Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus and Bylaws

[Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Cornerstone Cohousing (Cambridge, MA) is in its 23rd year of occupancy; about 
1/3rd of the original “founders” (people who bought in and worked out before 
construction began) are still here.  I mention this because I think it helps to 
understand where a community is in the cohousing lifecycle.

Our bylaws have always contained specifications for a full circle consent 
process … although our earliest versions were probably more aspirational than 
practical.  After more than a decade of experience, it felt, to some of us, 
like that most of our full circle time was spent placating just a few 
individuals who always objected to everything.  Getting full circle consent 
thus seemed extremely slow, painful and failure-prone.

In 2013, after more than a year’s worth of work (some of which was acrimonious) 
we amended our bylaws with new procedures for the full circle consent process.  
Basically, this reformed process emphasized ...
A more rigorous sequence of steps in forming and modifying a proposal … mostly 
directed by the facilitators and proponents.
A very sincere effort to obtain classical full circle consent (“unanimity” or 
“solidarity”), but also …
In cases where it was clear that the substantial majority of the community was 
in agreement, but strenuous efforts to invent conciliation and compromise had 
reduced down to a couple of objectors who would not budge … then available was 
a super-majority vote option.
The interesting outcome was:  We almost never use the super-majority vote 
option.  Most of our members now prefer to be part of a "win-win" compromise, 
rather than hold out forever for a micro-point that will get over-ridden by a 
super-majority vote.

The other innovation we went for (at the urging of one of our resident 
attorneys) is that we kept the formal bylaws relatively simple and generic.  
But we elaborated procedural details in policies (rules adopted by full circle) 
and guidelines (best practice recommendations of circles).  Reason is that 
bylaws are, and should be, hard to change — and important policies and 
guidelines should be able to evolve organically, without going to the Registry 
of Deeds every time somebody comes up with an improvement.

For those of you interested in seeing what we’ve done, write me, and I’ll send 
you a .pdf.

------------------
Thanks, RPD
617.460.4549

On February 28, 2023 at 6:24:37 PM, Leslie Hassberg (leslie.hassberg [at] 
daybreakcohousing.org) wrote:

Does your cohousing community address consensus in its bylaws? Do you have  
language that you like and are willing to share? Have you made changes to  
decision-making procedures in your community? Are those changes reflected  
in your bylaws? If you are a condo, do you have a back-up decision-making  
process to ensure compliance with state condo laws?  

Thanks!  
Leslie  
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