Bylaws
Ideas for your Bylaws: Words of Wisdom provides practical language for your governing documents.
Do your bylaws include similar language? If not, please consider it for your next amendment or restatement. Want help with a restatement? Click here.
EXAMPLES: What's in the Bylaws?
Bylaws have the least to do with the physical construction of your community (condo vs. townhomes vs. single family homes) and the most to do with its governance structure (board composition, meetings, quorums, voting, etc.)
Basics for all meetings of the association including members / owners, the Board and committees (quorum, place & time, notice, etc.)
Board and Committee composition (who can serve, term limits, elections, removals, vacancies, officer roles, etc.)
Voting
Ethics, oath of office and conflicts of interest clauses (highly recommended; statutorily required in a select states)
Communications Policy (read Bylaws Words of Wisdom)
THE DECLARATION PREVAILS
Many state statutes directly establish the hierarchy of governance like this: If a conflict exists between the declaration and the organizational documents, the declaration prevails except to the extent the declaration is inconsistent with this chapter.
Declarations / CC&Rs, bylaws, rules and regulations and more will never be perfect, but they can be significantly improved in a number of ways. Amending and restating these documents is often prudent and even necessary.
WHY Restate Your Governing Documents?
Developers ("declarants") leave room for substantial improvement
Laws change. Community associations benefit from written material that complies with current law
Amendments over years or decades create hanging chads and an unintuitive soup of requirements
Codify material changes reflecting best practices and community idiosyncrasies by a vote of the members
ABOUT Restating your Declaration & Bylaws
Restatements (often called amendments and restatements) create a single, fresh copy of your governing documents
While not required, your declaration and bylaws are often restated concurrently because they have inter-dependencies
Amendments and restatements to adopt RCW 64.90 (WUCIOA) require a 67% affirmative vote of the members
Bylaws amendments may have a lower threshold, but cannot update several fundamental elements
Limited amendments may be enacted by the Board without a vote of owners pursuant to RCW 64.90.285(11).
The steps to restate are similar to the steps to amend, but the volume of content updated is much greater
You must retain professional AND volunteer assistance!
Restatements are not a DIY activity, but they should absolutely involve homeowner volunteers
Volunteers must be prepared to review an immense amount of material.
One or more incredibly involved volunteer(s) makes all the difference.
Engage a professional who can actively engage your volunteers through all the steps, provide clear options, and recommendations.
Engaging an attorney is best left for the end of the process to dot the "I's" and cross the "T's."
Carefully review all recommendations!
Template-based language is efficient, but may contain restrictions that do not suit your community.
There are items you might not catch until you review material more than once.
Using a collaborative, web-based content management system helps immensely.
STEPS to Amend and Restate your Declaration & Bylaws
Get help! 🛟 Amendments and restatements are not DIY engagements.
Write down WHY: list specific goals, provide example language to incorporate, and identify problem areas in existing documents.
Make sure your owners are informed early in the process. Encourage owner comment and participation.
Form a governing documents committee.
Committees, especially those including 2+ non-Board member volunteers, promote owner-centric processes.
Volunteer engagement often has the added benefit of reducing professional assistance, thereby reducing the amount of time and cost required to achieve superlative results.
Putting your owners at the center of the process makes sense when you need a 67% super-majority to approve the changes.
Identify one or two committee volunteers to drive the process forward. Meet regularly, keep minutes and share progress in open Board meetings. Keep detailed notes as you work through the governing documents (queue content management!)
Once your committee work wraps up, engage in Board review and vote to move forward.
Engage an attorney only when you're ready.
Explain what you've accomplished.
If you're going to exchange revisions, ensure you have an easy way to track changes and recommendations.
Make time to engage in one or more meetings. Email threads might limit your progress and lead to errors and omissions.
No detail is unimportant! Your declaration / CC&Rs runs with the land. Your bylaws manage how you govern. Get them right!
After finalizing revisions, package everything up with an executive summary document.
Most owners are not going to read dozens of pages of material. Create a summary of the most noteworthy changes.
Communicate. Communicate. Communicate with your owners. Get out the vote!
Schedule a special meeting of members (owners) to review the material.
Maximize engagement by using an electronic voting / balloting system.
Struggling to reach 67% (or other threshold)? Ask volunteers to engage owners individually via phone and email. It works!
Aim for a small margin of votes above and beyond the 67% threshold.
Mission accomplished?!
Meticulously document and retain voting records.
Have your declaration and bylaws restatements signed by two directors and notarized.
Submit your declaration / CC&Rs for recording by your county government.
