Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Bylaws Question - Now: Conforming documents to actual practice

[Edwin Simmers (edwinsimmers]

At Bellingham Cohousing we decided it is important that our governing documents 
reflect our actual community practices. It saves all sorts of confusion and 
lets us easily answer that pesky question, “How do you really make decisions 
around here?”

Bellingham Cohousing is a Washington cohousing condominium. State law requires 
management of a condominium by an owners’ association and board of directors. 
On the other hand, cohousing communities like ours emphasize participation in 
the management of the community by all residents, whether owners or not, 
typically with management decisions made by consensus.

Because of these contrasting expectations, our tradition has been that the 
owners’ association board of directors does not adopt a rule/regulation or a 
budget without first receiving consent at a general meeting. Likewise, the 
board doesn’t adopt a budget until the budget has reached general meeting 
consensus.

If you’d like to learn more, you can read our Consensus Decision-Making Policy 
Resolution by clicking the following link or by contacting me directly by email.

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/021j_IxcelH6JWcO8_pgpf4UA

Ed Simmers