Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: discount for early members

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

RoseWind here. We are self developed, with very little professional work, 
and during the first years members put in thousands of hours of volunteer 
work.
> Have other groups offered discounts to members who have a long history
>with the project?
Yes. When we finally got to the stage of setting lot prices, to total up 
to the needed development sum, we worked out a "pioneer discount" of a 
thousand dollars per household per year of participation until then. So 
the first 8 families, or so, got lot-price reductions of $1000-$7000, 
based on how long they'd been in. Of course the amount offered in 
discounts added to the price of the remaining lots, to come out even.

>3) During the development stage did the issue of "equality" of members time
>and contribution come up and how was it handled?
Yes it did. Even in working out the Pioneer Discount, there were 
tensions. If Wife watched the kids so Hubby could attend meetings, did 
they as a household deserve a double discount? I was one who argued 
against it, as a single mom who had to watch a friend's kid all the 
following day in exchange for meeting-time care.

Probably our worst can-of-worms ever was around a couple of instances in 
those early years where a member - already volunteering extensively- had 
skills and knowledge but couldn't afford MORE time, so we hired them, vs 
paying more to an outsider who'd not do as well. Seemed like a fine 
solution, but it turned out to be a major grudge-builder with a Wife who 
resented how much her Husband volunteered. He was glad to volunteer, but 
she thought he should have been paid, and caused considerable emotional 
drama in the group, threatening to block payment for the work which had 
been completed by the two others. We lived, but it wasn't pretty.  

A few more comments on the Pioneer Discount. We realized that it would 
affect each of those families' "basis" for someday capital gains 
calculation upon resale, but chose to do it anyway (nobody of course was 
required to take the discount). It was also acknowledged that in terms of 
actual hours we'd put in (without any developer, remember), a few 
thousand dollars was token, but held that it was an important gesture. 
Early members also had risked money, and had had their money tied up at 
zero interest, as we paid everything out of pocket, bit by bit, adding to 
our equity credit.  I never heard any complaint from a later joiner about 
the pioneer discount. 


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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