Cohousing-L Mailing List: bylaws-active vs inactive status

[lienjud [at] aol.com (lienjud]

dear cohousing communities:
I live at Cascadia Commons in Portland, and we might be facing a consensus 
decision where a household is asking for inactive status indefinitely and this 
household is not planning on leaving. They have not attended community/HOA 
meeting for the last 8 months. 
In preparation for this, I looked at our bylaws and it mentions active/inactive 
status and gives no definition for it. We have had households go on inactive 
status for health reasons, life changes, plans for moving out etc. There is 
vague language in our bylaws saying the community can decide the terms. So, 
some long-time members are saying that we have never set terms so there is no 
precedent for this household possibly being assessed $ or facing restrictions. 
I would wish for this vague language to be removed from our bylaws as it is 
meaningless and false advertising to potentially new members. 
Curious how things look in other communities. thanks for any information. 
Judith Lienhard