How do we make this happen?

So what do we do?

First, we need an organizational group to take charge of the initial paperwork, as mandated by Judge McElroy in his 2017 ruling. The community needs to authorize such a group. We need at least three members to be our 'originators.' We want this group to exist until the initial documents are completed and an initial Board is chosen.

This group will be in charge of creating and filing the paperwork needed to start the corporation. We need to create the Articles of Incorporation and we need a registered agent whose address is used for legal issues. Luckily the State has a handy form with just want it wants and that's all we need. Check out our proposed Articles in the section called "proposed new documents," on the menu to the right of this page. As you see, its pretty simple. We will vote on whether to accept it and we will refine it until a 2/3 majority of all community members agree.

Second, within 30 days of filing, we need Bylaws. You can see a proposed working copy of the bylaws to the right as well. Those are a little more involved. The working committee will refine them until 2/3 of the community agrees, and then they will file them with the Secretary of State.

Third, we hold a community meeting to choose a new Board and they get going on creating a new Land User's Code. As you might recall, the Board recently spent almost 18 months working on this, until Michael Reynolds objected to it, and the whole thing was tabled. We can start with that and whittle away at it, until we have a simple set of rules that we can all accept. Again, we need a community vote by 2/3 to pass this document.

Finally, when we have all those documents created, we send notice of to all members and then we file the documents with the Taos County Clerk. Only then will they attach to all our titles.

We can later change anything we need, by whatever vote margin we have specified in our documents.

Ultimately we get to write the rules ourselves, with as minimal a governing organization as we can envision. To me, that sounds like the Greater World I was hoping for when I moved here.

Next: can't we just leave things alone?