Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Whole Communities as their own Board?

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

In Washington State, here.
At RoseWind Cohousing, we are incorporated (for a reason lost in ancient 
history) as a Miscellaneous Mutual Benefit Nonprofit Corporation. Not a 
501c3, though. And we have a Homeowners Association. 

Our documents were thoroughly reviewed by legal professionals. We've used 
them for about 15 years. And all Members (=Lot Owners) are Board members. 

We do have officers, selected annually: a Pres and VP whose only unique 
duties are to sign documents, if once a year or so we need to, for some 
outside agency, and a Treasurer (who fulfills that function, aided by our 
volunteer Finance Committee) and Secretary. The only other elected/selected 
group we have is our Steering Committee of five, selected for 2 year terms, 
with 2 or 3 replaced each year. All other responsibilities are carried out 
either by the membership as a community, or by committees and task forces 
according to the powers delegated to them by the community. 

This has worked just fine. 

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA