Getting Your Basic Needs Met

First, a little background on the alternative economy at DR. People can work in various ways in exchange for DR Hours, our alternative currency. These hours are valued at $7/hour which sets a sort of minimum wage. Not all work is paid in hours as some is still done as volunteer labor. It's important to realize that you cannot necessarily count on there being 40 hours of work per week available for you to do; in fact, you can't count on there even being 20 hours of work per week available. If you're considering moving to Dancing Rabbit, it would be much to your advantage to give serious thought as to what skills you have that might be economically viable in a rural setting, or skills that would allow you to find work online. Since Dancing Rabbit is not an income-sharing community and we have no community business, there will not necessarily be work that you can just plug into.

The following tables are an attempt to list and explain the various costs and time commitments required of folks living here and also lists a number of optional costs. To get a realistic idea of what your costs might be will require your making choices from the tables according to the lifestyle you choose to live. Lifestyles vary too much for us to be able to estimate what your costs will be.

Basic Community Commitments	Dollars per month	Hours per month
Meetings (not mandatory but encouraged)	$0.00	2 to 6
Committee meetings	$0.00	1 to ?
Community clean shift	$0.00	1.5 to 2
Community Chores, firewood, humanure, land clean	$0.00	1 to 2
Retreat: preparation/ pre-processing/ proposal writing (occurs once a year)	$0.00
DR Inc. dues hours (Only for DR members, can be fulfilled with labor or $)	$0.00 to $16.00	0 to 2
VCC Village Commons Co-op (can be partially paid with labor)	$23.41
DR Dues (only for DR members)	$5.00 minimum	0
DRLT Lease Fees (For people renting tent platforms or for DR members who are leasing land. Cost given is based on 2,500 sq.ft leasehold; your lease size may vary)	$25.00	0
Totals	$53.41-$69.41	minimum 5.5 hours
These costs are kind of like neighborhood association fees. For this you get the benefits of living in community as well as use of roads, paths, a common house, and access to DRLT land for nature walks.

Rent and Utilities	Dollars per month	Hours per month
Rent (estimated, and assuming there is a place for rent)	$100	0
Shower Co-op	$5.19	0
Water Co-op	$1.00	0
Electricity (lights and construction only, assuming someone has extra power to sell)	$15	0
Coyote Phone Co-op (not including long distance)	$7.39	0
Digital Coyote Internet Co-op	$11.08	0
Humanure Co-op	$5.67	0.5
Total	$145.33	0.5
There is a lot variation in how folks choose to meet these kinds of needs. You can belong to co-ops for phone, internet, showers and toilet services, or you can provide your own. It is not unheard of for people to do without a number of these services. Unless you are renting or have very modest electricity needs you will probably want to set up your own solar electric system. Solar electric systems built here to date have ranged in price from $2,000 to $30,000.

Other Expenses	Dollars per month	hours per month
DRVC Vehicle Co-op mileage (Vehicles costs are based on mielage driven. Vehilce rates are $.60 per mile. Cost given is based on 25 miles a week; your mileage may vary)	$60	0
Eating Co-op	$150 to $186	16-20
Common House Kitchen (if you choose to eat on your own instead of joining a food coop)	$50	0
ASSROKC	$24	0
Dancing Rabbit Health Care Fund (community insurance plan)	$20	0
*Travel	?	0
*These items vary greatly from person to person.

Details

Brief descriptions of the costs and time commitments in the tables above

Meetings
Full group meetings range from 1 hour each week, where only basic recurring tasks handled, to 3 hours in length, when community related agenda topics are discussed. Participation is not required but is strongly encouraged.

Committees
Members are expected to serve on at least one standing and one ad-hoc committee. How much time you spend in committee meetings really depends on how many and what kind of committees your chose to serve on. One hour a month is probably the very minimum you could expect, many members spend much more time.

Clean shift
All members are part of a 'clean team' and once every four weeks expected to spend up to two hours cleaning the community building or other community property.

Chores
Some chores that serve the whole community are done on a rotational basis. When your turn comes up you are expected to watch until the chore needs to be done, then do the chore and inform the next person on the rotation that it is their turn. Additionally once or twice a year we have a 'land clean day' where everyone is supposed to spend half the day cleaning public outdoor spaces. Non-members of the Humanure Co-op are expected to perform one humey bucket clean shift per year to support visitors to the community.

Retreat
Once a year the full group gets together to spend anywhere from three days to a week in a number of closely spaced meetings to help us reach consensus on items too big to be handled at Sunday meetings. We also set our priorities for the year and assign year-long responsibilities to members. Participation at the retreat is expected. People's participation in this varies a fair amount -- some folks just show up for topics that most concern them, but other folks come to every topic and go on to help plan, run, and record the meetings. Members also frequently spend time before the retreat 'pre-processing' -- discussing in small informal groups the upcoming topic to uncover the underlying issues and find solutions that would meet everyone's needs.

DR Inc. Dues Hours
Members are expected to spend twenty-four hours each year performing labor in areas that support DR Inc.'s mission. There is a range of work available to meet this dues requirement. New folks aren't required to do dues hours for their first 6 months at DR.

VCC (Village Commons Co-op)
This is kind of a catch all co-op that covers expenses on things such as roads, paths, fences, cleaning supplies, recycling, waste disposal, et cetera. (more info)

DR Inc. Dues
DR members pay 2% of income as dues. This is due on the first of each quarter for income from the previous three months. Minimum is $15/quarter. Residents do not owe DR income dues.

DRLT lease fees (Dancing Rabbit Land Trust)
To have your own home or garden here you need to lease land from the land trust. Residential use goes for $.01 per square foot per month, garden use is $.001 per square foot per month, agricultural rate is $.0001 per square foot per month. If you rent a house or a room here this fee is usually covered as part of your rent. A tent-camping spot is $5.00 per month.

Rent
Sometimes residences are available to rent here. Rents do vary so this figure is very much a guess as to what you would pay.

Shower Co-op
Showers are provided in the community building and solar showers at the pond. This fee is intended to cover the cost of providing this service.

Water Co-op
While most of us use water from cisterns, some people use county water which then needs to be paid to the county. This charge allows for up to 10 gallons a day of county water use. In general, county water use is discouraged as it is not seen as a sustainable source of water.

Electricity
DR does not allow connection to the electric grid, so all our electrical power comes from renewable energy sources. Solar panels provide most of our electricity, with wind power providing a small fraction. Sometimes electricity can be purchased from others here to provide power during construction or for homes too small to warrant their own solar or wind power system. When buying power from others its use is generally limited to lighting and power tools.

Coyote Phone Co-op
A number of us here share 2 phone lines/ booths in the community building. The cost of the lines and building use is shared equally among Coyote members. Costs will vary as people join and leave the co-op. You will also need to use a phone card (at additional cost) for your long distance calls.
 Alternative fees:
 You can chose to have your own phone for ~$21.00 a month. For details see: Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone Co

Digital Coyote Internet Co-op
Similar to phone co-op only here a high speed DSL internet connection is shared. Users can bring their own computer to the community office or use one of the two community computers.
 Alternative fees:
 You can choose to have your own DSL internet connection for $35-$45 a month. For details see: Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone Co

Humanure Co-op
The Humanure Co-op provides composting toilets for use by its members, guests, and visitors to the community. Two toilets are located in the Common House and four seats are provided in the outhouse. Co-op users pay a fee and are required to participate in the rotating chore of dumping and cleaning the buckets.
 Alternative fee:
 Some folks use their own toilets and only use the co-op's sawdust and composting bins. The charge for this type of use is $14.00/year and they don't participate in the dumping and cleaning rotation.

DRVC Dancing Rabbit Vehicle Co-op
One of Dancing Rabbit's covenants is that members and residents will not use personal vehicles or store them on DR property, so if you want to use a car, you will need to join DRVC. Because our vehicles run on bio-diesel, which costs more than petroleum-based diesel and requires more maintenance,and because we want to discourage driving, DRVC trips cost $.60 per mile.

Eating Co-op
There are two eating co-ops, Sunflower and Bobolink. Rates range from $5.00 to $7.00 per day depending on the co-op. This fee includes food and kitchen/dining space. Food is mostly vegan, organic, and bio-regional. Eating co-ops also require time to be spent cooking and cleaning; this varies but generally includes cooking one meal a week (3-4 hours), cleaning dishes one night a week (1 hour), and deep cleaning once every two to four weeks (1 hour). Each eating co-op can only handle a limited number of people, so not everyone should expect to be able join an existing co-op.

Common House Kitchen
This fee allows use of the Common House Kitchen on a daily basis. Kitchen currently features cold and (sometimes) hot running water, gas stove/ oven/ electricity and conventional counters/ cabinets. You must provide your own food
 Alternative fees:
 If you only want to occasionally cook or bake (up to twice a week) the fee is $15.00/ mo.
 To use it only for washing dishes the fee is $10/ mo.

ASSROKC (All Star Summer Rugged Outdoor Kitchen Cooperative )
This fee allows use of the Outdoor Kitchen on a daily basis. Kitchen features a wood-fired iron cook stove/ oven, wood fired rocket stove, sink with county water, a roof and one wall giving completely unfettered access to summer breezes when they occur. You must provide your own food. There is a $24.00/mo kitchen rental for this space. Membership numbers and resulting monthly fee subject to change.