Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Quorum

[David Clements and Evan Richardson (evdavwes]

Our Quorum (at Westwood Cohousing) is a majority of households (owners).   We 
have 24 owners, so 13 owners must be present in person or by proxy for 
decisions to be made.  


To amend the declaration (similar to your CC&R) requires 75% of the owners 
present at a legitimate meeting.  So, 10 members voting yes (in person or by 
proxy)  out of 13 present (in person or by proxy).


To amend our bylaws we require consensus in a legitimate meeting (ie 13 members 
present in person or by proxy).  If consensus fails, 75% vote is the 
alternative (ie, 10 members (in person or by proxy) out of 13 members present 
(in person or by proxy).  


I stress the proxy because that is the standard way Homeowners Associations 
(HOA) make sure there are enough members at a meeting to make decisions.  
Proxies are especially important if there are owners who do not live in the 
community or who choose not to participate.  


Proxies can be just for the purpose of establishing a quorum or for votes for 
or against a measure.  In North Carolina's "standard" proxy, an owner will give 
another person the authority to vote on their behalf, and is valid for 11 
months ( ref 
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bychapter/chapter_55a.html
 ).  The proxy can direct the other person to vote in a particular way, but 
does not need to.   HOA's are free to establish other rules for proxies (such 
rules would be found in the bylaws-- for example, not allowing proxies at all, 
or allowing proxies only to establish a quorum, or requiring that the Board 
"vote" all proxies).   Our HOA has established no rules for proxies, so the NC 
law requires us to honor all proxies that conform to the "standard" rules.  (I 
note that some of our members think that we shouldn't allow proxies or should 
allow them only for quorum, not for voting.   However, this has never been 
brought up or decided in our community)


In North Carolina, the "standard" quorum for HOA member meetings is 10% of 
members (ref 
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByChapter/Chapter_47f.html
 ).  HOA's are free to  choose any other quorum (by specifying this in the 
bylaws).    The "standard" is in no way a "best practice," but is the default 
if nothing different is specified.  


One suggestion for amending the bylaws in minor ways would be assemble a 
collection of minor proposed changes and have a special meeting, for which 
proxies are solicited.  Those who might otherwise hesitate to give someone else 
the right to vote on their behalf might be willing to give a proxy for this one 
item.  


Disclaimer:  I am not a lawyer, but have researched what the rules are in NC.  
Other states may be different.  


David Clements


________________________


Message: 1
Date: Sat, 11 May 2013 15:32:13 -0700
From: Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome [at] olympus.net>
Subject: [C-L]_ Quorum
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Message-ID: <E2BCBE53-4611-4536-8B06-7736DFB207E9 [at] olympus.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Looking for info on how other groups handle quorum. 

At RoseWind Cohousing in Port Townsend WA, we designate significant categories 
of decision as Class One. Examples are passing the annual budget, selecting 
Steering and officers, decisions to sell commonly-held real estate, financial 
items over $1000. For such decisions, we require 10-day advance notice, and the 
presence of someone from each of at least 10 households. 

We have 24 households total, but now, for example, there are 4 units which are 
not occupied by owners, two households that don't choose to participate, 
several 
more that rarely do, an elderly member, an ill member, and several households 
that are away out of state on trips. Our monthly meetings usually have 10-11 
households (many with two members present). These are regular participants and 
well-informed and thoughtful. Our decisions have seemed successful. 

We still have a requirement for a higher quorum (13 households) for "amending 
the documents". The problem is that some changes to our Bylaws or CC&Rs are 
minor (like removing obsolete references), and most are no more momentous than 
stuff we do as regular Class One, with its quorum of 10 households. If we 
require 13 even for minor amendments, we might never get it. A few people are 
concerned that if we make amending the documents simply Class One, we might 
approve something drastic (majority rule??) without adequate support. 

Do you have special requirements for making certain types of decisions? 

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org