[HCoop-Discuss] [megacz] Billing for one-time costs

[Adam Chlipala]

We have some Peer 1 set-up costs piled up that need to be billed to 
members.  I believe rough consensus on this list in the past was that we 
would bill them:
- All at once
- In the next month
- Split according to pledges ( https://members2.hcoop.net/portal/pledge )
- Giving anyone the option to decline to pay his share, with the sum of 
such declined shares being split by some subset of members that will 
include at least me

The co-op has an agreement with Graham Freeman that he'll be credited 
$50 for his donated mounting rails once we verify that they work for 
us.  Unfortunately, there have been some significant delays in the 
mounting process.  I was hoping to make the charge after that process 
was finished, so that the concrete list of set-up costs would be clear, 
but now it looks like we should go ahead with the charge using 
"optimistic" assumptions that everything will work.

So, here's my proposal for what to do.  I will implement it if, by this 
time tomorrow, this mailing list seems to agree with it.

I will e-mail hcoop-announce announcing simultaneously that 1) we 
encourage everyone to start migrating and 2) here comes a big old bill.

My idea of the total cost to be billed is precisely what is here:
    http://wiki.hcoop.net/wiki/OneTimeCosts2007

To help people migrate, I've copied megacz's e-mailed instructions to:
    http://wiki.hcoop.net/wiki/MigrationTips
mwolson earlier asked megacz to write in his current preferred 
instructions for how people should obtain accounts, but apparently 
received no response.  megacz, I ask that you take a look and make any 
changes that you think appropriate.

The migration instructions are key to letting everyone obtain a password 
that he can use to access the new portal, so that he can set his pledge 
amount.  The announcement e-mail will come with a recap of the pledge 
system and an explicit statement that the set-up costs and all charges 
to follow will be apportioned according to pledges.  I will tell 
everyone that they have a few days (how about 2?) to set their pledge 
amounts before I add the charge.

I will remind everyone that they can see how much they will be charged 
(based on pledges at that time) by visiting
    https://members2.hcoop.net/portal/pledge
and entering the total from OneTimeCosts2007 in the blank.

I will describe how we decided to let anyone decide not to pay his share 
of the set-up costs, while we won't allow this for later costs, because 
we can't document that we've always made the best management decisions 
in the timing of migration.