Scheme to help fund and progress our Community Centre - call for participants
13/09/06 22:02 Filed in: MC News
At the AGM, while not part of the formal
discussion, the following call for participation
in an innovative scheme to progress our Community
Centre was made available as a handout. If you
did not attend the AGM you may be interested.
Please note that the amount already pledged to
the scheme stands at $30,000 so this is not
"pie-in-the-sky".
"Pay it Forward" - A scheme for getting our Community Centre built NOW when we need it
How the scheme might function in principle:
A. Getting the necessary finance
* A small number of Lot Owners (e.g., 3 to 6) agree to pay levies in advance for at least 10 to 15 years to produce a seed capital fund of around $90,000. (See 'Conditions of Up-Front Investment' below.)
* These pledges are used as an expression of commitment to approach the Council and State Government for grants to help empower a facility that will (a) be available for wider community participation, and (b) demonstrate many of the design features desirable in the State's push to make Adelaide Australia's "Solar City".
* Using the initial pledges and any matching grants as a "magnet", seek sponsorships for free or concession fitting of new energy
technologies - e.g., solar hot water, solar PV, waterless toilets, solar cookers, high-efficiency combustion heater, etc. - and innovative
building materials.
* Additional cash donations from as many sources as possible would be called for to top up the scheme as far as possible, including any available and approved funds from the AAEV Development Company.
B. The Building Project
* Another round of Community consultation is held to re-visit the design of the Community Centre to take into account (1) continuing
appropriateness to Community needs and wishes, (2) suitability for a Community building project, (3) integration of appropriate sponsored technologies, and (4) integration of appropriate creative components donated by local artists and artisans.
* Building is done essentially as if the "Community" were an owner-builder - with a mix of donated internal and external supervision,
skills and labour - including "work-for-the-dole" and/or youth participation projects as and where applicable.
* Project planning and management are done in-house by small group of experienced owner builders, seeking paid external advice where necessary on engineering, design details, and materials sourcing, etc.
C. Conditions of Up-Front Investment
* The number of Lot-Owners making forward payment of levies has to be as small as possible and the time frames as long as possible to avoid seriously impacting Community funds in any one year - i.e. no more than about 6 lots of levies can be missing out of the budget at any given time.
* Payments would be made in advance through the normal levy-payment system to become available to the Community in the normal
way. Although GST would be payable on all payments and donations, it would be reclaimable on all purchases made during construction.
* The appropriate proportion of the interest (less tax) accrued in the ASCM trust account on 'levies in advance' would be added to the
amounts invested by participating lot-owners to compensate for external interest foregone.
* Lot-Owners participating in the forward-payment scheme would pay any levy increases brought in by the Community.
D. Next moves
* The amount pledged in principle to the scheme already stands at $30,000.
* Additional Lot Owners with the available "patient capital", who would, in principle, consider investing, will be put in contact as a
working group to discuss issues and formulate the details of a mutually acceptable scheme.
* No financial pledges need actually be paid until the scheme is defined to the satisfaction of both participant investors and the
Community.
If, in principle, you would be interested in investing in a scheme of this type, please make your name known confidentially to John Heij, so that you can be put in touch with other interested Lot Owners.
"Pay it Forward" - A scheme for getting our Community Centre built NOW when we need it
How the scheme might function in principle:
A. Getting the necessary finance
* A small number of Lot Owners (e.g., 3 to 6) agree to pay levies in advance for at least 10 to 15 years to produce a seed capital fund of around $90,000. (See 'Conditions of Up-Front Investment' below.)
* These pledges are used as an expression of commitment to approach the Council and State Government for grants to help empower a facility that will (a) be available for wider community participation, and (b) demonstrate many of the design features desirable in the State's push to make Adelaide Australia's "Solar City".
* Using the initial pledges and any matching grants as a "magnet", seek sponsorships for free or concession fitting of new energy
technologies - e.g., solar hot water, solar PV, waterless toilets, solar cookers, high-efficiency combustion heater, etc. - and innovative
building materials.
* Additional cash donations from as many sources as possible would be called for to top up the scheme as far as possible, including any available and approved funds from the AAEV Development Company.
B. The Building Project
* Another round of Community consultation is held to re-visit the design of the Community Centre to take into account (1) continuing
appropriateness to Community needs and wishes, (2) suitability for a Community building project, (3) integration of appropriate sponsored technologies, and (4) integration of appropriate creative components donated by local artists and artisans.
* Building is done essentially as if the "Community" were an owner-builder - with a mix of donated internal and external supervision,
skills and labour - including "work-for-the-dole" and/or youth participation projects as and where applicable.
* Project planning and management are done in-house by small group of experienced owner builders, seeking paid external advice where necessary on engineering, design details, and materials sourcing, etc.
C. Conditions of Up-Front Investment
* The number of Lot-Owners making forward payment of levies has to be as small as possible and the time frames as long as possible to avoid seriously impacting Community funds in any one year - i.e. no more than about 6 lots of levies can be missing out of the budget at any given time.
* Payments would be made in advance through the normal levy-payment system to become available to the Community in the normal
way. Although GST would be payable on all payments and donations, it would be reclaimable on all purchases made during construction.
* The appropriate proportion of the interest (less tax) accrued in the ASCM trust account on 'levies in advance' would be added to the
amounts invested by participating lot-owners to compensate for external interest foregone.
* Lot-Owners participating in the forward-payment scheme would pay any levy increases brought in by the Community.
D. Next moves
* The amount pledged in principle to the scheme already stands at $30,000.
* Additional Lot Owners with the available "patient capital", who would, in principle, consider investing, will be put in contact as a
working group to discuss issues and formulate the details of a mutually acceptable scheme.
* No financial pledges need actually be paid until the scheme is defined to the satisfaction of both participant investors and the
Community.
If, in principle, you would be interested in investing in a scheme of this type, please make your name known confidentially to John Heij, so that you can be put in touch with other interested Lot Owners.