Where should Committees be delineated?

Hi All,

HOA of 314 properties ... generally well managed with a PM and BoD - I am on the Board and the VP. We have solid CCRs, with R&Rs and solid Bylaws (although were are on the 4th revision).

I'm reviewing docs and trying to align various bits and pieces ... the only committees called out by docs are the Architectural Control Board in the CCRs and the Nominating Committee in the Bylaws.

In common verbal usage and even some processes are:

- Landscape Committee

- CC&R Committee

As an aside, the CCRs also call out a "Architectural Representative" that is not referenced anywhere.

I was told initially by the outgoing president that the Landscape and CC&R Committees were approved by the Board, but it is not in any minutes I have found.

My intent is a positive one - to clean up the docs - one component of this could be to determine which Committees are standing committees, then make certain their tasking and processes are delineated in one place. Doing this in the CCRs is very difficult, obviously. So, given two other easy to manage locations - Bylaws or R&Rs, both of which can be changed by our Board per our docs, where SHOULD these be located?

Tim,

I like that solution, as well. R&Rs are easy to change by the Board and can be tracked via the Board minutes - unlike our current, R&Rs, which are not even dated, I would have a block of information at the bottom noting when they were changed and the mechanism.

In a broad sense, I would think any Committee related to technical governance (Nominating Committee, Audit Committee, etc) should probably be in the Bylaws, and a Committee related to architectural, covenants, etc would best sit in the R&Rs (since modifying the CCRs is usually far too difficult).

Seem reasonable?

John,

Good point - linking the various components is a great idea.

Thanks for that post.

It's not a bad idea, it's just that the legislature is so ham-fisted with its half-baked ideas. It would be better if there was a 1-year deadline for recording changes to the Rules & Regulations. A board could accumulate changes and file them all at once for the preceding year.

We have a few new homeowners in the last 6 months that have hung multiple birdfeeders from the trees in back of their houses. All of the trees are on common property. But we've never had a problem until now. The birds like them but the debris falls to the ground and has been attracting all kinds of critters, including rats. So the board wants to make a new Rule: No birdfeeders anywhere on the property. It would have been a simple change 2 years ago but now it has to first be reviewed by an attorney and then filed with the county before it takes effect. Technically it doesn't have to be reviewed by an attorney but people here are skittish about recording anything in the county's official records unless the attorney reviews it first.

As for the website requirement for condos, another good idea that doesn't go far enough in my opinion. It wouldn't affect my HOA because we have less than 150 units (homes) and that's the threshold below which a condo is exempt from having to have one.

This is the cleanest solution. Plus, it leaves open the option for future boards to eliminate and cancel committees that aren't performing or, for whatever reason, become functionally obsolete due to streamlined processes.

Kerry

Welcome back.