Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Associate Membership

[drmaryanngroups (drmaryanngroups]

I live at Manzanita Village in Prescott Arizona. Our associate members are 
called Area Villagers. They are folk who live in the area but not on the 
property. Currently two households live adjacent to the Village and one lives a 
little over a mile away. They pay a membership fee to join the Village and 
monthly dues equal to one half of the dues for a homeowner. By law we are an 
HOA so each property pays a membership fee when the property is first sold. The 
fee slides depending on the number of adults living on the property. Once 
membership has been paid on a property it is not assessed to subsequent owners 
unless they need to add additional adults, up to a limit of three. Each 
property is assessed monthly dues that forms the basis of our annual budget. 
Dues on rental properties are paid by the owner.

Everyone living on the property, all homeowners and all area villagers are 
members of the Village and can participate in the decision-making of the 
Village. We use a pretty strict version of consensus that allows everyone a 
voice in decisions. The only exceptions are certain decisions that according to 
state law must be made by the homeowners. These include changes in dues above a 
certain percentage, special assessments, election of the (titulary) HOA Board, 
revising the CC&R. These require a majority vote of the homeowners but happen 
rarely.

We only have three Area Villages households (5 members) and currently have 
close that category to new members. Although we could agree to re-open it in 
the future. 

Mary Ann

On Feb 22, 2011, at 9:17 AM, David Entin wrote:

> 
> I am chair of the Membership Committee at Rocky Hill Cohousing.  We would 
> like to know how other communities handle Associate Members.  We are 
> particularly interested in individuals or families who live outside the 
> cohousing community but would like to participate in it's life, and possibly 
> decision making.  Do you charge a fee, do they come to regular meetings, are 
> they voted in by the group, do you have an application process, or 
> recruitment strategy, benefits for both parties, etc.
> 
> In addition to these questions, we would like to know how you deal with 
> resident Associate Members. We have several renters and also five households 
> who are Associate Members by the fact that they live on the road coming up to 
> our community.  These five households do pay a monthly fee for the use of our 
> Common House, and most of them and the renters participate as much as our 
> regular members.  However we have no clear-cut rule for their participation 
> in our voting process.
> 
> Any information of the above subject would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks so much,
> 
> Dorothy Riehm,
> Rocky Hill Cohousing
> Northampton, MA
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Mary Ann Clark                                                  drmaryann49 
[at] mac.com
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