Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Members and rentals (was Short-term Rentals)

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

See below ...

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646

On Nov 6, 2013, at 7:43 AM, Diana Carroll wrote:

> 
> Yes in theory someone could live here and not be a member - not pay dues,
> not work.  Regarding dues: If they own they are legally required to pay
> condo fees, and those are much higher.   Our cohousing dues are on a
> sliding scale with the min being about $5 a month so that's never been a
> deal breaker for anyone.

Diana -- what are you "dues" used for?  Why is this a separate fee from the 
condo fee?  Do other communities have dues separate from condo fees?

From other comments in your email, it seems as if your community draws a line 
between HOA dues and the need to maintain the physical plant and cohousing 
activities which might be more "social" in nature.  Is this a correct 
interpretation?  What are some of the items that your dues cover that are not 
covered in your regular HOA budget?

I'm interested in this because the single biggest difference I can see between 
standard condos and cohousing is the where the emphasis for having cohousing is 
in the first place.  We build cohousing because we want the social ties and 
relationships not generally found in standard condos.  Yet ...  like all 
standard condos our cohousing community puts its budgeted money into 
maintaining the built environment with very, very little into more "social" 
activities and resources including training for facilitation, conflict 
resolution, communication skills, etc.  

Often we even create user groups to fund activities that a portion of the group 
wants to do but the whole group won't fund.  

It's a very interesting set of circumstances.  I find this bifurcation 
especially in the organizing stages of cohousing.  The group spends vast 
amounts of time focussed on the physical design issues and very little on the 
skills that will actually be more useful long term e.g. learning to live w/ 
each other.  I'm sure this is because design seems "real" and social skills 
seem not so immediate.  As a resident living in cohousing the last 13 years I 
wish we had spent and would now spend more time learning to listen to each 
other and less time focused on sewer ejector pumps.  And before you pillory me 
... sewer ejector pumps are REALLY important and I would want to live w/out 
them but we can hire someone to do that ...

Back to my original question ... what do you use your cohousing dues for?


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