5. Learning to Manage our finances

The first three to four years were the most difficult for making decisions about how much money was needed to operate the community. We had limited historical data on which to base our projections,. Also, since we were still focused on completing old and new projects, we tended to project higher budgets and would find ourselves with a surplus at the end of the year. The question we faced in the next year was whether to roll the surplus into lowering next year’s cost or maintaining the surplus to complete the projects. We chose the latter option in the early years. After repeating this pattern for two to three years, it was agreed to not budget money for projects until the energy was available to do them. Budgeting was difficult and time-consuming in those early years. For the last three years, budgets have been approved with relative ease.

There are two bookkeepers and one other member who make up the Finance Committee. The bookkeepers send out invoices to each family every month with their monthly costs. The monthly invoice is a composite of the Unit’s monthly assessment, their food program costs, any donations they have committed to in support of projects, personal use of the community truck and any purchases from the Community Exchange or from the wholesale distributor.

The Community Exchange is non-food items, such as toilet paper, cleaning materials, etc. that is purchased wholesale and made available at cost to the members. These items are kept in the community pantry on shelves with a monthly tally sheet for each family to record items as they take them. This insures getting environmentally sensitive products at the lowest cost possible. Families can also order items such as toothpaste and other hygiene products from the wholesaler by making their needs known the week before the order goes in. If a community expense is incurred by a member, this is paid back at the end of each month.

The monthly assessment consists of a variety of annual operational costs and longer-term replacement reserve funds. These costs are mostly allocated to each unit based on the size of the unit, but some are prorated based on the number of adults living in the unit. The costs and the basis for allocation are listed in the Appendix.

The Abundance Fund originally held moneys from donations of previous members. As those funds were utilized or designated for projects, some members proposed maintaining this fund so there would always be funds available. Members were invited to make monthly pledges into the fund. Only four families contribute in this way. Consequently, when projects are proposed, they usually specify so much from the Abundance Fund and the remainder from individual donations. Those who have contributed to the Abundance Fund may decide that there contribution is included in funds drawn from the fund or may choose to contribute more. Others decide on a project by project basis how much, if any, they will contribute. A suggested amount may be included in the proposal.

Financial issues have seldom been a major issue. There have been questions of fairness raised in certain situations but have usually been resolved by adjusting fees one way or another.