Paul,
Our policy requires warnings and a hearing prior to any fines being imposed. Additionally we typically waive the fine if the issue is resolved within x days after imposing the fine.
Our procedure for adopting any policy is:
1) Draft policy (be it from an individual or committee) is presented to the Board.
2) An individual is asked to review the draft with applicable State/Federal laws and make a report to the board which includes recommendations to bring the draft into compliance with the law.
3) Board makes changes as needed.
4) Draft policy is sent to the membership for review
5) Special meeting of the membership is called to discuss the draft
6) Board makes changes to the policy based on the meeting discussion
7) Board may or may not (depending on the policy) send this revised draft to the attorney for review and comment.
8) Board, if needed, reviews attorney's comments and makes changes as desired based on those comments.
9) Final draft is voted on by the Board (another option would be to have the membership vote on it, we use the discussion meeting instead).
10) Adopted policy is published (printed and mailed) to the membership and effective 7-10 days after being published.
11)
VA law allows the membership to repeal or amend any policy or rule by a majority of votes cast at a special meeting of the membership. Even if your State doesn't have such a law, I think it's a good policy to adopt as this allows the membership some control over any board who has an agenda for a specific issue.