The 2017 amendment to the bylaws was unusual, in that it made extensive changes to the bylaws in one amendment.  Here is a summary of the changes. The most significant changes are in bold.  All the changes are shown verbatim in the document below.  

• Changes Affecting Governance

  1. Article IV, Section 2

     • Specifies the annual meeting may be any time in May (rather than always on the third Monday) and that the annual budget meeting may be any time in December.

  2. Article IV, Section 6

     • Specified who is entitled to vote, when a unit has multiple owners or an institutional owner.

  3. Article IV, Section 7

     • Makes it much more difficult to revoke a proxy, by requiring actual notice to the officer presiding at the meeting, and stipulating that a proxy that purports to be revocable without notice is invalid. 

     • Places other restrictions on proxies, including requirement that they be dated, limitation on duration to one year, can only be given to another owner (no longer to spouse), prohibits transfer, and stipulates termination upon sale of unit.

  4. Article IV, Section 10

     • Effectively reduces quorum for meetings from 50% of owners to 20%.

  5. Article IV, Section 11

     • Stipulates use of Robert's Rules of Order

     • Stipulates that the presiding office at the annual meeting of the owners  may change the order of business without approval of the owners (previously could only be changed by owners in attendance)

  6. Article V, Section 1

     • Removes requirement that members of Council live in the building or personally own a unit.

     • Stipulates only one Council members from each unit

     • Stipulates Council members who miss three meetings without a reason may be removed by unanimous vote of other members.

  7. Article V, Section 9

     • Stipulates use of Robert's Rules of Order for Council meetings.

  8. Article VI, Section 1:

     • Stipulates that officers must me members of Council

     • Removes requirement that president and vice-president must have lived in the building for one year, and adds requirement that they must have served on Council for one year.

  9. Article VI, Section 10:

     • Weakens prohibition on Council members receiving compensation by specifying that only monetary compensation is prohibited.

  10. Article IX, Section 3

      • Stipulates that Council members with a financial conflict of interest may be counted for quorum at a Council meeting, as long as they disclose the conflict, but may not participate in discussion or voting on the matter. 

• Changes Affecting Sales and Leasing

  1. Article VIII, Section 2

     • Redefines immediate family to include nieces and nephews

     • Prohibits assignment by tenants, in addition to subleasing

     • Stipulates that all leases must be for exactly one year

     • Allows Council to make rules and regulations regarding leasing of units

     • Allows Council to give priority to owners seeking to lease units based on seniority as owners

     • Prohibits Council from charging fees to owners who lease their units

     • Requires owners to have resided in their unit for one year before being allowed to lease

     • Eliminates leasing restrictions on owners who had been leasing prior to May 15, 1995 or who entered legal settlements with Council.

     • Prohibits short term rentals (e.g. AirBnB)

  2. Article VIII, Section 3

     • Adds marriage as exception to limitation on owning more than two units (in addition to prior exception of inheritance)

  3. Article VIII, Section 4

     • Stipulates that a unit owned by an institutional owner can only be occupied by someone with a relationship to that entity, such as the beneficiary of a trust or the owner of another legal entity.  This extends to family members.

     • Removed prohibition on extended presence of non-family guests.

  4. Article VIII, Section 5

     • Limits use of units to residential purposes, and prohibits commercial activity.  

  5. Article VIII, Section 6

     • Requires written approval for repairs alterations, and additions.

• Changes Affecting Rules

  1. Article XVI

     • Makes more strict the requirement that units be carpeted, effectively requiring wall to wall carpeting in the event of renovations.  

• Other Changes

  1. Article XIV

     • Stipulates that pronouns are gender neutral.

  2. Article XVIII

     • Allows Council to establish procedures for alternative dispute resolution.