Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Membership definitions

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind we are each "members". As such we participate in consensus 
process and other community affairs. Ownership of a lot is defined by who 
is on the legal deed. The only time I can think of that the per-lot 
factor comes in, is if we go to our fall-back voting option. We have not 
needed to do that, in our ten years of decision making, though once we 
came close, and got through the process to do it, then found we had 
consensus. 

Our legal documents indicate that in a "vote" situation, each lot gets 
one vote, and it is up to the co-owners, if any, to decide amongst 
themselves how they want to cast their vote, and I think fractioning it 
is a possibility. But we have never had to do that. 

We also have legally defined "residents" - something like anyone who has 
lived at RoseWind for x amount of months and is 16 or over: this would 
include non-owning folks, domestic partners, roomates, renters, etc. as 
well as owners. All residents have a voice in general community business. 
Only owners have a voice in certain matters like assessments and big 
expenses, or dissolving the corporation or such. The documents also refer 
to "guests", being anyone who is on the property at the implicit or 
explicit invitation of a resident. Final responsibility, in the case of 
major damages to the commons for example, rests with the lot owners who 
are responsible for another resident or guest being there. 

We count households for quorum. We need 51%, so with our 20 families, we 
need at least one member of each of 11 households. We assume that each 
household will work out amongst themselves sharing meeting handouts