New date: Meeting and Barbecue

Big news! We’ve moved the date of the HOA summer membership meeting and barbecue. We are now meeting on Monday, August 15th at 5 PM in the park. Mark your calendars, because we’re voting on new by-laws!

As you know, the officers surveyed the membership at the January 2022 meeting about updating our by-laws to be current. The following membership poll showed significant interest in updating the by-laws, so the officers pursued getting quotes from local attorneys with expertise in associations like ours.

Last week, our officers met with Isaac Anderson to review our current by-laws. We learned a lot! Here is a summary.

• Our current by-laws are no longer legal in Washington state. We must update the by-laws on file with Kitsap County to be considered a functioning non-profit corporation. Some things have changed since the by-laws were written so long ago!
• We do not need a vice president, an architecture committee, or a finance committee included in our new by-laws. The new board of directors (officers) will include a president, secretary, and treasurer.
• We only need to meet annually, unless the membership needs a special meeting to vote on something specifically.
• We do not need a common area tree clause in our new by-laws.
• We do not need to update any of the “rules” in Article VII at this time. If necessary, we can assess warnings or fines for infractions as written.

As an officer group, we met and reviewed the changes Mr. Anderson proposed and agreed unanimously that we need to update the by-laws to meet Washington’s legal requirements as well as some small changes to help simplify the processes we have to manage our corporation and maintain the neighborhood we live in on behalf of the homeowners.

In the next two weeks, the officer group will meet to review the new proposed by-laws. We will then distribute the new proposed by-laws to the membership digitally for review prior to the meeting. Look for the proposed new by-laws to be sent out the week of August 1st.

At the August 15th meeting, we will:

• Eat burgers and hot dogs and side dishes and desserts!
• Give the treasurer’s report.
• Update the membership on the completion of the common area maintenance and upgrade projects (finished under budget!).
• Update the membership on the new common area tree policy, which was recommended by Mr. Anderson and does not require any voting or changes to by-laws.
• Open the floor for any questions or discussion about the proposed new by-laws.
• Vote on the proposed new by-laws.
• Assuming they are adopted, we will immediately vote to elect the board of directors as required by Washington state law.
  • Becky Keene, Mary Mingels, and Josh Thomsen will run for re-election as board members.
  • Dean Fidecaro has served three years as an officer. He has some personal changes that will make it difficult for him to be involved much of next year, and we are no longer required to have four officers. He will not run for re-election. The duties of vice president will be absorbed by the officer group.
• Assuming they are adopted, celebrate becoming a legal entity again! The new board members will appoint themselves as officers: president, treasurer, and secretary.
• Begin any other new business items offered by members.

Please note that none of these proposed changes will change the way our neighborhood functions. We are taking the advice of the legal expert to revise, modernize, and comply in this process. That’s all!