Procedure for Changing Policies, Procedures, Rules and Regulations, Resolutions and Guidelines

Since I am going to attempt to make changes to the procedures, resolutions, and bylaws of Todd Creek Farms HOA in the next few years to make the Association more closely resemble the government entity it is, we should have an organized system for tracking these changes. I can’t find where we have any tracking system similar to that used at any other level of government. Perhaps there is a procedure and it is housed in the Policy Book, but since that Policy Book is not found on the web site it is difficult to tell.
 
All bylaws and resolutions should be numbered with a consistent form. Footnotes at the end of each bylaw, policy, procedure, rule and regulation, resolution and guideline should give the reader a logical and consistent path with which to follow the history of the document.
 
I haven’t seen in the bylaws where policies, procedures, rules and regulations, resolutions and guidelines are mentioned, they seem have been created in the Adopting Policy Resolution. So a resolution was used to create resolutions? It seems this should be in the bylaws.

I also have not seen a description of what these various categories are used for. Does a rule override a resolution? Does a resolution have the weight of law or is it just a statement with no lawful implications. All these terms should be defined along with the process of amending each. For instance how is a resolution initiated, does a board member have to propose it or can it be initiated by a resident of the community, if a resident can initiate the process does there need to be a petition.

There is so little defined that it makes all sort of mischief possible and probable. One of the things that should be considered in any discussion of the proper role of these various classifications is who is allowed to modify them. The bylaws for instance can only be modified by a majority vote of a quorum of homeowners. This would seem to be the proper place to put any restrictions on the powers of the board of directors since future boards can't change the bylaws unilaterally. Since a quorum is required and there are papers that need to filed with the county and letters sent to mortgage companies the logical time to make these changes is at the owner's meeting each November. Missing from the bylaws and state laws, or at least missing to my eyes, is how a change to a bylaw is initiated. It would seem counterproductive for a change to a bylaw to have to be initiated by the Board since this would give the board control of restrictions placed on it. Conversely if a single individual homeowner can put anything he wants on the ballot it would seem it could get a little anarchical. I would think a petition process would be the best balance with only a few signatures needed. But this still leaves all the other classifications in question.


It appears to me that several items that should have been put in the bylaws were tacked on in the form of a resolution. The applicable definition of a resolution is "4 : a formal expression of opinion, will, or intent voted by an official body or assembled group". This gives the impression the Board simply intends to abide by these resolutions, many of which are required by state law, from what I have seen recently that is probably accurate, they intend to follow the law, but if they don't, oh well.