Cohousing-L Mailing List: Resources for Very Small Group?

[Sheila Oakes (sheila]

First timer here...I am a part of a small group (five "families" -  single
male, another single male, two families of 2 and a family of 4).  There are
6 adults and 4 children.  We pounced on the opportunity to buy this land
from the couple that lived here for decades and now we are dealing with
trying to define our structure, etc. more than a year after the fact.

We have about 3 acres, most of which is farm and fruit trees.  We very
actively farm the land and plan to use this for more significant income in
the future.  4 houses on the property.   Two families own the land (deed is
in their name) and three families are "renters",  for lack of a better
term.  We are not a group looking to grow. We will replace anyone who
decides to leave, but we're not interested in expanding. Part of our vision
is also community involvement to restore the creek in our area.  We offer
activities and education on our land and plan to continue this sort of
community outreach always.

We have met with lawyers, co-op housing experts, etc. to try to figure out
how to best structure ourselves.  Nothing really seems to fit. We set up an
LLC and we're not interested in also setting up a non profit.  We plan to
subdivide the land (all one tax lot today) so that each of us owns our own
homes, but we want the common area and farm to be owned by the LLC.  I've
searched the IC pages, this listserv, and whatever I can find, looking for
other groups to base our structure on or just get ideas on bylaws.  It seems
like all the resources I find are about well-planned co-housing developments
with lots of structure or cooperative farms where everyone is sharing
everything.  I realize we don't need a fancy structure and that we could cut
down the bylaws to fit us, but I sure would like to find some other very
small groups to talk to.   If anyone can point me in the right direction, or
point out a large oversight on my part, I would sure appreciate the help!

Thanks in advance.

Sheila
Oregon