Power Structure of HAUS

Members convened in a General Meeting

Board of Directors (led by Chair)

Individual houses

Individual members

Policies at haus

The laws of the City of Houston, Harris County, the State of Texas, and The United States of America

HAUS can’t violate these.

Articles of Incorporation

Filed with the state, we cannot violate this original charter (which intentionally says very little other than that we are a nonprofit)

HAUS Bylaws

More comprehensive rules filed with the state that we must follow, but which occasionally might be updated with extreme care (we have updated these once so far). Primarily concerned with how we all work together and setting up our democratic structure. Not very appropriate place for specific debatable policies that might change.

Board policies

All motions approved and not overturned by the board. Houses and members are not allowed to violate these.

Board actions and procedures outside policies

All the stuff the board does that isn’t policy, such as managing finances or hosting a speaker event or working on maintenance issues.

House policies

Each house is free to set up whatever policies they want so long as they don’t break board policies, bylaws, or our articles. Originally, we just included board policies in the house policies of rosalie as unchangeable (we bolded them). In my understanding these would be the same as board policies in that they are all the motions approved at a house meeting and not overruled later, but I think houses are free to intrerpret what constitute house policy as they want, i guess.

Officer decisions