Proposals

Propose your ideas for how the island will be run. Include what your ideal island will have and how it will operate.

Co-op Business/Community Proposal
This proposal is for a small, community run resort. It is based off of a community that was about 50 people in size, with an extra 25 or so during the busy season. Residents worked to run the resort that they lived on. Size numbers will need to be determined by the group.

Things proposed that may work for us from experiences at a 25 year functioning community/resort:
 * All full-time, on-site Redditors get exact same pay and benefits and all are expected to contribute 40 hours a week
 * Non-member guests pay to stay, keep "resort" area seperate from community area
 * There will need to be guidelines on what it takes to be a member (length of stay? monetary contribution?) - members get profit-share (if there ever is any)
 * Redditors can either live on site, working full time there, or buy a timeshare to come stay for a period every year, and a the is section for outside guests to have a pretty little resort and pay to stay
 * We probably would not be getting paid, but would need to make enough for food
 * When a visitor is there, Redditor or not, they pay a little for food
 * We should grow as much food as possible and get our own renewable energy set up
 * We should have a large lodge with community kitchen and showers
 * Small simple dwellings for residents, even simpler for short term guests - if we use cob or strawbale they are permanent, cheap and quick to build while living in tents
 * A motor boat of some sort and some bicycles should be enough to cover transportation needs
 * We can have special periods of time where we do not book outside guests and instead tons of redditors come in and have HUGE REDDIT PARTIES!
 * An elected community council

In previous experience, Redditor lived at place with above features for a year and a half. Said to be a "rather fantastic lifestyle" with "no worries of boredom."

Corporation/Timeshare Proposal
This is just one idea. Free free to submit another proposal if this doesn't fit your style.

all numbers are examples. I don't know what the real ones would be. Amount of occupies allowed on land per day * 365 (days in a year) divided by number of outstanding shares. For example, if the island would house 300 people, it look look something like this:
 * Start a corporation
 * Issue 110,000 shares at $10 each. That would net $1.1 Million. Do nothing till all shares are sold. If not sold in a reasonable time (say 6 months), the business would buy back all shares and close it downs (ie. Give investors their money back).
 * In addition "last buy back" shares of 10K would be sold at $7.5 a piece.. (ie. this would be bought back last [or not at all], carry the most risk; but used for operating expenses to get it off the ground.) That would net $75,000 for getting everything off the ground. Anything not spent would be rolled to general fund.
 * Use ~$750K for purchasing the island. ~$250K for improvements and infrastructure/transportation. Keep ~$100K + whatever is left from the ~$75K in cash for operating expenses and emergency repairs.
 * The business would keep 80K shares to "rent out" time to the general public. All profits would go back into the company (to use for on going expensive and to help build new cool things).
 * Allow the corporation to issue an additional shares if it needs to raise money in the future. Must get majority of current share holders votes. Price would be determined by the market/demand.
 * Form a committee/board to handle some logistics and other business house keeping.
 * Each share is 1 vote. You can delegate your votes to a representative on the committee if you want. 100% optional.
 * Each share would allow you a certain amount of time on the island. The time would be determined by something like:

300 * 365 = 109500 / 120,000 = 0.9125

Or ~ 1 day per share. Example: Bob has 10 days worth of shares. He loans them to the committee. The committee sales them to a vacationer for $500. Bob gets $300 and the business gets $200.
 * If you didn't use your shares you could "loan" them back to the committee. The committee could then sell that time to the public/vacationers. The share holder would get 60% and business would get 40% of sale.
 * For all other rules/regulations, the committee would call a vote.
 * For ongoing expenses and improves (yes there will be them; we need to factor that in) there is a 3 ways to approach this. 1) The business sales time with it's 80K + loan shares. 2) If agreed to (by votes) the business could sale additional shares to new investors [downside is it would dilute current shareholders share values] and 3) Hold events on certain days/months (something like burning man or other types of festival).
 * If the business turns a profit, the board/committee could put a vote to issuing dividends.

Co-operative Resort
This proposal is based on the concept of having an island which can be visited by members, lived on by employees and pull in income through tourism. These numbers are based on 2,000 memberships at the cost of $1,000 USD each which would entitle each member to seven days each year of free stay. Alternatively, memberships could be broken down to $144.00 USD which would entitle members to one day of free stay every year and they could purchase as many as suits them. Both are limited to 180 days of free stay to ensure no one person or small group can monopolize time on the island. Additional nights for a stay can be purchased at a discounted rate. Time can be split in any way the member feels they would like to use it. Members are not limited to booking rooms any particular date/season etc. Rooms would be small traditional style bungalows or eco- friendly units.
 * The resort would have 75 units total. This provides 38 rooms at any time specifically for memberships and 37 rooms for outside rental or for members. These are not separate- it’s simply a way of ensuring there is enough availability for members to have the greatest amount of access possible


 * If 37 rooms are booked by non-members 30 days prior to any date (basically indicating full non-member capacity) and the member rooms are not booked, a notification would be sent to members encouraging them to make a reservation if they would like to stay at that time. Two weeks before the date, if the rooms had not been reserved by members, they would be opened up for non-member reservations.


 * Reservations would be opened up to members one month before the general public to allow members first crack at choice dates.


 * If members could not use their dates for a year, they could
 * 1.) Bank them by notifying the resort and save them for the next year (there would have to be a deadline for banking)


 * 2.) Sell or give the time through the venue of their choice to a non-member allowing their membership to earn them money or act as a gift.


 * 3.) Donate the time to the resort for the resort to sell as a non-member room.


 * 4.) Perhaps have an option for members to sell the time to the resort for a minimum amount. (there would have to be a deadline for this, as well)


 * Based on an annual average 40% occupancy (Industry standard is currently 57% for the carribean/central America) occupancy of the 37 non-member rooms at a rate of $100 USD per night (below average for the region), income would be at $535,000 USD. 38 is the minimum number of rooms that can be built to ensure members 2000 members each have 7 days. The number of rooms over that gives more members access to more desireable dates and allows for income.


 * For the concern that the island would be overrun with tourists, the number of visitors (both members and non-members) would be around 30-40 at any given time with higher numbers during peak season. The number of non-members is only likely to be 10-20 at any given time.


 * By having a small tourist draw, we alleviate the problem of having unpredictable future membership costs. We would be able to provide a stipend averaging $350 USD for a 20 person full time staff of members. Insurance (hurricane, liability, liquor liability, fire etc) could be provided for. An on site doctor or registered nurse (highly recommended) could be paid for. Food would be included in cost. There would also be money for improvements to the island and its amenities (repair and maintenance, boats, kayaks, zip lines, reddit statues)


 * After the fiscal year ends, necessary costs will be allocated and remaining profit would be divided between the resort (up to 10% of profit) and the rest between members. The profit received by members is not going to be high, perhaps as small as 50 dollars as high as 400) but this model allows the resort to work as an engine for itself, making members the priority and providing actual ownership rather than something with unknown costs for years to come.
 * There can be an option to add 500 camping only memberships at $500.00 USD. Their membership would be essentially the same (7 days allocated/year, eligable for working stipend, vote for issues and run for board positions)

Semi-Self-Sufficiency Proposal
These are just ideas, if you don't like it inform me or create a new one


 * Each house has a small garden, that is self-sustainable so a big farm will not be THAT necessary.


 * A group of farms can be formed to sustain those without a garden, in change the one who does not have a garden will have to work for the food or if we take into the consideration the system said on the Monetary Systems and Funding page, the person without the farm will work in other jobs earn money. He will then buy the food in a market where the harvest of the group is sold and food is alive.


 * Most items needed will either be self-gotten (more encouraged), traded and bought


 * There should be laws that restrict, if not ban corporations or large companies from the place the island was bought from buying or soliciting self-sufficient gardens, for the system to be mainstream


 * The company (the council in charge) will have rights to the group of farms and will reinvest it for the island


 * (Out of topic) Hymn of the Island could be made, (First verse Bacon, Internet and Freedom, that is Reddit Island. Unity, Democracy and beer parties that is what we are.)


 * (Out of topic) Flag could be made, I thought of the flag on the /r/vexillology and the arrows are beside that reddit robot thing.