Cohousing-L Mailing List: Money and Greater Hartford Cohousing

[Tonka444 (Tonka444]

Hi everyone--

I have a very nuts and bolts money question for you.  Our group has been 
meeting since July and up until this point each "core" household (11) has 
only put in $100 bucks for expenses.

As of May 1st, we are leveling the membership so that core households will 
now o pay $200 a month "fair share contribution" towards the option of land.  
We do not have a site or any professionals hired yet.  

We have 10 households (!) who want to be core at $200 a month.  But the 
question that held up our group last meeting was...if we have a household 
join four months from now, do they have to pay $1200 down (to catch up to the 
membership) and then $200 a month and THEN the $100 bucks that the earlier 
core kicked in?  The membership committee who wrote out the new membership 
levels did not include the initial $100 requirement but one household feels 
that if they had to pay it, why wouldn't the newcomers?

Also, with the new $2000 a month that will be coming in, should that go in a 
separate account and the initial $100 payment be used for expenses and get 
replenished from the group?  I thought that ALL of the money each household 
put in is considered predevelopment expenses that will come off the top of 
our mortgages.

Just curious how other groups structure out their initial monetary payments 
before a site and before professionals.

Thanks,
Shelly DeMeo