Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Shared vs Individual Costs

[Kay Wilson Fisk (kwwilson]

So far, we only have two expenses paid by users:

1) Use of Common House

        a) Process: An ad hoc committee researched use policies and costs on
the internet. Most facilities we found were owned by a city or church. The
committee led discussions on their findings at several community meetings,
and achieved consensus approval after 2-3 re-writes.

        b) Criteria: All events must be sponsored by a Member. Events for
less than 20 people are free. Events for 20+ people are free if the
community is invited; otherwise, they pay a fee; use of the kitchen costs
extra. 

        c) Evaluation: This seems to be working well. We have had very few
events requiring a fee. However, we may look at reducing the size of event
that is allowed free in order to increase income and help keep homeowner
dues as low as possible.

2) Use of a Third Parking Space -- Each unit has the right to use two
parking spaces, but we have had two households who needed another space for
a third car. Use of a 3rd space reduces our Visitor parking.

        a) Process: Our Parking Committee researched the cost to rent
parking at a nearby storage facility; they developed a recommendation that
was approved by consensus after discussion and refinement.

        b) Criteria: Our goal is to optimize the amount of visitor parking
that is located closest to the units. The Parking Committee is authorized to
approved assignment of a 3rd space for a $50/month fee (the amount can be
reduced in case of hardship). Two visitor parking zones are defined: most
convenient and least convenient. A 3rd vehicle may be parked in the least
convenient visitor parking zone during the day, and may be moved to the most
convenient zone between 9PM - 9AM. 

        c) Evaluation: Not surprisingly, no one has opted to pay the fee so
far, which has achieved our goal.

I hope this is what was meant by "process" and "criteria." I added the
evaluation to help put it into perspective.

Kay
Bartimaeus Cohousing Community
Meadow Wood Condominium
www.bartcommunity.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Sharon Villines [mailto:sharon [at] sharonvillines.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 7:17 AM
To: Cohousing-L Cohousing-L
Subject: [C-L]_ Shared vs Individual Costs


The following question was posted for the conference call this  
weekend. I'm wondering how various communities handle this:

> What process and which decision making criteria work well in  
> determining which budget expenses are to be shared by all members/ 
> house holds and which should be paid by "users" eg. - Hot Tub Users  
> Club vs shared Common House Utilities - Paying for baby sitters  
> during community meetings - Parents users group or full community.

We have previously financed almost everything out of homeowner dues  
because we believed that everyone would use some of the facilities  
some time and it would all balance out.

That has proven not to be true, but some  people believe that doing  
anything else would be too complicated.

(Thanks for all the other questions people have answered recently --  
my plan is to collate and post them. Obviously, haven't gotten to it.)

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org



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