It always goes back to the governing documents (convenants and by-laws), state laws, state and federal constitutions. One wants a board that knows their documents inside and out, and some institutional memory so some of the potential legal issues an be passed on, unless it is necessary to have the HOA attorney or property manager to come in to make a presentation.
For example, my past HOA neighborhood had restriction on satellite dishes, which when the covenants were written were huge in size compared to today. With the so-called deregulation of cable television and some court cases, that covenant could no longer be enforced. And as good fortune would have it, the size of the dishes were getting smaller. Therefore, placement of the dishes to preserve required architectural standards needed to be developed, written, presented and discussed publicly, modified, re-presented and avote of the board. Then once passed making sure the VOLUNTARY architectural review board was able to respond quickly enough to resident applications for satellite installation review.
I made further comment in #91 above this post. Including most people don’t read the covenants / by-laws .... before they buy, and many don’t read them after they buy. Like many good Americans, they don’t care, just give them what they want now ... except they’ll be the first to call the HOA president on Friday at 10 pm because of something their neighbor is doing.
In our neighborhood back in 2020, we had a newly retired Navy guy and his family move into the neighborhood, they were a black family which is no big deal but in this case, it became a big deal.
The neighbor across from this new resident was a huge Trump Supporter, they kept their Trump/Pence yard sign up until late into 2021.
The New black family across the street must not have been a Trump fan because they put up a Black nationalist flag, all the markings of the American Flag, except the colors were Red, Black, and Green.
Then on Juneteenth, the black family erected this huge yard sign celebrating Juneteenth and the end of slavery.
Shortly after Juneteenth, the white Trump family started flying a “Bonnie Blue” Confederate Flag, most people wouldn’t recognize it, a solid blue flag with one big white star in the middle, I knew immediately what it was and told my wife, now that’s how to escalate things.
Finally the Board got involved and told both sides to take their flags down and stop acting like children in a game of tit for tat, so far the truce is holding.