Looking for The Hitchhiker's Guide to Condo Associations

Maybe this link will help you.

http://mountainglen2.org/HOA%20Board%20Member%20Toolkit.pdf

I think Richard's link is really helpful, Ron. before I and our rabble-rousing group got on the Board, we studied our own documents, but someone gave us the CAI "Board Members' Toolkit" that Richard cites.
P. 1.2 gives us some very nice definitions.

Here are the ones that I see on this board that seem to puzzle some folks.

Except for higher level statutes like municipal, state or federal, the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions are at the top of the hierarchy of documents in Associations. These "CC&Rs" also are called the Covenants or the Declaration. They often contain some basic rules and may include architectural guidelines

Next up are the Articles of Incorporation, also called "Articles." Some include info about how directors are chosen and may include some rules. Others, like ours, contain almost nothing except the legal name of the corporation, its address.

The bylaws are next and they primarily discuss the procedures for running the corporation: Who votes, notice required for meeting, quorums, choosing officers, filling vacancies on the board. It's important to notice the difference between meetings of the members (Owners) and meetings of the board. Some posters confuse bylaws with rules of residents' conduct. When the bylaws are silent about a matter, usually the answer is found in a state's corporate codes.

Then we have Rules & Regulations, which is what you want to change, Ron. Often they require only a vote by the board. (CA is a little stricter.) Look at the Board Members Toolkit cited above. It has a very good chapter about rules, e.g., they should be enforceable, reasonable, etc. Sometimes, when Boards change rules they delete some because they're unenforceable or unreasonable. None of the lower level docs may contradict the higher level ones, i.e., the rule cannot conflict with a CC&R.

Our rules have the formal name of Project Handbook, but we call it the Community Handbook.

HOA seems to be the generic expression for all kinds of Common Interest Developments incorporated or not, condos or not. Our articles call us Xxx-xxx xxx Owners Association (because we have a commercial owners component). But no one refers to us as an "OA"; everyone says HOA.

This leads to another source of confusion. We hold a board meeting every month, but everyone calls them "HOA meetings." New owners, tun, are surprised that they may not contribute during the business portion of the meeting. They THINK it's a members meeting.