Bylaws committee

Am currently a HOA Trustee. Am trying to create new bylaws with interference from the president who wants to add a chairperson of his liking to our committee. This will only dilute and possibly destroy our mission. I need guidelines to correctly write (by the book) bylaws. Have the most up to date 720 &723 and Roberts Rules. Is there anything else short of lawyer that I may need? Rew

Kerry,

When we redid our governing documents we hired a company to assist.
However, when we redid our Architectural guidelines and amendments to those documents, we did that ourself. From the two processes, I would suggest that you consider the following procedure:

1) Form a committee of homeowners with a maximum of only 1 Board member to write draft documents.
a) They should start with the existing and see what you like vs. don't like.
b) They should review existing applicable laws (don't forget Corporate laws) to see what the Bylaws must contain.
c) They should look at similar Associations governing documents to see what someone else has that you may like.
d) They should ensure that there are no conflicts between the drafted bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation or the CC&Rs.
e) They should draft the document showing what currently exists followed by the recommended changes.

2) The Board should review the draft, compare with applicable laws and make adjustments as needed.

3) The Board should publish the draft and call a special meeting of the membership for questions, comments and concerns from the members.

4) The Board should review the members comments and concerns, compare them to applicable laws and make corrections/additions as needed.

5) The Board should then send the document to the Association attorney for legal review and comments (by sending it to the attorney at this phase, it should cost less because they are reviewing a draft vs. doing the actual rewrite).

6) The Board should then review the legal advice and make changes to the proposed document as needed.

7) Publish the proposed Bylaws, call a general membership meeting and have your vote.

This is likely a year or two process.

As for dealing with the President, have them suggest someone for the committee but insist that the committee elects their own chair.

Note: when we made changes to our documents, any changes needed to have unanimous approval from the committee for any change. This gave better assurance that there would be support from the membership for the changes.

hope this helps,

Tim

"Have the most up to date 720 &723 and Roberts Rules. Is there anything else short of lawyer that I may need?"

That is scary. FS 720 governs HOAs but does not always override Bylaws.
FS 723 in turn governs Mobile Home Parks. 2 very different "species."

In mobile home parks owners do not usually own the land. A corporation does. So Kerry, what is it ? are you referring to single family homes in a mandatory HOA or, a Mobile Home Park ?