By Greg Ellison

Staff Writer

(Dec. 12, 2019) Efforts to solidify procedures for amending Ocean Pines Association resolutions inched closer to fruition following a first reading last week of an attachment to resolution B-01 to clarify the reporting process to the board.

Bylaws & Resolutions Committee Chairman Jim Trummel presented the B-01 amendment to the board of directors last Wednesday.

“What you have before you is an amendment to resolution B-01,” he said. “That attachment provides guidance in the preparation and processing of amendments to resolutions in the book of resolutions.”

Trummel said the book of resolutions was established by the bylaws committee.

“Virtually everything came through the committee starting back in 2009,” he said, “That resulted in what we now have as the book of resolutions.”

Tracing back a decade, Trummel said little emphasis was given to the process of turning a thought into an actionable amendment, because the bylaws committee controlled the activity.

“Now that’s changed,” he said. “We’re up into a situation where we’re in a maintenance mode.”

In recent years, a number of proposed changes or revisions have been generated outside the bylaws committee.

“More recently, you’ve seen an amendment to resolution F-03, which added the new capital reserve account,” he said. “Now you have the M-01 compliance resolution that’s under review because there appears to be a need to change policy and operations in the compliance area of our association.”

Trummel said there have been concerns about perceived difficulties in the amendment process.

“Over a year ago, the committee started to see what we felt was an uneven, disorganized, confused process of getting a resolution amendment started through to completion and approval,” he said.

Since that point, the bylaws committee membership has developed guidance to streamline the procedures.

“In the initial thinking, we were going to develop … a pamphlet to distribute to the board members, staff, committees and any other parties who may be the ones who initiate or who desire to bring about a change to a resolution,” he said. “That’s evolved into making a more formal part of the book of resolutions in the B-01 resolution.”

The bylaws membership fully supported the changes, Trummel said.

“All of us on the committee agreed it wasn’t working right,” he said. “It was a complete committee effort that has put this together.”

OPA President Doug Parks said the bulk of resolution B-01 would remain intact regardless of the proposed amendment.

“What the intent here is to add the resolution amendment procedure,” he said.

Subsequent to the board meeting on Dec. 4, last Friday, the bylaws committee prepared a second reading of the measure that could be heard at the board meeting in January .

Bylaws and Resolutions Committee Chairman Jim Trummel gave a breakdown on a proposed amendment to resolution B-01 during the board of directors meeting on Dec. 4.