wiki-l Mailing List: THANK YOU!! [but we need comprehensive set of docs]

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

sally thompson <emptynestcohos [at] highstream.net>
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred <fholson [at] cohousing.org>

Sally sent this message to me and several other people, I decided it
should be shared with the wiki-L list...  I'll reply separately.

I've added links to the Cohousing-L posts that Sally refers to at the end.

Fred
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Fred, I wrote the List-Serve ages ago asking for sample legal documents on
forming an LLC, drawing up condo-association (or whatever they are) legal
by-laws, working agreements, etc.  At last someone is trying to put them
all together in the Wiki site, at least for one of the topics!  Thank you!
If I ever hit a rainy day, I was going to go through each and every
list-serve reply since my inquiry on each similar topic and draw up my own
files, but I sure wish the Cohousing Association would do this on behalf
of all of us--ask each Cohousing community to send them samples of all
their legal documents and a comment on how well that legal or non-legal
agreement has "worked" for that community and have the association put
them into files that members could access.  I know National officers are
volunteers with limited time, but isn't there one paid staff person that
could do this invaluable service for all the rest of us that are coming
along towards becoming a legal entity, and need to know things like "how
does one become a legally binding condo or co-op association" "what other
alternatives are there and how are their legal papers drawn up" etc.
Then we all would not be reinventing what has gone before--we would merely
have to hire a lawyer to change those papers into ones that apply directly
to our community instead of starting from scratch.  I'm also still
interested in any legal documents for leasing the land from a land trust,
if any group has ever done that.  We are still negotiating and it just may
become a reality!  If nothing else, before we hire a lawyer, I would like
to be able to hand a task force samples of what could be drawn up, and be
able to hold a knowledgeable conversation about them and reach some kind
of consensus before getting a highly paid professional involved.  Another
thing that would be helpful is a sample on how to draw up an agreement
between equity members, and how much cash is usually asked of an equity
member, would be enormously helpful information!  And by the way, I
remember asking Carol & Raines at the Colorado conference for a template
web site we Coho members could use to fill in blanks and put on the
Communities site!  My website remains unchanged and if I knew where to go
for instructions on how to change it or better yet add a layer of
information, I sure would be grateful for that too!  So much needing to be
done, and so little time and money available to shorten the time and money
needing to be spent at each local community level.  I eagerly await your
reply.  Not sure who the other Board members are, but hope one of you will
send them a copy of this plea on behalf of the rest of us!

---- Related Cohousing-L posts ------

Legal Documents setting up Cohousing Communities
    Author: sally thompson <emptynestcohoshighstream.net>
    Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:18:45 -0700 (PDT)
    We are looking for documents we can read and perhaps use as wording
    for setting up legal agreements among ourselves and between ourselves
    and professionals of all levels we will be working with. Plea...
http://lists.cohousing.org/pipermail/cohousing-l/msg25873.html

No Community Formation Documents (Agreements) received so far! (score: 35)
    Author: sally thompson <emptynestcohoshighstream.net>
    Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:04:49 -0700 (PDT)
    Andrew Netherton has kindly set up a file system where we can store
    samples of all sorts of legal documents used in the formation of
    existing communities so that new communities can have them as a re...
http://lists.cohousing.org/pipermail/cohousing-l/msg25878.html