Posted:
Hi Donna:
What I would recommend:
Look through the documents and see what needs to be changed, deleted or added (some things came up since your HOA was formed). Maybe read through some more recent sets of documents to get an idea of what's being added nowadays.
Then, get a committee to draft amendments to your documents. This would include sections that are changed, added, or deleted. Once this is drafted and has been through a few revisions, send it to the HOA lawyer to get his/her advice on the changes, as well as anything that he/she thinks would be needed that's in addition to what the committee has proposed.
Finally, this goes to a vote of the folks. Remember, if your documents require a 75% approval of amendments, that means that you need 75% of your total membership voting yes. So, it's good for the Board to involve people early-on in the process, to get them behind the changes prior to coming to a vote. Also, have them vote on each amendment separately (you may want to have an option for them to vote yes on all, or to vote yes/no on each) in order to make sure that one change that people don't like, won't sabotage the whole effort.
Here is the process that I used at an HOA I used to manage:
1) Send out the proposed amendments with a letter notifiying the members that an election on amending the documents is coming; let them know the date, and if there are any requirements - either in your docs or state law regarding the option of requesting a secrecy ballot, when they need to respond by to request it, and how that process works.
2) Send out the ballots to the folks, request that they vote as soon as possible and return the ballots. It never hurts to send a pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope so they don't have to find an envelope, a stamp, and a pen to address the envelope.
3) Monitor the rate of returns, and get the board and/or a committee to go out periodically to solicit a response from those who have not responded. This is important, since the likelihood of a 75% return of ballots is not that high without extra effort.
4) Use an outside person - your manager, your lawyer, your accountant, or some other party, to receive the ballots and record them.
If possible, don't put a definitive date for returns on the ballots or other information, because it might take a while to get sufficient ballots back to pass your amendments.
Sorry that this is so long, but the process is long & involved...
J. Patrick Moore, CMCA