenever discussion comes up > that involves whether we should charge money for this, that or the other, I > groan, because more charges = more work for me...and often the amount of > money is so trivial that it would be frustrating to have to spend my time > on it. We've also discovered this with group purchases but we don't run these through our condo fee collection. One person has coordinated purchase of blinds when we moved in, another storm doors, another HVAC service. The savings for group purchases might be 10%. Possibly more. But unless we can save hundreds of dollars, it's too much work to coordinate and collect. The one time it did work well was the installation of Toto toilets. The technology for low flow toilets was not great when we moved in so after 8 years many of us installed new toilets. They were much cheaper online and had free shipping but we wanted to deal with someone locally. We took the online price to a dealer and he accepted it with a cash payment. We bought 12 toilets and hired a plumber to install all of them in one day. The person who coordinated it then divided the cost per toilet (some had 3 installed) and collected. I think he actually collected before hand. That worked very well because it was a huge savings and worth the time. We had each household pay $50 to have their front door painted and it was a nightmare collecting. We finally put the last few on the condo fees account as a special charge. People's lives are too complicated, and people are too complicated, to make small amounts worth it for anyone. With TV in the common house we did something else. Only a few people wanted cable TV in the commonhouse so they agreed to pay for it themselves. One person collected the fee monthly from a handful of people. it took three years before people agreed to include it in the condo fees. We have always had the condo fees and expenses handled by a management company. The treasurer works with the company to handle reimbursement requests and proper assignment to accounts. He oversees them to be sure bills are paid, etc. Paper always slips through the tracks. That is enough work for one person. Sharon ---- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org
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Re: Costs for Shared Services Eris Weaver, April 2 2014
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Re: Costs for Shared Services Kathryn McCamant, April 2 2014
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Re: Costs for Shared Services Diana Carroll, April 2 2014
- Re: Costs for Shared Services Sharon Villines, April 3 2014
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Re: Costs for Shared Services Diana Carroll, April 2 2014
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Re: Costs for Shared Services Kathryn McCamant, April 2 2014
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