Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Board of Directors

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

RoseWind Cohousing is a State of Washington nonprofit mutual benefit 
corporation, with a homeowners' association. (Being a nonprofit doesn't 
mean we're a 501c3, just a general nonprofit.) We have short Articles of 
Incorporation, medium sized Bylaws, and long CC&Rs. Between them, it's 
all outlined how we conduct our business. Most of what the original 
poster on this thread 

Officers: The State requires that we annually file an update listing our 
Officers. We choose them at our annual meeting. President and Vice 
President have no powers whatsoever except being the official signers of 
documents, when the membership agrees to some transaction that requires a 
signer. Treasurer and Secretary are real jobs, and are typically not 
contested positions: we're grateful that anyone is willing to do it. The 
Treasurer is part of our Finance Committee, so doesn't make policy, but 
does write checks for committee expenses and reimbursements, and oversees 
the bookkeeping. 

Directors: Our documents state that every Member (legal owner of a RW 
lot) is a Director. So we are all "on the Board."

Steering Committee: The 5-member steering committee is elected annually 
for a 2 year term, with 2 or 3 of the members thus replaced each year, so 
there is continuity. Steering meets twice a month, once just after the 
monthly large-group meeting, and once 2 weeks before the monthly meeting. 
I'm on it, so I'll say "we" :
*evaluate the meeting, and note what came out of it, in terms of who's to 
follow up on what, and what next steps need to happen on various agenda 
items, and whether that's being attended to
*notice if anything else seems to be falling through the cracks, in terms 
of follow up, or concerns that have been raised
*occasionally have a "guest" from a committee, to explain or request 
something
*at our pre-meeting meeting, we sift out items for the agenda, give 10 
day notice where required, and pass our recommendations on to the 
Facilitation Committee, who actually create the agenda order and time 
allotments and publish the agenda prior to the meeting itself.
*we are also empowered in limited ways to authorize spending from the 
contingency line item in the annual budget

Steering is important work, but operates more in service to the community 
than on its own.

Lynn at RoseWind
where an underground pod of painted plywood dolphins has been breaking 
the surface of the grass with first just some fins and tails, and now 
more with faces, or leaping almost clear of the surface. You never know 
what you'll see in this funny place!

On that note, I walked into the kid room after dinner and found two 3 yr 
olds had climbed furniture to the sink, filled it with water, stripped 
naked and were gleefully sloshing around as water cascaded in a waterfall 
onto the floor. The (later thoroughly chastised!) 5 yr olds were laughing 
at it all. Yikes--- tikes. Oh well, nobody was hurt and we all are more 
aware of just how often we need to check in on them. I think this may 
lead to parents hiring some older kid to keep an eye in that after-supper 
slot when the parents are tired and distracted. 

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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