How to gather support

We are a single family home community of just a bit over 400 lots. Of those lots there are somewhere between 120-140 homes built or under construction. A situation has arisen where we need to make a change in our covenants. Our documents state we need at least 2/3 votes to make a change.

In the past, there has been a very low turnout for election meetings and also low return of proxies for votes. These changes need to be made and made as quickly as possible. So far the residents I have spoken with fully understand the reason for change and fully support it.

Here's the biggie. How to we garner support from the lot owners, who generally do not return the above mentions proxies, to vote to make changes. Most of these owners live in other states. A letter is going out but it is assumed most will make it to the circular file.

Open to any ideas or suggestions.

Mike

We are about to vote for some amendments as well, and the only course of action to take is to hit the streets with your proxies and knock on doors to gather support and proxies. Good luck.

Been there and as you can see, it's NOT easy. I'm not sure why people howl about CCRs, Bylaws, the budget, the Board and everything else related to HOA living, but when they're given the chance to make change, the response is...crickets.

We tried revising our CCRs in 2006, but failed, partly because one of the revisions concerned a rental cap and since most of the homeowners live off-site, they didn't vote. There was a lot to vote on and people can get overwhelmed if you provide them a ton of papers and say "read this and sign" - they get intimidated or lazy (or both) and shut down, doing nothing. Some of our off-site owners also live out of state and it seems the further away they are from the community, the more "out of sight, out of mind" they get. They don't see the everyday problems and usually don't care as long as the rent checks keep coming in.

We also learned later that CCR revision wasn't simply a matter of a simply vote via proxy like our board elections. Our documents require that the ballots be notarized (to ensure the person signing it is actually the homeowner), but we didn't realize that was in there until much later - and by then the vote had pretty much died on the vine.

How to motivate people? Well, let's start with how extensive this change is? Could you have homeowners vote on one or two issues as opposed to say, four or five? It may be easier to prioritize what needs to be done first, get that vote done and then do another one later this year or next. While you're at it, consider asking homeowners to vote on reducing the approval percentage, say, from 75% to 51%. If you're able to do this now, it'll be easier to get the other votes done because you won't need as many people and not be hamstrung by the people who just don't give a damn anyway.

Keep talking about the vote as much as possible in every venue possible - put something on your website, if you have one, discuss it at board meetings, put something in the newsletter, along with a running total (that could encourage people to vote if they see their side needs more support. Since you have a lot of off-site voters, you could also check with your attorney to see if the documents allow electronic voting - that may get some of the out of state people.

After a while, don't be surprised to find you'll need to send another letter, maybe two, to the people who still haven't cast a vote. The board may also need to get on the phone and call some people or walk around the neighborhood to solicit votes - try to get some other homeowners to help so they can also provide reasons why the changes are necessary.

If your votes need to be notarized, see if you can have someone available at the next few Board meetings so people can drop in and cast the vote (put them in an area so they won't be disruptive to the rest of the proceedings).

Finally, explain the reason for the change in plain English - this is the problem, this is why our current CCRs don't address it adequately (or there's nothing in the CCR that does), this is the proposed change and here's the benefit - and what could/will happen without it. Put that on some sort of information sheet and distribute it to the homeowners with the ballot - and make sure extra copies are available at Board meetings. Good luck!

Thanks for the responses. We are not under developer control and have not been for many years.

I like the stamped, self addressed envelopes. That may encourage participation.

Changing the majority needed from 66% (2/3) to 51% for future doesn't really sound like a good idea. I don't believe making it easy to change CCR's would be the best.

Will look into whether or not ballots need to be notarized.

There will be an informational letter going out. I am not sure at this time if proxies will be included or if proxies come later.

This is for changing (removing) one item only from covenants, not a vote for many items.

I don't know if the lower requirement for a quorum applies for this issue. The CCR's clearly state 2/3 needed for amendment When we have our annual meeting this does apply and is used regularly.

Mike