general rule question

Your question is so general, I am hesitant to say. (more details needed).
RONR talks about Standing Rules.

IN GENERAL , previous notice (if rrequired) and 2/3's vote

or

majority vote of the entire membership.

Robert pretty much summed it up nicely.

RULES (and regulations) are not to be confused with by-laws or CC&Rs. In may HOAs the board of directors can establish rules and regulations and often does not require a vote at all by the membership of the organization. Sometimes these are clarifications of the CC&Rs. Sometimes they address items the CC&Rs refer to but don't go into great deal about (for example, in ours, the CC&Rs require that all mailboxes be approved by the Architectural Committee for design and placement. The board made a "rule" that gives design specifications for the mailbox -- must be black, have a newspaper slot on the bottom, and made of steel, no brick, no plastic, etc)

The Roberts Rules of Order are not the same thing as "rules" by which your membership must abide.

The Roberts Rules of Order only address the hows of running the meetings, either board meetings or membership meetings.

Some governing documents require Roberts Rules of Order to be followed, many do not. If a board has adopted them, it can just as easily vote to discard them.

If you have access to your original governing documents, then it would probably be in your best interest to read them thoroughly (as boring and confusing as they can be!), and then read them AGAIN, this time underlining or highlighting certain parts.

If there are Rules and Regulations, it might also be a good idea to request a recent copy from your board.

Those probably change a bit more often than other governing documents since you are right that generally a larger portion of the entire membership must approve any changes (amendments) to bylaws or deed restrictions (CC&Rs).

Colleen you need to read all of the documents not just the by-laws. In ours the power to make rules is in the Declarations with the provision that they must be approved by 51% of the membership. Somewhere in the documents will be what powers the Board has including making rules.

Colleen, Articles of Incorporation, By-laws and CC&RS (deed restrictions) are not the same thing as Rules and Regulations that many boards are allowed to adopt.

Glen's still requires a membership vote to change their rules.

Ours do not. Nor do a good many of the associations in this area (they all pretty much pull from the same boilerplates!)

Amendments to the governing documents are not the same thing as changes or amendments to Rules & Regulations.

It might help us if you could let us know exactly which "rules" you think the board changed.

CollenF,
Articles of Incorporation are probably State Statutes and are guidelines for all corporations licensed by the State.

Your Declaration and documents can be more severe than the states statute but not less severe. But, the association can amend their documents, they can not amend the states requirements.

It would take a good lawyer to figure out some of this technical stuff but what I stated will apply almost alsways.......IMO

Colleen,

Each govening document (articles of inc., bylaws and CCRs) should have a provision stating how that particular document can be amended. Usually the articles require a vote of the members to amend. The bylaws of many assn's can be amended by a vote of the BOD; however, some assn bylaws do require a vote of the members. The CCRs can only be amended by a vote of the members. Most assn rules can be amended by the board because they are adopted by the board w/o a vote of the members; however, as Glen has stated, there are some assn docs that may require the members to vote to adopt them which would mean the members would need to amend them. You need to read each of your gov docs to determine how they can be amended. Your CCRs should contain the provision regarding enacting rules.

Yes, Susan. I agree. I was attempting to get Colleen to reply to that as well.

WHAT are the rules or rule that is being talked about here?

Colleen,

Are you calling the CCRs (covenants) the rules and regulation? The title that would be on the document is: "Covenants, Conditions, Restrictions, Assessments, Charges, Servitudes, Liens, Reservations and Easements". The CCRs contain all the restrictions and to change them would require a vote of the members. I would think the rule you are talking about would be in the CCRs. If so, the board cannot amend this doc w/o a vote of the members.

IMO, if the shore station/boating slips are limited I see nothing wrong with limiting each member to one. Is it really fair for one member to have more than one and another member to not have one at all?

First of all, we cannot continue this speculative conversation any further until we know exactly which area is being discussed, your deed restrictions (the "rules" that are registered with your deed) or the accompanying Rules and Regulations that boards typically have the ability to devise and amend without membership vote.

But to answer you SPECIFIC question above, yes, I think it's fair. No one made them go buy a boat.

If there are residents with 2 spots, when there is a wait list, how fair is that to everyone else?

There are lots of reasons why rules such as those can (and will) change over time. But if there is a need for more spots, it's ridiculous to think someone can hold onto TWO spots forever.

But again, your question on fairness is subjective. And that's my opinion