Re: Creatively & Compassionately Raising Dues?
From: Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizmgmail.com)
Date: Fri, 3 May 2024 20:37:15 -0700 (PDT)
It's fascinating the way you have presented it. Why do you want to raise
dues?
If we had not raised our dues over 25 years we could not pay our bills.

So one question is--can you have a fund for people to give to to help pay
your costs.

We do two things for this.
1) our moderately affordable homes have a smaller percentage share of the
community. So their dues are less than half those of market rate homes.

2) we separate out required expenses (water, sewer, plowing, insurance,
building maintenance, and the building reserve fund) from the "cohousing
expenses" which are furniture in the common house, all electricity above
the minimum, social events, gardening, landscaping, washer/dryers, etc.
The required expenses (HOA) are based on percentage share of the community.
The optional expenses (Cohousing Dues) are sliding scale. Each household
pledges at least 5% of the average needed, with some households choosing to
subsidize the others. Sometimes we don't get enough, and we then ask for
more... so far (15 years) we end up with enough.

-Liz
(The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
mosaic-commons.org in berlin, MA
www.elizabethmaemagill.com
508-450-0431


On Fri, May 3, 2024 at 11:00 PM Helen Svoboda-Barber <
h.svoboda.barber [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> In our 25+ year history, our community has discussed raising dues a number
> of times. Far more often than not, we end up deciding not to increase
> because there are 1-3 households for whom the increase would be too much of
> a burden.
>
> Have any communities come up with a compassionate work-around to this?
> I would love to find a way so that the ~20 households who are willing to
> have their dues increased actually have an increase, but the ~1-3
> households that can not afford it do not have the increase.
>
> I'm looking for creative options as our community enters another dues
> discussion this year.  Ideas?
>
> Thanks, y'all!
> Helen
> Eno Commons, Durham NC
>
>
>
> Helen Svoboda-Barber (*she/her/hers. why pronouns matter.
> <
> https://intercultural.uncg.edu/student-advocacy-outreach/lgbt-community/lgbtq-resources/trans-resources/why-pronouns-matter
> >*
> )
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