Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Membership

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

I believe we required 5% of the cost of the home to join as a member
until we had land, and then 20% of the cost of the home after that. If
that seems high (which when I was new and didn't understand, it did to
me), consider that we only could charge so little because several
households put in additional cash.

Note also that it is not unusual to pay 20% of the cost of a home as a
downpayment. In cohousing we were just paying that while the risk was
still high because the home wasn't built yet.

We also had associate membership for people considering joining. It
had a monthly fee ($100?). Plus everyone paid for events like
retreats. I personally waited until we had land to move from associate
to member because I believed then the investment was "safe". (<ROFL.
Ok, I'm getting up off the floor from laughing at myself.>

We had a rule that if you pulled out you could not get your money back
unless your unit size was resold to someone else. (Don't do that!!) I
believe we changed that so you could not get your money back until the
project was complete.

Also, we promised interest on the money invested, very high interest
on the earliest investments. This is a good idea but only is paid out
if the project comes out ahead.

Also date of membership determined home selection which mattered a
great deal to many people.

Liz
Mosaic Commons Cohousing, Berlin, MA
On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 11:33 PM Dean smith via Cohousing-L
<cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>
> Greetings from Sunnyside Village Cohousing in Marysville, WA.  We’re just 
> forming even though our two founding members already have the land.  We’re 
> wondering what other groups have done to define membership, especially during 
> the formative stage.  We know that we will need $$ to proceed with 
> infrastructure, etc., and we want to do a lot of social development while 
> design, permitting and building is taking place.  How much is too much to 
> expect to charge for membership?  What levels of membership have worked for 
> others?
>
> Dean Smith
> Sunnyside Village Cohousing
> dean [at] ssvcoho.com <mailto:dean [at] ssvcoho.com>
> 425-328-9979
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-- 
-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
www.mosaic-commons.org
508-450-0431