976 price

[James Carlson]

Steve Gordon writes:
> Let's just say we were able to acquire 80-90% financing on the plane.  In
> that situation if a member leaves it is just a nominal increase in the
> monthly dues - probably would barely be noticeable.  That's a far cry from
> having to fork over $500 - $1,000 on a moment's notice.  The huge advantage
> to being financed is that it buys us all time to replace a lost member
> rather than having to shuffle large sums of money around.

By setting some rules around how members leave the club, along with
either a floor on the number of members or a cap on the assessement
(which requires either dissolution or rechartering to breach), we can
mitigate that risk.

Don't forget that members are paying for the plane out of the pool,
which means our total amount due back on leaving goes down over time.
If people leave a year or two after club has formed, rather than right
away, then we actually owe less to settle things.

> You are right when you say that we are all "acting as the bank".  However,
> the difference between a real bank and us acting as the bank is that any of
> the lenders could call in their debt at any time.  It's as if my bank could
> one day call me and say, "Too many people emptied their savings accounts
> last month.  We're going to need you to make a one-time payment of $10,000
> towards your mortgage to help us cover our losses."

Sure.  The clear alternative, though, is going to a real bank and
being saddled with the terms that they want, which will likely include
having us individually and severably on the hook for the $33,000, and
having to cough that amount up pretty quickly lest Transunion and
friends find out.  :-/

(Well, besides the possibility of a two-or-more-type membership, as I
suggested before.  That's workable if we have a subgroup who can put
up substantially more, and the rest just pay a higher monthly fee.  I
could do the math if someone were interested ...)

-- 
James Carlson         42.703N 71.076W         <carlsonj at workingcode.com>