Cohousing-L Mailing List: Shared vs Individual Costs

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

The following question was posted for the conference call this  
weekend. I'm wondering how various communities handle this:

> What process and which decision making criteria work well in  
> determining which budget expenses are to be shared by all members/ 
> house holds and which should be paid by "users" eg. - Hot Tub Users  
> Club vs shared Common House Utilities - Paying for baby sitters  
> during community meetings - Parents users group or full community.

We have previously financed almost everything out of homeowner dues  
because we believed that everyone would use some of the facilities  
some time and it would all balance out.

That has proven not to be true, but some  people believe that doing  
anything else would be too complicated.

(Thanks for all the other questions people have answered recently --  
my plan is to collate and post them. Obviously, haven't gotten to it.)

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org