Use year is only important if you have to cancel a vacation that is scheduled to occur late in your use year. That's because use year determines your banking deadlines. It works well to have a use year that starts 4-5 months prior to your "usual" travel.
If you travel mostly in July or August, a use year of February, March, April or June work for you. Keep in mind that over the course of your membershiop, your travel habits may change. What starts out to be "perfect" may not end up to be so "perfect".
Here's an example:
Let's say you have a February use year (which I would suggest in case you want to travel over spring break some years) and 200 points :
That means your -
2007 use year points are good for stays between 2/1/2007 and 1/31/2008
2008 use year points are good for stays between 2/1/2008 and 1/31/2009
2009 use year points are good for stays between 2/1/2009 and 1/31/2010
2010 use year points are good for stays between 2/1/2010 and 1/31/2011
etc.
Let's say you schedule a vacation for the first week of August, 2007 that costs 150 points and you have to cancel it. Assume you cancel it at least 31 days prior to arrival. (If you cancel closer to arrival, points go into holding, but that is another lesson, LOL). When you cancel, the points are returned to your account. If you don't reschedule your vacation before the end of the 2007 use year, the points are lost - UNLESS you can bank the points into the 2008 use year.
If you bank the points, they become good for stays between 2/1/2008 and 1/31/2009. So you have more time to reschedule your vacation without losing the points.
With a February use year, you can bank 100% of your annual allotment as long as you do it before the end of the 6th month following the start of your use year. So with a February use year, you have until the end of July to bank all 200 points in the example.
If you scheduled the same vacation and had to cancel it, but had an October use year, you may end up losing points. (Since August 2007 falls with the 2006 use year if you have an October use year, you would use 2006 points for that vacation). The 100% deadline for an October use year would be the end of the following March, the 50% deadline is the end of the following June and the 25% deadline is the end of the following July. No banking is permitted during August or September if you have an October use year.
Anyway, with the October use year, if you were able to cancel the August vacation before the end of the previous June, you could bank 100 points (50% of 200), but if you couldn't cancel until the first part of July, you could only bank 50 points (25% of 200). So you would have to use the unbanked points by the end of your use year (9/30/2007) or they expire and are lost.
Lots to read - ask more questions if you want more detail. Remember that use year has nothing to do with when you can call to make a reservation and is only important because it determines banking deadlines. Banking deadlines can be important if you have to cancel a reservation.
but need some advice. I still don't quite get the use year thing. My hubby teaches, so we'll mainly be going in July or early August time frame. Can you please advise on the ideal use year for us? 
for ROFR on 2 contracts. If they fall through, we have 60 days to execute a DVC contract through Disney at the $86 per point. Either way, we'll be SSR member! We're SO excited.
