The Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC Inc.) is a not-for-profit membership organization for housing cooperatives and condominiums in the New York area. Founded in 1975, it serves a growing constituency through its Newsletter, its lobbying efforts, its meetings, workshops, and seminars, its studies of aspects of cooperative living, and its affiliation with local, national, and international organizations.

CNYC offers members a broad range of services. It conducts frequent meetings, making New York cooperators and condominium unit-owners aware of legal issues and tax issues affecting their homes, maintenance and energy conservation opportunities, sound management practices, and reasonable policies. CNYC monitors legislation that could affect resident homeowners, lobbies for measures of importance, participates in contract negotiations with the building service employees' union, and compiles records on goods and services. When your cooperative or condominium faces a particular concern, CNYC is ready, with a backlog of experience, to offer the advice and the support that you need.

Each year, CNYC compiles a Comparative Study of Building Operating Costs analyzing the various components of building expenditures. Each year its Cooperative Housing Conference brings together hundreds of cooperators for a day of learning. CNYC's television show, Co-op Roundtable, and this World Wide Web homepage bring CNYC directly to the public.

• CNYC formed the Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes, which led a successful campaign to reduce the real estate tax rate in New York City for fiscal 1991 and helped hold down increases in subsequent years. This group continues to seek a fair and reasonable tax structure.
• CNYC helped assure that qualifying co-ops and condos can pay real estate taxes quarterly instead of semi-annually.
• CNYC prompted legislation that clarifies the right of housing cooperatives to enact and collect "flip taxes".
• CNYC worked to pass state legislation protecting cooperatives and condominiums from sales tax on amenities.
• CNYC spurred passage of laws for greatly expanded J-51 tax incentive opportunities for cooperatives and condominiums on qualifying building improvements. It closely monitors the requisite regulations.
• CNYC conducts frequent workshops and seminars on a broad variety of issues of interest to New York cooperators and condominium unit-owners.
• CNYC maintains files on goods and services for co-ops and condos, and encourages members to add to these records.
• CNYC works with other organizations in New York City and throughout the nation to further the interests of resident homeowners in cooperatives and condominiums.
  

The CNYC offices are located in Manhattan at 250 West 57th Street, Suite 730, New York, NY 10107-0730. The CNYC staff can be reached by calling (212) 496-7400. Contact them for answers to your questions about CNYC or about the concerns of your cooperative or condominium.

MEMBERS SUPPORT CNYC ACTIVITIES
Dues paid by more than 2,200 member cooperatives and condominiums fund CNYC activities. Membership entitles a cooperative or condominium to receive all CNYC publications, to participate in special purchases including websites (see CNYCSites), to attend CNYC functions, to consult CNYC for information and advice, to send one representative to the annual Cooperative Housing Conference at no additional cost (many more are welcome), and to vote in the election of the Executive Board which sets CNYC policy. Members are asked to share information about their own experiences. The data you supply about your building is entered in CNYC records to help provide answers to questions from other cooperators.

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS
Only cooperative housing corporations and condominium associations are eligible for membership in the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums. Members pay a registration fee of $5 per unit to a maximum of $150 upon joining CNYC, and an annual membership fee of $75 plus $3 per apartment to a maximum of $900. If a member fails to renew annually, registration is due again to bridge a lapsed membership. Please take the time to complete and send in a CNYC Membership Registration Form today. If your browser does not support forms, please send e-mail to info@cnyc.coop with your name, mailing address and daytime phone number. Individuals cannot become members of CNYC, but are eligible for professional subscriptions.

PROFESSIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
Professional Subscribers are individuals offering services to cooperatives and condominiums. Subscribers receive all CNYC publications and invitations to CNYC functions at a cost of $250 a year. Subscribers have no voting rights and cannot serve on the Executive Board of CNYC. Please use the CNYC Professional Subscription Form to apply today. If your browser does not support forms, please send e-mail to info@cnyc.coop with your name, mailing address and daytime phone number.

NAHC MEMBERSHIP THROUGH CNYC
The Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums enjoys a close affiliation with the National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC). This Washington, D.C.-based organization has a 43-year history of promoting the interests of housing cooperatives throughout the nation. NAHC also prepares publications and training information, and conducts lobbying efforts for national issues of importance to cooperatives. It is the repository for the Cooperative Action Fund, which is used to fund efforts to affirm that Section 277 of the Internal Revenue Code does not apply to cooperatives.

Any housing cooperative can join NAHC individually at an annual cost of $50, plus $3 per dwelling unit. Cooperatives affiliated with CNYC can join NAHC at the special rate of $1 per unit. Membership in NAHC brings you NAHC's bimonthly Cooperative Housing Bulletin, the annual Journal, and invitations to NAHC programs at member rates.

NAHC may be contacted at 1707 H Street, NW, Suite #201, Washington, DC 20006, (202) 737-0797, or visit the NAHC Web site at www.coophousing.org.