Cohousing-L Mailing List: Quorums - value of

[O3C11N6G (normangauss]

My community has recently questioned the need for a quorum in our 
community business meetings.  At present, we are following a 
convention of establishing at the beginning of a meeting a 
presence of at least 40% of the occupied households.  If decisions 
are brought forward for consensus later in the meeting, and 
attendance has dropped below 40%, we ignore that.  Thus, it is 
possible to have only a quarter or less of the occupied households 
making a decision affecting the whole community.

A point has been made that the only legally binding decisions are 
those made by the Board.  We routinely send approved proposals to 
the Board which has always automatically ratified them.

Some people have said that attendance at a business meeting is 
voluntary, and absence from it is tacit approval of anything that 
is approved in the meeting, thus negating the necessity of having 
a quorum.  Others have reasoned that deciding to attend a meeting 
is based on priorities and people should not be penalized because 
it is impossible for them to attend.

California State Law describes two kinds of membership meetings, 
Annual and Special.  Annual membership meetings are usually called 
to elect Board members.  All other meetings, as described in 
California code, fall into the category of Special Membership 
Meetings.  For the latter, a quorum is needed to make any decision 
affecting the whole community.  Conventionally, more than 50% of 
the total membership is required for consensus, including absentee 
owners.  My community has typically never been able to meet this 
requirement.  So we are not following California Law.  We often 
assume a proxy type of consensus in which anybody not at the 
meeting is automatically approving anything that is decided at the 
meeting.

Whether this is frequently seen in cohousing is a question I have. 
Another question I have is whether justice is being done by 
ignoring any concerns of members not able to attend the business 
meeting.

Does anybody in Cohousing Land have any ideas along these lines?

Norm Gauss