Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Budget Surplus

[Main Email (zabaldo]

Hi there!

Philip, you are awesome at being able to analyze something breaking it into 
categories that I would never think of. Thank you.

Stuart,  Maybe the first thing to do is find out what your state condominium 
laws require. Probably you’ve already done that. Me sorry :-(. I’m sure you 
already did.

Here at Takoma Village in Washington DC I believe all of our unspent funds for 
the year whether from the annual budget or someplace else is swept into our 
reserves. 

At some point in time, our condo laws allow us to take a part of the reserves 
and distribute to the membership or the unit owners. I think it has to be when 
the reserve balance far exceeds the need of the condo for its purposes.

For a while there, our reserves were quite fat. We discussed what we should do 
with the overages.  One of our members brought up a distribution to the 
homeowners, but we ended up not doing it. 

Probably one of our other members on this list remembers the details of the 
distribution discussion better than I do.

But I do know that at the end of the year or any unspent friends are swept into 
the Reserves. 

Ann Zabaldo
Washington DC
Sent from my iPhone
All tiipos ... curtesy of Siri  :-)

> On Aug 23, 2024, at 4:18 PM, R Philip Dowds via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> It seems like a useful reply should be in several parts:
> 
>     (1) I take “contingency funds” to mean, Funds collected and set aside as 
> part of the budgeting process, and dedicated to wants and needs that might 
> well arise, but are not predictable in detail at the time of the annual 
> meeting.
> 
>     (2) At Cornerstone, we maintain a variety of contingency funds for 
> everything from ugly maintenance surprises to fun cohousing activities or 
> acquisitions.  Most of these are structured as “target balance funds” — 
> meaning, Each fund account is authorized for $X,XXX of spending during the 
> fiscal year.  The amount of $X,XXX is often the combination of what was 
> unspent from the prior year, plus new monies collected during the current 
> year.
> 
>     (3) Our biggest challenge has not been defining the target balance 
> accounts, nor collecting funds with which to stock them.  Our biggest 
> challenge has been clarifying who is authorized to make the decision to 
> spend.  The Roofing Circle or Sump Pump Team?  A combination of a Maintenance 
> or Celebration Circle with additional consent of the Top Circle (in our case: 
> Managing Board)?  Or, Full Circle (plenary), via full metal jacket proposal 
> and consent?
> 
> We are starting to work on dividing serious money from fun money, and funding 
> the fun accounts from sources other than monthly dues … but here, we have a 
> long way to go.
> 
> —————————---------——————
> Thanks,
> Philip Dowds
> Cornerstone Cohousing • Cambridge, MA
> 
>> On Aug 23, 2024, at 12:09 PM, Mac Thomson via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
>> cohousing.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Our unspent contingency funds get automatically added to our reserves 
>> balance.
>> 
>> --
>> Mac Thomson
>> 
>> Heartwood Cohousing
>> Southwest Colorado
>> http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com
>> 
>> 
>> "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it, boldness has genius, power, 
>> and magic in it. Begin it now."
>>     - Goethe
>> **********************************************************
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>>> On Aug 22, 2024, at 11:58 AM, Stuart Selig <stuart.selig [at] gmail.com> 
>>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi, Folks. How are unspent contingency funds from annual budgets handled?
>>> Are they rolled into next year's operating budget, dispersed back to the
>>> community, or used to fund other projects?
>>> 
>>> Thanks.
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