Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Comping for first-time community meal guests

[Linda Hobbet (coho]

At Village Hearth we keep our meals budget completely separate from the 
community budget. Prospective member visitors pay like everyone else 
(even the members who prepared the meal). We figure it is part of 
showing them how we function. No one has complained.

We have a meals team that organizes how our once-a-week community meals 
are handled, do a few special meals per year (Thanksgiving, etc) and 
handle the meals money. We have managed to keep our meals at $5 per 
person, though we will probably need to revisit the cost soon. Shoppers 
submit receipts for ingredients. Everyone is on one of 5 meal squads 
that does everything for that week's meal - planning, shopping, cooking, 
setup, and cleanup.  We rotate squads and the sixth week is a potluck. 
One unexpected benefit is that people tend to linger longer and 
socialize after meals because they don't feel like they aught to jump up 
and help clean.

Having everyone pay even if they were on the squad for that week 
simplifies things and it all works out pretty much the same. Most weeks 
we get around 24 of our 33 members attending the meal, often including a 
visitor or two. Only people who are signed up are expected to pay. The 
signup sheet has quite a few "permanent" signups (they cross their names 
off if they will not be coming). If you sign up but don't attend, you 
are still expected to pay

Linda Hobbet

--
VillageHearthCohousing.com
706-202-7178
coho [at] lindahobbet.com

"When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blooms.”
                                                   Ma Ja

> > Please note that a piece of the puzzle is that our meal accounts are
> > managed separately from community funds. Have any other cohos create a
> > community guest meal account within such a non-community fund?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Denise Tennen
> > Monterey Cohousing Community
> > St Louis Park, Minnesota
> > Sent from my iPhone
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info