Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Work or Pay Systems

[Tim Mensch (tim-coho-l]

Kay Wilson Fisk wrote:
> 1) X hours/month/MEMBER; and
> 2) x hours/month/HOUSEHOLD
>   
This can be almost a matter of religious debate, in my experience. I'm a 
member of the HOUSEHOLD religion. It feels profoundly unfair to me (not 
to mention creating lots of corner cases having to do with who to count 
as a "MEMBER", what the cost should be when members are on vacation, and 
needless accounting complexity) to change the responsibilities of a 
household based on number of adults.

Remember, just because there's an adult member doesn't mean that the 
member necessarily has free time. So why, if a household of three adults 
wants to buy out of their share, should it cost three times as much as, 
say, a household with one adult and four kids? It would be even worse if 
kids had community-assigned responsibilities that a household would need 
to buy out of if the kids, e.g., are buried under mounds of homework, as 
kids frequently are these days.

The strongest advocates of calculating hours on a per member basis, in 
my experience, have either been retired or single--make of that what you 
will. From my point of view, there shouldn't be a debate--HOA dues are 
typically calculated based on fractional ownership of the community (by 
some fixed equation), and I feel "buyout" money that is supposed to pay 
to maintain the community should be calculated in the same way. The only 
exception I've seen is when part of the HOA dues include, e.g., water 
bills, and those are divided by in part based on likely usage, which 
includes the number of members in a household--but do three adults 
really "use" the community more than a single parent of four kids?

--
Tim Mensch

Currently at Wild Sage (Boulder, CO): http://www.wildsagecohousing.org

Moving out! Our unit is for sale! http://1635yellowpine.com