When Robert's Rules does not control

The order of authority

Five things can answer a procedural question at your association, and they rank in a strict order. First, your state's statute: the HOA, condominium, or nonprofit corporation act your legislature wrote. Second, your declaration or CC&Rs. Third, your bylaws. Fourth, any resolution or rule your board has formally adopted. Fifth and last, Robert's Rules: the parliamentary authority most governing documents name to fill whatever the first four leave silent.

Robert's Rules never climbs that ladder. It cannot require your board to do something your bylaws forbid, and it cannot repair a defect your state statute created. If a source higher on the list has already answered the question, that source wins, no matter how clearly Robert's Rules seems to say otherwise.

Your bylaws already decided most of this

Most governing documents do not leave this to chance. They name a parliamentary authority directly, usually Robert's Rules, and require the board to follow it at meetings.

"Most community association documents require the board to use parliamentary procedure at annual and special meetings."

Source: Parliamentary Procedure: Why Robert's Rules HOA Meetings, CAI / HOAresources

Read that sentence carefully: the documents require it. Robert's Rules is only on the page because your bylaws put it there, which is exactly why it can never outrank the bylaws that invited it in. If your bylaws set a vote threshold, a notice period, or a seconding rule that differs from Robert's Rules, the bylaws control every time.

State law wins even over your own documents

A statute sits above everything else on the list, including your declaration and bylaws. If your state's HOA or nonprofit corporation act sets a rule for how the board must vote, give notice, or count a quorum, that rule controls even where your bylaws or Robert's Rules say something different. Exactly what your state requires for board voting, meeting notice, and quorum varies widely. Read your state's HOA or nonprofit corporation act, or ask your association's attorney, rather than assuming Robert's Rules' default applies.

Where your bylaws are silent on which edition to use, the guidance is straightforward:

"The association should choose a version of Robert's that it likes and stick with it."

Source: Parliamentary Procedure: Why Robert's Rules HOA Meetings, CAI / HOAresources

Pick one edition and keep using it. Consistency, not the specific edition, is what keeps procedure predictable from one meeting to the next.