surveys and board

Started by FranD • 9 replies • 1625 views

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FranD (Georgia)
Posts: 102

Posted:

Board has asked homeowners to serve on Board. Only 1 volunteer. A survey went out for a vote & majority voted NO for this person! Letter went out saying if no one willing to serve, Board will resort to Art 3 sect 4 of the our HOA covenants & appoint this person to the vacancy on the board. Being on the board to fill a position is not what the position needs. It needs a Board who cares! Don't like where the HOA is headed... HELP please

Some responded we are a small HOA - this person was voted off for a reason & leave them off - do something right for us this time. No co-operation from HOA members if the Board keeps doing this. HOA members are beginning to quit coming to meetings. I would be on it again in a heartbeat but Board is mean and I have HBP and they drove me off it first time with their hatefulness. HOA members don't agree with what is going on & the Board doesn't listen to us. How do we get our neighborhood and its board to turn around? Even our social director hasn't done their part for a yr and we don't get together anymore.

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Well, if no one wanted the one volunteer, why didn't someone else (you perhaps?) volunteer intead? You say the HOA members won't cooperate because of the board, but it seems to me that they voted these folks in (that would include you). You also said people don't come to meetings because the Board is mean and don't listed to anyone - so why haven't the rest of you banded together, do a recall and put in folks who will?

Look around this message board and you'll see thread after thread after thread about boards who don't listen, are incompetent, greedy, nosy, nit-picking, and everything else. Yes, there ARE board members and ocassionally entire boards made up of people like this, but Since people are what they are, you'll always find a few people like this in any organization - from Congress to a Girl Scout troup. When you look around at the organizations that turn things around, you'll find that ALL OF THEM did so when the members got up, rolled up their sleeves and did some work. Same thing with your HOA

That is how you'll get the neighborhood and the board to "turn around" - it may not be easy and won't happen overnight, but change doesn't happen simply because you wished for it - you and your neighbors have to roll up your sleeves, get up, go out and do some work. If you cannot or will not do this, well, you get what you deserve (harsh statement, but it's true)

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

FranD (Georgia)
Posts: 102

Posted:

I have already been on the board once and had to drop out due to health reasons that the HOA caused or I would sign up for it again in a heartbeat. I loved it at first. No one has been voting anyone in, the ones who volunteered just came on board to fill vacancies. No one till now has ever been asked in a survey to vote and we all know this person and not a good candidate for board member. Like I say, don't fill a vacancy if just to fill it... It is funny but people won't band together because no one wants to step on anyones toes. Our HOA is a one street neighborhood but very nice brick homes and we all like each other as friends so no one want to get mad over this HOA so they don't band together in that respect. Back to square one I guess.

I understand what you are saying and maybe I will have the nerve to start this conversation in the next meeting and see where it goes. You are right, if no one will do anything, they get what they deserve but hope it doesn't get to that point. Thanks for the input.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Fran,

Every HOA has to deal with this issue in some way or another. Those who are can make the time and volunteer will be the ones who sit on the Board. IF the people don't want a particular person, then someone else needs to step forward and be willing to run against them. Otherwise that person will be elected into office because nobody else stepped forward.

Tim

FredB4 (Ohio)
Posts: 375

Posted:

Do your CC&R's require that a vacant board position be filled ? Ours do. If no one acceptable to the owners is stepping up then I don't blame the board for choosing the only candidate. Actually our CC&R's don't even require that owners vote on candidates unless it is at the yearly annual meeting when they can nominate and vote for board members.
If a vacancy occurs during the rest of the year the position is filled by someone chosen by the present board.
It sounds to me like the board went out of their way to get owner input and only ended up with negative attitudes.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

I agree Fred,. What a nice Board to send out a survey which they probably are not required to do. It all falls into the laps of the members now, to step up, get someone that they approve of to take the position on the Board. Here is this guy who volunteered to take the Board position and no one likes him. Well, I say---TOO BAD! We see this complaint come up every day on the site here, that no one wants to run for the Board so what does a association do when there are no volunteers short of holding a gun to their heads and say--you serve or else we will have to pay someone to run the place. Yeah, hit them in their pockets. That might work.

FranD (Georgia)
Posts: 102

Posted:

Interesting comments and I thought hummmmmm. I believe it says if a vote was cast and voted against, against law to put them on board at that point. I will have to look into the statement you made "position is filled by someone chosen by present board". Can you really pay someone to run? Does this have to be in our CC&R's?

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

What Donna may be referring to is receivership - a REALLY bad thing for HOAs. Basically, if there's no one willing to serve on the board of directors, whoever's left could petition a court to place the association into receivership. IF warranted, the court will appoint someone to run the Association's affairs until the homeowners are able to elect a board and do it themselves.

In the meantime, the homeowners (folk like you) will have to pay for the receiver (they're not cheap) plus association fees and none of you will have any sy in how the association is run (all of you gave that up when no one would volunteer to serve on the board). The receiver only answers to the court, so if he or she feels certain things need to be done and there's not enough money in the operating account and reserves, he/she can issue a special assessment (or two, or three) and now you're paying your association fee, the special assessment AND the receiver's fees. I would imagine there aren't too many people these days whose pocketbooks can handle the strain.

It doesn't sound like your association is in that position, so once again, if no one likes the person who volunteered it seems to me that either (1) you or someone else will have to stop yapping about how horrible the board is and join, (2) band together and do a recall, (3) ask for a special owner's meeting to clear the air about everything or (4)shaddap and siddown. Personally, I opt for #3 to start

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

FredB4 (Ohio)
Posts: 375

Posted:

Since they mentioned article 3 section 4, I was assuming that there is something in there that would allow for them to do that.
Bottom line, everything is in the CC&R's or in your state laws governing HOA's or COA's.
Information on this shouldn't be hard to find and probably is in the bylaws section under something like "officers". Ours contain two sections, one concerning appointing board members at the annual meeting and one that allows the board to fill vacancies between annual meetings. We also can remove any manager for any reason by a majority vote of the board.
Of course bylaws seems to vary from association to association and state to state, so yours may be different.
If you have a property manager then you are already paying someone to run the association, if not that is what I though Donna ment by paying someone.
Shelia brought up an excellent point that I think many associations are not aware of. Your association can be turned over to the courts if there is no one willing to serve on the board and that is a situation you do not want to be in.
Being on a board for 4 years, I wonder about owners who don't like a board member. The owners who don't like me are the ones who don't pick up after their pets, drive over the lawns, store dirty bicycles in the hallways and in general have no respect for the association finances or their co-owners.

FranD (Georgia)
Posts: 102

Posted:

Thanks for your input. Don't like the receivership option. It is not that no one likes the person who volunteered, they just don't like the fact she never shows up for things like meetings especially when they want to run plus they are on the ACC committee and misses those meetings so you can't count on them. Can you really have a recall to vote on them a second time? I like asking for a special HOA meeting to clear the air altho I don't think that will happen. No one will want to rehash that but I shall bring it up. I just volunteered to be on the ACC myself to see what goes on.

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