Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Costs for Shared Services [was Shared community internet service

[R.P. Aditya (aditya]

I think this conversation about what communities share and how/what they
charge to prevent a tragedy of the commons is very valuable to
record. 

The hope is that we can share more and thereby benefit from living in
community and neighborliness, highlighting the practical efficiency of
living this way.

In general the guideline I like to follow and espouse is that amenities
should only be charged for if they are:

a) for exclusive use of a resource (ie. makes sense to charge for a
guest room that only one person/unit resident can host a guest in the CH
per night vs. not charging for use of a workshop with many benches that
multiple folks can simultaneously use)

b) the cost of tracking/billing is reasonable effort (ie. trying to
charge each household for how *much* Internet access they use is a
losing proposition)

Maybe others would be interested in comparing or just showing what all
they are able to share and for how much? I started a spreadsheet here
that anyone should be able to edit:

  
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14zf3otgCgfSeZYHhZlsIAAqwTGJsuIzwftuWBlSRQsI/edit?usp=sharing

So feel free to add your community, and any other amenties you share and
note how much you charge or if you do...

Thanks,
Adi
Great Oak Cohousing
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
http://www.gocoho.org

On Tue, Apr 01, 2014 at 08:50:21PM -0400, Elizabeth Magill wrote:
> 
> I was a strong proponent for your style of argument, Sharon. Some in the 
> community planned on a per load cost for laundry. But my argument is that I 
> wanted to be a in a community that welcomed folk who don't want to own their 
> own laundry equipment. At the time I was thinking about the owners of the 
> "affordable" homes in our community... but the reality has been a mix of 
> folks.
> 
> Although I have my own w/d it turns out I ALSO like to occasionally wash 
> three loads at once and to wash blankets that don't fit in my own washer.
> 
> We DO charge for guest room use after 5? (10?) uses of the room per year. And 
> I'm one of the folk who use it a lot and I feel better about that since i pay 
> for the over usage. 
> 
> Do you think the linens are with the single socks I've lost?
> 
> -Liz
> (The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
> www.worcesterfellowship.org
> www.mosaic-commons.org
> 508-450-0431
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Apr 1, 2014, at 12:21 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > On Apr 1, 2014, at 11:24 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> 
> > wrote:
> > 
> >> At Cornerstone, the big obstacle is an unwillingness to be part of 
> >> communal funding of services and equipment needed and used differentially. 
> > 
> 
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