Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: lenders & bylaws

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

How you choose to govern your community is up to you.  It doesn't have 
to be in the bylaws that the banks see, in order for it to be group 
policy.  Be sure to put in language which allows you to adopt "house 
rules".  This way, later, when you discover the agreements you need to 
live together, you can easily adopt policies as house rules.

In our state, our attorney told us that FMNA does not accept consensus 
as a reasonable decision making structure.  So in our bylaws it says 
2/3rds majority vote.  This is our fall back.  Internally we make our 
decisions by consensus. Since this includes 3/4 majority its OK.  We 
have defined our consensus process in our house rules. The bank never 
sees these.

I would suggest asking your attorney what the banks will go for and 
sticking with that, knowing that you can change it later internally to 
meet your own needs. I believe in our state FMNA requires at minimum a 
3 person board of President, Secretary and Treasurer.  You can more 
board members as needed and in your bylaws you can give yourself some 
wiggle room by defining a minimum but not a maximum.