Q: How much will it cost to become a member of Newton at Home ?

A: We don’t have a precise number yet, but we do have some initial thoughts. As we’ve looked at other villages, we see that fees are set based mainly on the following: (1) services provided as part of the fee, (2) expenses for paid staff and other fixed expenses such as office rental, (3) the number of members, (4) degree to which services aimed at seniors are already provided in the geographic area, and (5) amount of donations and grants. Other villages’ fees run from zero (all volunteers, few services, some donations) to approximately $1,000 per year (significant services, several staff, relatively few members, and few dollars of donations).

Our current thinking is that we will have a fairly robust set of services, a large core of volunteers of all ages, and one paid staff person, combined with reliance where possible on referrals to other Newton service organizations. We anticipate that we will have preliminary estimates about annual member fees by late fall of 2009.