Bylaws - Skyhouse

Tags: Skyhouse, Membership, Consensus, Income Sharing

SKYHOUSE COMMUNITY, INC.
a Missouri Nonprofit Corporation

ARTICLE I
MEMBERSHIP

PARAGRAPH 1. CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP

There are three classes of membership: provisional, full, and child.

A. Provisional membership. When an adult first joins the community, co becomes a provisional member. Co has all rights and responsibilities of a full member except those specifically designated as different in these bylaws.

B. Full membership. A full member is any provisional member who is granted that status by the consensual agreement of the community's members after being a provisional member for at least 6 months.

C. Child membership. A person who is born into community or who joins the community prior to being considered an adult is a child member. The decision on when a child member becomes an adult is at the discretion of the child and the community's current adult population. To the extent possible, child members are encouraged to take an active part in community affairs, and adult members are expected to treat seriously the opinions of child members. However, children are not guaranteed equal say in community decisions.

PARAGRAPH 2.
ADMISSION

The community will establish an explicit procedure for admission of new members. Legal minors (as defined by the state of Missouri) will not be admitted for membership unless accompanied by their parent(s) or legal guardian(s), or with their express approval.

PARAGRAPH 3.
EXPULSION

A full member cannot be expelled from the community unless the following conditions are met:

A. The remaining adult members have reached consensus agreement to expel the individual in question.

B. There is a meeting at which the individual is notified of the behavior upon which the expulsion decision is based.

C. The individual has been given a reasonable length of time after the aforementioned meeting in which in which to change cos objectionable behavior.

D. After the aforementioned reasonable length of time has passed, the remaining adult members are still in consensus agreement that the individual should be expelled.

Provisional members may be expelled by consensus of the full membership.

ARTICLE 2
ECONOMICS

PARAGRAPH 1. WORK

All members are expected to contribute a reasonable amount of work toward group efforts, relative to an individual's ability to work. It is expected that this will be measured in terms of effort and not in terms of output. Moreover, where some members possess skills which the community relies on and that other members do not possess, the skilled members are expected to make a reasonable effort to teach their skills to interested unskilled members.

PARAGRAPH 2. INCOME AND EXPENSES

All money earned by individuals once they are members is considered group income and goes into a common treasury. This includes not only wages but also unearned income such as interest or rent earned from money or other property held privately, with the following three exceptions:

A. Provisional and child members will be allowed to keep income from gifts, inheritance, or royalties from works produced prior to becoming a member; and

B. Child members will be allowed to have a trust, or its equivalent, established for them by people from outside the community without any interest from them being considered group income; and

C. Members will be allowed to keep gifts or inheritance received while members in trust but interest or other income earned from privately held property shall go to the community.

In return the group assumes responsibility for meeting all individual needs for food, clothing, shelter, medical expenses, and education.

PARAGRAPH 3. PROPERTY

When an individual joins the community, co is not required or expected to relinquish ownership of any property to the group. However, the group does reserve the right to limit the use of private property. It is expected that members will generally make possessions such as tools, vehicles, cooking utensils, and literature available for group use, but there is no requirement that they do so. In the particular case of vehicles, members must either choose to make them available to the group or to not operate them at all. If the group does make use of private property, it is under no obligation to maintain or replace such property relative to the wear resulting from its use, unless agreement to do so has been made ahead of time.

ARTICLE 3
GOVERNMENT

All major decision-making will be done by consensus of the full members. The group may delegate decision-making on minor matters at its discretion. The Board of Directors shall consist of all full members of the community.

ARTICLE 4
AMENDMENTS

Any amendment to these bylaws must be made by consensus.

ARTICLE 5
DEFINITIONS

1. The term "co" will be used in place of "he or she", or "him or her"; the term "cos" will be used in place of "his or hers".

2. The terms "community" and "group" will be used interchangeably to mean the whole membership of Skyhouse Community.

WRITTEN CONSENT OF DIRECTORS ADOPTING BYLAWS

We, the undersigned, are all of the persons named as the initial directors in the Articles of Incorporation of Skyhouse Community, Inc., a Missouri nonprofit corporation, and, pursuant to the authority granted to the directors by these Bylaws to take action by unanimous written consent without a meeting, consent to, and hereby do, adopt the foregoing Bylaws, consisting of three pages, as the Bylaws of this corporation.

Dated: March 1, 1997
Jennifer Ray, Director
Jonah Scheib, Director
Tony Sirna, Director