Earlier this year our community had a reserve study done professionally. I am on the Operations Team and have been involved in many aspects of the reserve study process. I have something of a technical background and am involved with hiring contractors to do work for our community, but I am comparatively new to bookkeeping and accounting practices.

So, this is yet another learning experience provided by cohousing. In April our team led a special meeting to acquaint other members with the reserve study and to help them understand the results. As everywhere, I'm sure, there is concern over the dues increases warranted by the study's results. We discussed the reasoning behind reserve studies and reserve funds, and I am attaching here two documents that give an idea of the presentation. It included an opera in which I asked participants to play the parts of various hypothetical components that need replacement or servicing on a schedule prescribed by the reserve study.

I called out the years and people would sing or say that it was time for their replacement/servicing. For each year I would then indicate how much money went into the reserve fund, how much came out and the resulting cumulative balance. Most people said it was fun and gave them an understanding of the meaning of 100% funded.

I am attaching here 2 documents related to the presentation shows the hypothetical reserves and schedule, with year totals and cumulative balances. The Reserve Fund Study is basically my outline and notes. I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but my understanding is that Yahoo doesn't retain attachments in the archive. So, if you want to have them for future reference, I think it's a good idea to save the ones attached here on your own hard drive. At our next business meeting, in 2 weeks, we will be discussing, and hopefully approving, adoption of the Ops Team's proposal to include the reserve study's prescribed contributions to our reserve fund. I will let you know the results.