Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Guidelines for teams managing budgets

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

We have gone through many iterations of this, but presently each team has a
mandate, and included in that mandate is permission to spend their budget.
(The mandate also says who is on the team --volunteers or elected, what the
team does, how to contact the team, and when the team is expected report
out. Essentially it delegates community decisions to the team.)

Then we have a discretionary fund, run by the trustees, which any team (or
individual) can ask for additional funding for cohousing projects.

We did this because every year our cohousing expenses were significantly
less than than what was budgeted. Teams put everything in their proposal,
but then often didn't have the energy to do all they planned. It took a
couple years, but now teams only budget for items they are actively working
on. No dreaming that in six months we might decide to build a fence.

When a team decides, mid-year to take on a project they haven't budgeted
for, they ask the trustees for more money. Trustees use a number of things
in their decision making--how much is left in the discretionary fund, how
much is requested, and whether it seems like the community needs to talk
about it before proceeding. So far, this has worked really well--good ideas
get funded, big ones geet discussed and then funded, but there isn't an
excess of money locked up in team budgets and then not spent.

-Liz
(The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
Pastor, Ashburnham Community Church
Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
www.elizabethmaemagill.com
508-450-0431


On Wed, Jan 10, 2024 at 2:57 PM Marjorie Kamine <mkamine [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> We just consensed on our first new annual budget after our HOA turnover.
> All teams were involved in setting their team budgets and now we want to
> encourage them to "own and track" their budgets and stick within them as
> best as possible. We know that unexpected expenses that they didn't think
> of in just one year of operating might come up and Finsnce is wondering if
> anyone can share your "budget guidelines for teams." Do you have policies
> in place regarding when teams need to come to Finance if they have gone
> over or anticipate going over, and does your Coho have a threshold amount
> that a team is requesting that might actually need to go to the community
> to consense on? Any guidance, samples of guidelines would be appreciated.
> Marjie at River Song Cohousing, Eugene. mkamine [at] gmail.com
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