[HCoop-Discuss] Goals and policies

[Nathan Kennedy]

>>
>> 5. Most members have been prompt about payment and we are in decent
>> financial health.  This is aided by a number of members voluntarily
>> contributing more than a single share.  However there have been and
>> continue to be a few who remain behind in payments.  A particular
>> problem is people who default on paying and then leave, forcing the rest
>> of the membership to come up with the difference.
>>
>> Our bylaws allow for us to require a deposit, yet we have never really
>> enforced this.  Our bylaws also allow the board to eject members for
>> three months nonpayment.  I propose a new mandatory policy of requiring
>> a refundable deposit of just over three months average costs to be made
>> (equivalently, keeping ones balance over that amount at all times).
>> Right now there is no deposit required and members are only emailed when
>> their balance is very low or actually negative.
>>
>> This would enable the board to remove nonpaying members before their
>> debt exceeds their deposit, and prevent delinquent members from leaving
>> the co-op with bad debts at the expense of responsible members.  A three
>> month deposit would only be around $15.
>
> Hi,
>
> Instead of requiring a refundable deposit (and thus increasing
> entry-barrier for new members, which would be $25 that way),
> I would rather see a bit different change in the
> bylaws. One which would allow us to close people's accounts as
> soon as their balance is below 0.

One fair reading of Section 210 would already allow this.  "The board may
suspend a member's privileges, other than the privilege to attend and vote
in meetings, by majority vote at any time pending a vote on expulsion."  I
had this mainly in mind for suspension of accounts pending votes for
expulsion based on misuse or other misconduct, but I see no reason why we
couldn't use this for negative balances.

However, I think that requiring a deposit would be a simpler solution that
wouldn't require suspending accounts and whatnot.  If someone can't come
up with $15 or $25 for a deposit, they may not be regular keeping up with
their payments anyway.  Some VPS and shell providers require a
nonrefundable setup fee in that range.

I think a compromise is called for.  Initially, suspend accounts that go
negative, and require a three-month deposit to reactivate them.  Maybe if
they persist in having negative balances after that, increase the required
deposit to six months.

-ntk