Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How important is including consensus in bylaws?

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

Consider the unfortunate possibility of having someone participate who has no 
interest in consensus. I'm particularly thinking of someone who acquires the 
property unwillingly - a bank, a relative of a deceased person, a developer, 
etc. your bylaws are what protect the community legally. One person /entity can 
totally wreak havoc with consensus in a way they can't with voting. 

Our community has never had to fall back onto voting but I was very glad we had 
that legal protection when it was looking like a third party developer might 
become the owner of the 30% of our homes that were still unsold!!! (Thankfully 
it never came to that)

Another thought: mortgage lenders will review your bylaws. The more the 
language in there looks familiar and understandable to them the easier it will 
be for your members to get financing. 


Written on a small keyboard, please forgive bizarre typos


On Mar 2, 2013, at 9:34 PM, Willow Murphy <willowm7 [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> The question our community is dealing with:  How important is it to include
> your vision, values, and consensus process in your HOA bylaws?  The only
> thing we're sure about is that we need to indicate in our bylaws that
> consensus is our primary form of decision making.  Should we include a
> process for back up voting procedures in the bylaws, as well?
> 
> Otherwise, we would include our consensus process, back up voting, and
> vision and values in our policies and procedures manual.   Thanks,
> Willow
> Sand River Co-Housing
> Santa Fe, NM
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