Re: Paying and Accounting for meals.
From: Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcomeolympus.net)
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 15:29:12 -0800 (PST)
RoseWind Cohousing, long built in Port Townsend WA.
We have 2-4 potlucks a month, and organized potlucks for holiday meals. Mondays 
are cooked meals. Usually for about 30.
Our Monday meals are cooked by volunteers who sign up. A team of two is common, 
sometimes one, or 3-4. I might sign up for a date on the list and note "I'll 
make chili and cornbread, want someone to do salad and dessert". 
I sign up about every 6-8 weeks. 
Another bulletin-board sign up sheet lists the date, cooks, menu, and a list of 
usual attendees. If you're coming, circle your name, if not cross it off. If 
neither is indicated a cook might phone or email reminders. Shopping budget 
depends on signups. So if I have 20 adults signed up, (besides cooks, who don't 
pay), I have $110 shopping budget. Fifty cents of the $6 dinner fee goes to the 
pantry fund that supplies sugar, butter, oil, baking supplies, grains, etc. 
Cooks can be reimbursed for expenses up to the budget amount.
Monday meals also have a share in the community vegetable garden, supplying 
lots of produce in season, at no expense to the cooks.

One member keeps a spreadsheet for meal accounts. Many pay ahead, or take 
shopping-expense reimbursements in meal credit. He notes who comes to the meal 
and dings their account. Adults $6, kids $1-2.
Leftovers are free, unless cooks are over budget and want donations for 
leftovers. Usually free. We discourage leaving stuff in the fridge, unless very 
specifically designated for a near-time occasion.

Clean up is general pitch in, and gets handled well. Cooks are the buck 
stoppers for final closing routines, checking trash, compost, doors, dishwasher 
off. But most tasks are done by others.

We've been using about the same system for 15 years, and it serves us quite 
well. 

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.