Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with coop

Best way for our 8-person co-op household to manage our money?

wintersonata9 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:21:20 -0800

I live in a cooperative household in California - 8 people total - and we have a house bank account that we use to pay for communal food, toilet paper, etc. as well as rent. We all deposit $ in the account, and our house treasurer writes one big check for rent that our landlord cashes. Now the local credit union wants us to pay taxes on the money going in and out of that account, which we've never encountered in the ~5-10 years the house has been running things this way. What to do? In past situations where I've lived with lots of people in a big house, we would all write rent checks to one person and that person would write a big check to the landlord. Another person would be responsible for utilities, for the internet bill, etc. The difference with the co-op I'm living in now is that each person also pays for food that we share communally (I can't tell you how nice it is not to have 8 sets of eggs, milk, and butter all in one fridge!).

We bank with a local credit union in California. After the treasurer deposited all the individual rent checks and wrote the big one to our landlord yesterday, they called him and told him that he would be responsible for paying tax on that account, which I've never heard of. What's the best thing to do in this situation?

A couple of ideas we've been throwing around:

A) Open a new bank account with another bank (we have Wells Fargo, Chase, and B of A in our area). I opened a WF account in college when my a cappella group needed one, and all we had to do was have me and the assistant director co-sign.

B) Do the thing where one person is responsible for rent, everyone writes checks to him/her, and one big check goes to the landlord. Do the same for utilities and internet. Which would get messy when it comes time to pay for food, since a different person is responsible for house shopping every week. Have a big jar of cash in the kitchen, and everyone puts in their share of house $ each week?

Thanks for your help!

PSP or PS Vita Ad Hoc Co-op/Multiplayer Games

kuanes — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:10:55 -0800

My 10-year-old son recently purchased a second PSP for me. He has my old one, so we now have two PSPs. We have been playing the Call Of Duty: Roads To Victory multiplayer over Ad Hoc, looking for other games to play Ad Hoc. I may also be willing to purchase a second PS Vita, but I'm not seeing a lot of co-op/multiplayer games out there (other than the Vita COD, which has been widely panned). Any suggestions for ANY Ad Hoc multiplayer games are welcomed.

NYC Mefites: Coop owners with experience adding outdoor space?

Zippity Goombah — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:11:35 -0800

We own a coop apartment with unused space adjoining the unit which we'd like to try to purchase and combine with our unit as a patio. Looking for advice from anyone who has been down a similar road before to help us get our head around the process (convincing the board, establishing a fair valuation, navigating DOB/Landmarks, financing), pitfalls to watch out for, etc. Since we live in downtown Manhattan in an area that requires Landmarks approval for anything external, one particular thing that I'm grappling with is whether we run a risk that our plans would be denied only after we already purchased the undeveloped space from the building, leaving us with a needlessly more expensive apartment.

Any direct personal experiences or knowledgeable opinions are most welcome, as are references for a quality attorney with specific experience in these kinds of transactions.

Advice for chicken coop construction

torisaur — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 07:00:06 -0800

Can you help me, a complete carpentry novice, build a heated chicken coop? I am fortunate enough to live in a city where backyard chickens are legal (Guelph, ON) and in a neighbourhood where they're actually surprisingly common. I would like to get in on the delicious, happy-hen-produced egg experience.

I have done a fair bit of research already, so I know about the amount of space they need and tractors vs. stationary coops and all that. I would ideally like to build my own stationary coop and run for 4 - 6 hens, but it gets a bit complicated when I consider:

- the coop should maybe be heated since it can get quite cold at night time in the winter. However, not all the coops in my neighbourhood seem to be heated, so maybe the birds just huddle together to keep warm?

- I do not have an outdoor electrical outlet in my back yard

- I have virtually no experience building things. My dad is a competent handyman/carpenter but he lives nearly 2 hours away. As a result of watching him while growing up, I have a basic knowledge of how most tools work, but no real experience with them.

- There are like 100 000 plans for chicken coops online and I don't know where to start or how to find a simple one that fits what I need. I don't mind paying for plans, of course.

So, is this impossible? Can you direct me to some simple plans or offer some advice re: heating the coop safely?

How to keep animal's water from freezing in winter without electricity?

cda — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:16:01 -0800

I'd like to heat up a rock or piece of metal to drop in my chicken's water source to warm it up. What should I use? I cut a whole in a large insulated water storage container. I put a ceramic plate inside on the bottom so I could drop something hot in the water and not burn the plastic. What should I heat up and how should I heat it up?

I suppose I could boil water and add it to a mason jar and then set the mason jar in the water. I have also thought of rocks and something small made of cast iron. Do you have a better idea?

There is no electricity in the chicken coop. I heat my house with electric heaters so I would have to heat the object by boiling water or in a toaster oven. Or??

I do have a nice solar oven I could use. Not sure if it works on a cloudy day. About half our days are cloudy here in the winter.

My goal is to lessen the times I have to remove solid ice blocks from the water storage. I'm trying to cut down on my labor. Last year I had two rubber bowls. I switched out the bowls every day because the water froze solid every night.

What projects can we do ourselves now to help sell an apartment next spring?

Blisterlips — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:25:50 -0800

My boyfriend and I will be putting his Co-op in brooklyn on the market early next year. We want to sell it quickly- what are the winter projects we can take on now to help move it this spring? We are not handy people, but we are enthusiastic! We know we can handle the interior painting, but after looking at the list of things that can help the place sell- I am not sure what is going to be possible and what is just going to turn into a bigger job for the guy we hire to fix the stuff we can't.

The bathroom needs to be re-grouted, and a hold needs to be patched into one of the walls. The patch, I think I can handle- but grouting seems a little much, amirite or am i being lazy?

There are tiny holes in the walls from screws and such- should we patch all those before we paint or does it even matter? We have tons of art on the walls- and every website says to get rid of clutter- should we take (most of) the art down, patch those holes too?

Are there other things we can do? should we do something fancy to the floors or something? Any thoughts would be great.

Help us write our co-op application letter

tamarack — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:49:37 -0800

We are applying to co-op housing: Please help us write an appropriate (and awesome!) cover letter for our application! My housemates (married couple, baby due this year) and I are starting the process of applying to co-op housing in Vancouver, Canada*. Please help us write an appropriate (and awesome!) cover letter for our application. I have the sinking feeling I am doing the housing equivalent of that first resume I sent out in high school that said my "objective" was to "obtain employment". I.e., What do these folks really want to hear?

Bonus points! Share your insider info about Vancouver co-op living: Good/bad co-ops? Your experiences?

*Geography note: These are not purchase co-ops. These are like long term, stable rentals. And yes, I have read this thread.

Don't be a stranger.

danceswithlight — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:58:02 -0800

I'd like to find a friendly, sociable group of people to live with in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville. How do I search for this on craigslist? For the past year, I've barely seen my 4 housemates. Usually they just hole up in their rooms, and even eat elsewhere since they rarely seem to use the kitchen. This is the opposite of the living situation I want, so I'm looking for a new place.

I would love to live in a house with people who cook for each other, have dinner together (maybe once a week or so), and generally look forward to talking and spending time together in the evenings. I'd like it to feel more like coming home to family, or at least to friends.

I've already tried asking people I know if they have rooms available for August/September - they don't. I have applied to a few coops, but they seem to be very picky about who they select to live with them, and so far none have accepted me even though I'm interested in intentional community, shared meals, DIY stuff, etc. (In fact, most of the coops scheduled an interview with me and then canceled it, saying they had already filled the spot.)

So I'm back to looking on craigslist. But almost every single ad is the same - looking for "professional," "friendly," "laid-back," "easy-going," "responsible," "respectful" housemates. Well, I'm all of those things, but I also want to actually spend time together with and care about the people I live with! How do I search for that? What are the secret or not-so-secret words to look for? And how can I tell the difference between people whose idea of being "social" is having a conversation once a month vs. regularly having dinner together?

Hey !, we could do the show at localhost !

southof40 — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:27:23 -0800

Consumer cooperatives for internet services ? Examples and 'how was it done' type information ? I'm interested to hear of consumer cooperatives whose sole purpose is to provide a service over the internet.

In some senses this would be like KickStarter except the cooperative members would own the resulting entity.

I want to exclude cooperatives who have a internet based service as an adjunct to the primary purpose (such as Credit Unions who offer internet banking), what I'm after is more like a 'Cooperative ISP' or a 'Cooperative Webmail', etc.

I'm assuming such entities exist and just a pointer to them would be good but if you know .... their history and how they deal with :
* Initial and ongoing capital raising
* Management issues when members are geographically widespread

that would be good too !

Can you use a co-op to fight a monopoly

Toekneesan — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:28:07 -0800

If a bookstore were a co-op, would the exemption provided to co-ops in the Robinson-Patman act allow publishers to offer different sale terms for them than they would to say, Amazon or Barnes and Noble? The exemption seems to have been included to protect agricultural producers, but could it be used in other areas?

Need a good couch co-op game

ShawnString — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:09:19 -0800

I need suggestions for good couch co-op games to play with my wife on our Xbox 360. She has been playing the hell outta Skyrim and has finally gotten the handle on using a controller for 1st person control. Was thinking Portal 2 but I need some more suggestions We have played some of the Lego games together and that was fun (but crap the deign of those games drives me nuts...). Pretty much any genre would be considered

Added bonus (but not required) if the kids (ages 6 and 9) can play it too

Healthy Food for 365 Days

kensch — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:41:33 -0800

Maryland: Help me find a nice year-round co-op or CSA in the Baltimore Metro Area? Hi all, I'm a recent transplant to Arbutus in Maryland. I'm looking for a good co-op or CSA in the area (driving distance is fine). I've looked on Local Harvest and other Ask threads, but most of the CSA selection seems to be limited to a specific season, around 8-10 weeks in summer or fall. That's fine, but I was hoping for a group that sources veggies/fruit all year. Does anyone know of a group that works along those lines?

I've been lucky -- I was formerly part of the excellent Purple Dragon Co-op in NJ, which had great selection all year. =)

Stalking The Elusive Apartment

Toby Dammit X — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:54:52 -0800

So, I came out as transgendered about a year ago, and I'm finally financially secure enough to move out of my urban rednecky neighborhood. This, of course, leaves me with a few questions. 1: Does anybody know of any trans-friendly living spaces in Philly, or resources where I could find one? I'm thinking something along the lines of a co-op, but either my Google-fu is exceptionally weak or they are really hard to find. Any help there would be very appreciated.

2: I can't afford to live by myself, so a roommate is going to be necessary; and since I don't want my life to resemble a bad 80's sitcom, with me hiding my transness from the people I'm living with, I'm going to have to be pretty open about things from the gate. So, how should I go about this?

Currently, I'm just scanning craigslist and sending out introductory emails under my old, fairly gender-neutral name (which is what my email account has me listed as), then explaining the situation and giving them my new name at the first possible opportunity. I can see how this might be off-putting for some people, though. Does anybody have any better ideas?

Are there any real-life Mutual Adoption Clubs (Sort of like a Kibbutz but without the business)?

cman — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:22:57 -0800

Are there such things as Mutual Adoption Clubs as imagined in Aldous Huxley's novel, Island? I'm looking for something like this, also similar to a Kibbutz or Co-op where a few families that are close friends live near each other (Sharing a house, being neighbors, living in the same apartment building, or maybe just in the same neighborhood). Families share child-rearing responsibilities primarily. Does anyone do this in a more-or-less structured fashion? In Island, Huxley describes arrangements where children primarily live with their biological parents but, when things get tense or even boring the kids can go spend time at other families. My thoughts are that there are also benefits to the parents of sharing responsibilities. I imagine (and this is not from experience) that taking care of multiple kids, the amount of work and certainly the amount of time required does not scale linearly with the number of kids. Similarly, cooking for N people one time is not as much work as cooking for one person N times. So if you had 5 families trading off cooking and baby-sitting responsibilities, each couple would hopefully have more free time to enjoy.

So, do you know of any place with this kind of arrangement?

Suggest some online PS3 coop games?

cschneid — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:48:16 -0800

Recommend some good online multiplayer cooperative games for the PS3? (with a split-screen twist!) A friend of mine is moving away, and several of us would like to stay in touch by gaming together.

So I am looking for some solid multiplayer games for the PS3 that can be played both split screen and online at the same time (3 consoles, 4 people). This is important, as both my girlfriend and I will be playing on a single console / tv.

The ideal game in my mind is something like Left 4 Dead 2, which of course is not available. Are there similar games that are co-op, or at least not super completive that'll get us angry at each other?

Don't limit things to FPS games, almost any kind of genre would work for us, as long as we can waste an hour or two here and there on it.

Where do I move my money in Los Angeles?

PostIronyIsNotaMyth — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:08:08 -0800

So I think I've had enough and I'm going to close out my BofA account tomorrow. Any good credit union/co-op recommendations for Los Angeles? I've used the USC Credit Union before so I might go back to them, but if anyone knows any other good credit unions in LA, preferably with ATMs in Los Feliz/Silverlake area that would be really great.

Or if there are any other suggestions on where I should store my money, that's also appreciated.

bad apples in a coop?

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:48:47 -0800

Is poor participation normal for a preschool co-op? And if so, how do we fix it? My 3 year old is in a preschool co-op 3 days a week. There is a real teacher and parents rotate to be her assistant. Parents also do stuff like 'field trip coordinator' or 'webmaster' or whatever.

There are a number of families that do not/have not:
- joined the Yahoo group listserv
- turned in their kid's paperwork
- turned in their own paperwork
- signed up for a 'job'
- paid tuition
- respond to emails and voicemails about the above issues
- play dumb when asked about these issues during drop off/pick up and at this point they're sometimes rude

School has been in session for a month. The kids got into the preschool in June (and the listserv was created, people were told how to download the forms over 4 months ago.)

There is a rule that after 2 weeks of not paying tuition, there is a $20 daily fee (I upped it from a $5 weekly fee).

There are no hard and fast rules about kid being ejected... All the language is vague.

Yesterday the forms person told the families that haven't turned in the health forms that those parents can't serve their duty days and that next week, kids can't come anymore. (Unfortunately I am trying the get tuition payments from the same people...)

Now, the challenge is that tuition aside, if these people are gone, that's more days everyone else needs to serve... And there is a bit of a cushion, but eventually, the other families would have to pay more tuition.

For those of you that have done this before, are there always people like this in a co-op? And what to do? Kick 'em out? Do we try to extract the unpaid tuition from them or just get over it?

automatic chicken coop door opener

scrambles — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:07:32 -0800

Our chickens are very anxious to get out of the coop and roam the yard in the morning. How can I create some sort of mechanism to automatically open the coop door early each morning? Our chickens roam around our yard during the day. Then come evening time, we lock them in their coop so that they are not vulnerable to night-time predators.

The chickens are very anxious to get out of the coop in the morning and it is obviously a real bummer to them that we do not get up as early as they do. They pace neurotically around the door of the coop, and we are sometimes awakened by their squawks of impatience and displeasure.

How could we let the chickens out of the coop in the morning without having to get up early ourselves? I'm thinking some sort of mechanism with a timer or some sort of mechanism the chickens themselves can trigger? (They might be able to learn a very simple behavior, like to step in a certain spot.)

Here's a picture of our coop door so that you can get an idea of the setup.

Fun little games for LDR.

Buckt — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:55:16 -0800

Internet interactivity for long-distance relationship; games for non-gamer girlfriend. Hey friends,

This is a relatively common question (and I've read the threads), but I wanted to add enough of a twist that I made a new one. I'm a month and a half in to a 4 month separation with my girlfriend. We've started at this point to email a tad less, and to run out of things to say over skype. We're still solid on all counts, just maybe a bit bored sending and receiving "I miss you" messages throughout the day.

So! Interactive entertainment in the year 2011! I'm trying to think of fun ways she and I could do stuff together online, sometime like a co-op game. Scrabble has been and is fun, but something a bit more active/simultaneous would be good. What fun web 3.0 things can you think of? Online whiteboards, simple cooperative games, point-and-click adventures? She isn't a gamer at all and I only game somewhat. Therefore, simple "slowly build toward the goal without much dexterity challenge" would be good.

I dunno, anything really. Just ways of interacting that would give us something to chat and laugh about. Lightweight is preferable, browser based is good and something with a light desktop client is better. I run Ubuntu or Windows on a netbook that can't handle much - she has Windows.

Thanks!

**** banks

randomizer — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:01:07 -0800

I have a UK Cooperative bank visa debit card. Recently I was unable to make a purchase on-line so I phoned the store and was told the card is a 'visa electron' not a visa debit card, even though it clearly says it's a visa debit on my card. what is going on? I know the Cooperative' changed from visa electron to visa debit but that was 2 years ago.

Should we tell the coop board about our roommate?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:25:18 -0800

My SO and I are looking to purchase a coop apartment in Brooklyn. We have a family friend living with us who would not be on the mortgage, but whom we would like to keep as our roommate. Should we mention this fact to the coop board? We've been looking for some time, and have decided that a Brooklyn coop would be right for us, particularly in the Sunset Park area. Financially we're in very good shape, with excellent credit, and if not for the roommate issue I wouldn't be at all worried about pleasing a potential coop board.

My SO and I have gotten lots of conflicting advice about this, from friends as well as real estate brokers we've been speaking to. Some people say this is a "don't ask, don't tell" situation, and we shouldn't mention the roommate at all...but our friend would be living with us full-time for the indefinite future, and I'm sure other people in the building would notice. Others have said we should explicitly bring our friend up, but bend the truth slightly by saying that the friend is only staying with us for the time being and won't be paying rent. Others have urged us to ask to get a clause allowing us to sublet to a roommate explicitly written into our agreement with the coop board.

The theme in all of this seems to be "it depends on the coop board," but I would appreciate any personal anecdotes of dealing with a situation like ours. I would hate for our negotiations with future coop boards to be ruined by this issue, but I'm unwilling to kick our dear friend to the curb.

Please assume, as well, that avoiding coops isn't an option.

(Anon because my mefi profile is googleable, and I don't want potential boards seeing that I've asked this question)

Help me find a TV documetnary on a self-building housing co-operative in the UK

Fiasco da Gama — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:55:43 -0800

I'm after a documentary I once saw about a self-building housing co-operative in the UK—or more information about the programmes. Three or four years ago I saw a TV documentary on a project in the UK under which a group of disadvantaged families were invited to build their own houses in a new plot.

If I recall correctly, the Council provided land, a credit union provided some of the capital, a charity arranged for plans and expert assistance and the people owned their houses in a co-operative once they finished.

Has anyone else seen the programme, or have any information about these kinds of self-building co-operative schemes?

How much do I give to the "employee holiday fund" in my co-op?

helios410 — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:05:03 -0800

NYC Co-op Filter: I live in a co-op building, and it's the time of year for the "holiday gift fund" for the building employees… The point of the fund is recognize not only the doormen, but the porters and handymen as well. Better put, those "behind the scenes" of keeping the building in order.

I should say there are perhaps 15 to 20 individuals who work for the building; the building has approximately 320 units.

What is your suggested amount to donate/tip? I feel comfortable tipping $200, does that sound right?

Wii need to all play!

flibbertigibbet — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:20:21 -0800

What are the best multiplayer Wii games, especially for a family that loves causing havoc in co-op mode (be it in an FPS, or in a third-person hack-n-slash RPG)? We already have the Wii Sports/Resort games and aren't really interested in Super Smash Bros or Super Mario.

Do I sell my inherited co-op?

griphus — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:13:03 -0800

Do I sell my inherited co-op? I inherited my mother's co-op. It's in Bensonhurst; a nice (lower crime than just about all the rest of the borough,) residential, working-class middle-of-nowhere Brooklyn neighborhood. I grew up in said neighborhood and still live there -- I'm renting a place walking distance away -- but no longer wish to. I hate my hour-long commute. I hate the lack of anything to do here. And I especially do not want to live in that co-op as between the miserable, miserable things I associate it with and my mother dying in it, the vibes are just too harsh and I'm admittedly too sensitive to really feel comfortable living in it.

There's a bit of money left on the mortgage (a little over 10% of the price she estimated it is worth,) which I can polish it off in one fell swoop thanks to money that's been left behind to me. The market is shitty, and I know that. I also don't plan or have the capability to move outside of New York City. However, I do not want to be a landlord. I'm 25, disorganized and confused regarding my life, and, more importantly, live in a city where the law highly protects tenants. Which is great, but I do not want to be the landlord in a situation where the tenants might be the Bad Guys and it'll cost me out the ass to get anything done about that.

I consider myself a pragmatic guy, but I do not want to own this property. I'd be responsible and get a financial adviser and invest the money the apartment would sell for. I have close family friends in the real estate business, so I can get hooked up with a realtor who won't screw me.

Am I being too emotional? Should I move out of my hole-in-the-wall apartment and into a rather nice co-op? Or should I sell it and get this enormous monkey off my back?