Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus and voting bylaws (Willow Murphy)

[Willow Murphy (willowm7]

Mary Ann, excuse my inexperience, but what is "CC&R"?
Willow

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 8:04 AM, <drmaryanngroups [at] mac.com> wrote:

>
> Several years ago (5+?) because of changes in state law we needed to
> re-write our CC&Rs and By-Laws at that time we re-defined our governing
> documents as a three-legged stool of those two documents plus our Policies
> and Procedures manual. The P&P is in non-legalese and can easily changed as
> our needs change. In it we have detailed procedures for gaining consensus,
> what to do in the case of unresolved blocks and when a decision is taken to
> a vote. (Copies available for purchase from our website
> http://www.manzanitavillage.com.)
>
> We also define three types of members: homeowners, renters, and affiliated
> members (who don't live on the property). In general, all three types of
> members have full rights and responsibilities including participating in
> the consensus process with four exceptions. Only homeowners (members of the
> official HOA) can vote on:
>
> 1) Revising the CC&Rs and By-Laws
> 2) Electing the HOA board of directors (required by state law but being
> "titular" in practice since except in very unusual cases they merely ratify
> decisions made by the community as a whole)
> 3) Levy special assessments
> 4) Raise the monthly dues
>
> In general, even in these cases, the decision is hashed out in a plenary
> session before being brought to vote of the home owners.
>
> Mary Ann
> Manazanita Village, where we're having a beautiful but cold Arizona morning
>
> On Jan 11, 2013, at 11:36 AM, Willow Murphy <willowm7 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I like the simplicity and trust suggested by your bylaws structure.  I
> have
> > a concern related to the primacy given or not given to consensus in our
> > community:   Our proposed bylaws amendment defines which final decisions
> > are made by voting: ie organizational or administrative structure,
> > finances, choosing board of directors, property interests, legal
> concerns,
> > etc.  Have any other communities defined "voting rights" in this way in
> > their bylaws?  Comments?
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 11:03 AM, R.N. Johnson <cohoranda [at] yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Our bylaws are structured such that our consensus process supersedes the
> >> legally required majority voting process unless there is an urgent
> reason
> >> to do so and we are unable to make a decision by consensus.
> >> Randa Johnson
> >> New Brighton Cohousing
> >> Aptos, CA
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> >>
> >>
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>
> --
> Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work.
>
> Mary Ann Clark
> drmaryann49 [at] mac.com
> Check out DrMaryAnn's Academy at http://drmaryann.wordpress.com/
>
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