- about/co-op (3 matching lines) [show matches]
## Bylaws
Our Bylaws^[unfinished at this time, early drafts in progress in the [Legal](/legal) section here] specify our governance as a cooperative, our score voting system for elections, the rights of members, membership qualifications, and more.
Membership in the Snowdrift.coop cooperative is conferred by patronage of the Snowdrift.coop project (i.e., payment of a recurring membership fee) and acceptance of the Membership Agreement (see [Legal](/legal). Cooperative member rights and responsibilities are separate from site user rights and responsibilities, and are laid out in the Bylaws, standing rules, and committee policies.
- communications/intro/co-opers (2 matching lines) [show matches]
Snowdrift.coop is formally organized as a multistakeholder cooperative. We have researched many different organizational ideas and incorporated the best into our Bylaws. We use a better voting procedure called "score voting" (also known as "range voting" and *not* the same as rank). Range voting helps elect consensus candidates over polarized ones. As we build our own technology to run our governance, the same systems will be available to all co-ops.
If you have experience in co-op startup or governance, we would love your input! Our [Bylaws](/legal/bylaws) have been drafted but are not yet finalized. We have yet to figure out standing rules or other details.
- archives/project-management/beta-sprint (2 matching lines) [show matches]
- [Bylaws](bylaws)
- Approve bylaws (ratified at first member meeting)
- project-reqs/honor-projects (1 matching lines) [show matches]
Cooperative organizations can have various structures. Any project is welcome to adapt the technical tools and governing bylaws used by Snowdrift.coop.
- operations/accounting (1 matching lines) [show matches]
* $3,000 to [Attorney Deb Olsen](http://www.esoplaw.com/) for legal retainer, initial work on incorporation / bylaws
- governance/standing-rules (1 matching lines) [show matches]
* A member always has the right to waive any notice required by applicable law, Standing Rules, or the Bylaws. The waiver must be in writing, bear the member's manual or electronic signature, and be delivered to the co-op for inclusion in the minutes.
- community/team-past (1 matching lines) [show matches]
of our co-op structure, including the formation of our bylaws and relationships
- archives/project-management/mvp-next (1 matching lines) [show matches]
* Have Bylaws reviewed by a lawyer, then appoint board and approve bylaws which will be ratified at the first member meeting.
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Then, we hired [Kim Hoff](https://snowdrift.coop/u/91) as full-time project coordinator (and also joining the steering committee), and she and Aaron spend most of June through November 2013 working on better presentations, detailed plans, comprehensive writings, legal issues, bylaws draft, partnerships to pursue, research, more business plans etc.
- about/democracy (1 matching lines) [show matches]
The elected Board of Directors will make decisions by facilitated consensus with a range-voting fallback, as described in our Bylaws (see [Legal](/legal)). Consensus assures that minority concerns are included, and the fallback addresses the problems with strict-consensus approaches.