Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Discount for early member

[Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganesh]

On 03/12/03 Stacia Leech wrote:

> 1) Have other groups chosen to recognize significant work done by some
> members, financially?
> 2) Have other groups offered discounts to members who have a long history
> with the project?
> 3) During the development stage did the issue of "equality" of members time
> and contribution come up and how was it handled?

Compensating members for work is a very sticky issue, especially if the work
was done before any agreement was made about compensation.  One of the
things we did to both attract members and compensate early members for their
investment, risk, and work was to create a membership incentives system (see
details pasted below).  I think this was a very successful system for us,
but I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement retroactively.

We also compensated our project manager (me) and an assistant project
manager, but again, our compensation agreements were determined before the
work was done for the most part.  We were working full time on the project.

The issue of how much work members do for the community and whether that
work is donated or compensated is one that comes up periodically for us.  I
think it's a recurring theme in virtually all communities during development
and forever thereafter -- Are some folks not doing their share of work?  I
feel guilty I don't do more community work, but I just don't have the time.
I do as much community work as Carol, but she's getting compensated for the
work she does.  Etc, etc, etc.

==========================
MEMBERSHIP INCENTIVES
08/18/99

PHILOSOPHY
Membership Incentives are offered for a number of reasons:
* To reward Members that join early for the high level of risk inherent in
the development project during the initial phases.
* To reward Members that join early for the use of their money for a longer
period of time. If it wasn't paid to HC, it could be earning interest
somewhere else.
* To reward Members that join early for the extra work that they put in at
the beginning.
* To encourage Members to sign up early, especially at critical points in
the development process. Our Membership Threshold Goals must be met for us
to move ahead with development.

CHOICE OF LOT
The order in which households become Members is the order in which they will
get to choose lots.

To avoid any misunderstanding, it should be understood that lots will be
priced differently depending on their relative market values (views, trees,
topography, etc.). These prices will be determined before lots are chosen.

EQUITY CREDITS
Equity Credits are awarded to Members based on when they join during the
development project. A Member household that joins before the following
development milestones and is current in their stock purchase payments
receives the following Equity Credit:

Site control (under contract for land) May 22, 1997 $5000
Land Purchase May 22, 1998 $3000
Receiving preliminary land use approval December 21, 1998 $2000
Beginning of construction August 12, 1999 $1000

So a Member household that joined after May 22, 1997, but before May 22,
1998 and is current with its payments would receive a $3000 discount off the
price of their lot. If that Member selects a $54,000 lot, they would only
pay $51,000 for the lot. The credits are used at the time of final lot
purchase.


-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
        - T. S. Eliot
**********************************************************


_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L