Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Associate Member Arrangements

[Jim Snyder-Grant (jimsg]

At New View (Acton MA) we do have a a couple of different kinds of 
associate membership. We waited until we had moved in for a couple of 
years to figure out the details, so we cold see what would be realistic.

'community' members participate a lot - multiple times per week. There 
are two of these households these days. They live right next door, walk 
over for all sorts of things, participate on committees, etc. They pay a 
relatively hefty fee, originally based on a complicated formula related 
to portions of our condo fee that has fallen by the wayside except for a 
few spreadsheet nerds who occasionally make sure the fee is still 
reasonable. They are on our community-wide email lists.

'friends' come over occasionally, maybe a couple of times / month. There 
are four of these  households these days. They pay less. They are not on 
committees. Otherwise, they have the same privileges as community members.

Then there are 'guests'. They need to be under the supervision of a member.

We got close to writing up elaborate paperwork for all this. The issue, 
as previously stated, is that we would have needed to set up a new 
entity - 'new view community' for example, in contract with 'new view 
condo'. That was a lot of work for a small amount of gain. We just live 
with the informality of it (except for the bookkeeper/accountant, who 
has devised some comfortable way of accounting for this extra income for 
our taxes).

Sharon Villines wrote:

> 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
>
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--
Jim Snyder-Grant
18 Half Moon Hill
Acton MA 01720
978 266-9409
http://www.snyder-grant.org/jim/who