Our “close to home” principle has allowed us to do a lot that I don’t think we could have pulled off if we had to drive much to get there, but since we are on the outskirts of a medium sized town and most of us live really close to the facility, we live pretty normal lives but we’re still in position
If SHTF.
Maybe you have the same cluster of members but just in a more rural setting?
It’s been months since I’ve even had a chance to check by here.
Clair, sorry for the blackout, but since Jan 1st, we have been running a 6 month full (well actually only about 15% of our projected
capacity of about 340) occupancy simulation to try to verify that we could function for years if needed….short answer, we maybe could have muddled through for years and been sustainable, but we discovered MAJOR issues including energy, education, security, food rotation, pets, bugs, and cell phones. Most have or will move home this week so the drop in stress for me is palpable! I think besides the other issues, I personally need to come up with a way to let go of some of the stress – I’m a mellow guy, but I’ve aged a couple years in the last 6 months.
Previously we have had 14 full time residents, but for the last 6 months we have had 49, including many children and teens who were helping with this simulation. We were looking for weaknesses in our governance, air handling, energy and solar capacity, hydroponics, food consumption, and supplies using 49 as a planning multiplier. We were also looking at bottlenecks for restroom usage etc. and boy did we find them!
After some sleep, I’ll give you a break-down of what went wrong, how we fixed stuff, and what went right!
We started with 16 families, 20+ years ago. Many of us knew each other from the military, or had worked together for several years.
The group started as just random conversations, then morphed into, "Why can't we make this happen," and, "What would it take to do it right?"
We spent a few years laying the groundwork (bylaws, structure, etc), all while paying the dues amount we agreed on, into a start up account. Two of the original members are attorneys, we also have an accountant in that group. Everything was structured and monitored by them, with the option to step away with full refund prior to committing to our first major purchases.
By tye time we got rolling we had very close to 100k in that account. That was more than adequate for a sizeable down payment on rural land that met all of our parameters. The land was paid off within the 1st 7 years, iirc.
One of our parameters was that the land needed to be within 8 hours drive from where we live fulltime. We found the perfect spot 5 hrs away.
Again, because of the makeup of the group (including spouses), we started with a very eclectic group of skills to seriously lessen costs. No attorney fees, no need to pay an accountant, super good rate from the architect we used, no need to pay design firms for any of our systems, no need to rent heavy equipment, very low amount ever needed to pay for shipping stuff, etc.
While outside training is a requirement for members, all of our baseline stuff is done in-house. We had all of the physical labor we needed, in-house. Specialist crews were needed for a couple things (poured concrete buildings - we didn't want to mess with the molds; and intallation of the micro-hydro turbines).
Obviously, there were still material costs, but we were very savvy shoppers, and leveraged a ton of industry connections members had. The vast majority of materials were either contract over-runs, or bought from going out of business sales - the mechanics lifts we acquired, we were actually paid to take (garage was taken by the bank, and they wanted stuff gone). Stuff like that.
Since inception, we have more than doubled in group size, and usually have a couple prospective members we are looking at.
Covid was a complete validation for us. Easily 80% of members spent at least two months at the BOL, with many spending the last six months there. I spent 2 months straight there, and the wife was down there almost the entire time. My kids were there between 3-4 months. Nobody noticed any major differences from being "back home," and even the children (mine are grown) complained about having to leave.
I used the same amount of electricity I do back home, showered as often, ate more (and better), and worked as many hours as I do normally for my real job. I slept in a real bed, and got in a ton of hunting, fishing, and shooting. Any ****oos were seen to by our medocal people.
It was no different than being in the real world, only quieter, and I was surrounded by people I like, and who all have a solid work ethic (even tye attorneys
).
I have never looked at the math, but purely based on dues, not counting any donations, and not factoring man hours of labor, we have several million dollars invested, so what we have is a bit of an anomaly. It's not that it was financially difficult to do, it just had to happen on a long timeline.
Vetting personnel, and having extremely well-defined bylaws is imperative. Having bylaws that cover the odd stuff (what happens in case of divorce? What happens when members die?) Is just as important.
Any full member has unrestricted access 24/7/365. Any member could live down there fulltime, if they wanted.
