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.
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