Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Associate Member Arrangements

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Feb 4, 2005, at 9:27 PM, Theresa Jensen wrote:

>  So, I'd like to hear from others who have associate membership 
> arrangements with neighbors:  what are your arrangements?

When we first moved in many people wanted to do this. We do have 
provisions in our bylaws for associate memberships. Our lawyer 
cautioned us against it for two reasons:

(1) You have too much on your plate just getting this place up and 
running, so I would advise that you hold off, and
(2) You are incorporated as a condominium. If you start functioning as 
some other type of organization, you will have to be incorporated as 
something else, or have a sub organization that is.

All that seemed to complicated and we were overwhelmed with ourselves 
without taking on others. We did have many meals where specific 
residents invited specific neighbors and some pot lucks that included 
neighborhood organizations. We had a square dance that included 
neighbors and neighborhood organizations meet here when our members 
arrange it (we don't rent the space or even loan it to organizations 
that a member is not a part of and takes responsibility for).

So while there has been lots of interaction to the extent that many of 
the neighbors feel "at home" in our commonhouse, we never pursued 
"outside" associate members.

Without doing a formal survey of members the reasons for this I think 
are:

(1) We are a large community (80+) and keeping track of ourselves has 
been work enough.
(2) The commonhouse is bursting at the seams with people wanting to put 
it to more uses than we have space for already. And all the facilities 
are used reasonably fully by just us. More people would create more 
conflict.
(3) The neighbors stopped asking when they found out how much work it 
is.
(4) Members stopped asking when they found out how much work it is to 
supervise their guests in common space. And to deal with differing 
opinions about how it should be done.

So while we do have associate members, it is limited to residents and 
the associate membership ceases when people move out. Owners are 
Members and non-owners (roommates, renters) are Associate Members if 
they choose to be. We are now working on a policy that says people who 
lease units (the owner is absent) for 6 months or more are 
automatically Associate Members. The basic distinction is that 
Associate Members are expected to participate in the same way as 
Owners. In decision-making, the only distinction is that if we have to 
go to a vote on an issue, non-owners cannot vote to commit owners to 
financial decisions. Only owners can compel themselves to spend money 
because it is their money.

I hope someone from Cantines Island chimes in on this because I think 
they have done more outreach by buying and  incorporating adjacent 
houses into their community. This allows neighbors to become part of 
the community in the same way that everyone else is. The problem of 
different kinds of members is balancing the responsibility and 
financial risk.

Sharon
---
Sharon Villines,
Takoma Village Cohousing
Editor and Publisher of Building Community: A Newsletter on Coops, 
Condos, Cohousing, and Other New Neighborhoods
http://www.buildingcommunitynews.org