An activity will soon begin to identify ways to improve the Parkwood Bylaws, the rules governing our home owners association. A copy of these bylaws, established in 1986 when the developer substantially controlled all activities until most homes were purchased by our residents, are posted at this web site and will also be posted I am told at the association's web site.

You are invited to ask questions about the bylaws, and with considered perspective, discuss ways to improve them. This can be easily done by posting a response to this discussion note, and all comments will then be linked and available for others to review and comment on.

So long as the discussion remains civil, the contents of our discussions will remain posted and available for your view and comment.

Any and all good ideas are invited.

Some Recommended Changes

One-
Put Bylaw Stuff in the Bylaws and Take It Out of the Covenants.
There seems to be overlapping of what is in the bylaws and the covenants (declarations of restrictions). One action would be to move anything that really belongs in the bylaws out of the covenants, leaving the bylaws to address how the HOA operates and the covenants to speak about what rules run with the properties for maintenance, upkeep, etc.

Another one-
Increase the number of directors on the board, split the jobs of secretary and treasurer, redefine the executive powers of the president and vice-president so that they are responsible for enforcing the bylaws and the covenants and also that each do have some specific (separate) jobs they must do (besides the VP only acting in the absence of the P, for example).

Another one-
Cut down to reasonable size the percentage of property owners of the HOA required to vote for a change to the bylaws or covenants. Today it requires 75% (seems extraordinarily high) of owners to make a change! Same with the covenants.

Another one-
Mandate economical performance of the HOA, such as using emails and electronic documents which do not have to be copied, just emailed, for all documentation, reduces costs to members for information about board activity, providing for posting of information at Parkwood web sites to inform members near real-time of activities, etc.