[HCoop-Discuss] Financial situation

[Michael Potter]

On Wed, May 02, 2007 at 10:16:40AM -0500, Aaron Hsu wrote:
> I believe that there are some here who may disagree with you on what the  
> definition of a Cooperative is. I for one, consider a cooperative in this  
> context to be an organization composed of voluntary members who are come  
> together to establish and provide a service to said members. To me, the  
> most important principle of a cooperative is that the primary goal is to  
> provide services to its members without regards to profits or gain.

This is certainly an important aspect of it, but I'm getting my
definition of a cooperative from the cooperative community at large,
I'm not making it up.

> In other words, if members are not expected to contribute equally in all  
> areas of the coop, they should not be expected to contribute equally  
> monitarily. Of course, an increase in monitary contribution should not be  
> mandatory unless that user is buying something with that money that others  
> are not going to be getting.

It doesn't say contribute equally, it says equitably, which I think is
intended to allow for some flexibility. Like tiered-membership levels,
for example. But $4-5000 difference is well outside flexibility.

The rest of your post was a bit long and I don't have time to respond
to every point, but I don't think even representative democracy means,
"Now that the board is elected, shut up."

Does anyone else think that it might be a good idea to have a vote on
how to settle the matter of the extra money, and how to split up the
cost? Obviously we can't stop and vote on every little thing, but this
seems big enough to let the group weigh in on. 

-- 
Michael Potter
mpotter at hcoop.net