Elections-annual meeting- quorum-FLorida

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

720.306 Meetings of members; voting and election procedures; amendments.—
(1) QUORUM; AMENDMENTS.—
(a) Unless a lower number is provided in the bylaws, the percentage of voting interests required to constitute a quorum at a meeting of the members shall be 30 percent of the total voting interests. Unless otherwise provided in this chapter or in the articles of incorporation or bylaws, decisions that require a vote of the members must be made by the concurrence of at least a majority of the voting interests present, in person or by proxy, at a meeting at which a quorum has been attained.
2) ANNUAL MEETING.—The association shall hold a meeting of its members annually for the transaction of any and all proper business at a time, date, and place stated in, or fixed in accordance with, the bylaws. The election of directors, if one is required to be held, must be held at, or in conjunction with, the annual meeting or as provided in the governing documents.
9) ELECTIONS AND BOARD VACANCIES.—
(a) An election is not required unless more candidates are nominated than vacancies exist.

three vacancies three candidates- no election...agreed...... confusion comes if quorum required to have annual meeting, send proxies and certificate to owners to meet quorum,

Aren't proxies and quorum for voting and if we aren't having an election then we are not voting?

Thanks for your replies..

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Concerned,

Quorums are required at a meeting in order to conduct business, any business. Even if you had 20 candidates and 1 vacancy, if you do not have a quorum, then an election may not be held, votes on amendments can't be held, official discussions of policies or other issues can not be done (but informal discussions would be allowed).

A proxy enables a member to appoint another individual to attend a meeting and act on their behalf. If there is a vote at the meeting, then the proxy representative would also cast a vote on the members behalf.

As a quorum is the minimum number of owners/lots/units that must be present to conduct business, and proxies represent members/lots/units, the Board is encouraging members to attend or assign a proxy so the Association can achieve a quorum at the meeting at conduct business (make decisions).

Since the statute you cited indicates elections aren't required if the number of candidates equals (or is less then) the number of vacancies, this is called acclamation or unanimous consent, and expecting that nominations from the floor are not accepted, then your board and announced candidates have decided that the election will be determined by acclamation. However, you can't do that unless you first have a quorum to ask that question.

Example: "As there are only 3 candidates and 3 vacancies, unless there are objections, these individuals are your new board members"

If you do not have a quorum, FL 617.0806 comes into play and the existing directors would stay in office. Then at the next board meeting, those who's terms were up would resign and the remaining board members would appoint those candidates to the vacant seats.

Hope this helps,

Tim

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

Tim, thank you.

Our current board is in place due to unusual circumstances: all of the past board abruptly resigned, and in doing so said this group "who will soon be your board" (appointed?). We had begun a recall; Long story, with conflict, but we placed an interim board- until the election, now the interim board are the only ones to apply for the positions.

I felt that it was not necessary for the quorum at annual meeting because no decisions are going to be made, due to the fact that the statute states no election/vote. Done deal. No asking required.

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

Tim, thank you.

Our current board is in place due to unusual circumstances: all of the past board abruptly resigned, and in doing so said this group "who will soon be your board" (appointed?). We had begun a recall; Long story, with conflict, but we placed an interim board- until the election, now the interim board are the only ones to apply for the positions.

I felt that it was not necessary for the quorum at annual meeting because no decisions are going to be made, due to the fact that the statute states no election/vote. Done deal. No asking required.

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

Tim, thank you.

Our current board is in place due to unusual circumstances: all of the past board abruptly resigned, and in doing so said this group "who will soon be your board" (appointed?). We had begun a recall; Long story, with conflict, but we placed an interim board- until the election, now the interim board are the only ones to apply for the positions.

I felt that it was not necessary for the quorum at annual meeting because no decisions are going to be made, due to the fact that the statute states no election/vote. Done deal. No asking required.

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

Tim, thank you.

Our current board is in place due to unusual circumstances: all of the past board abruptly resigned, and in doing so said this group "who will soon be your board" (appointed?). We had begun a recall; Long story, with conflict, but we placed an interim board- until the election, now the interim board are the only ones to apply for the positions.

I felt that it was not necessary for the quorum at annual meeting because no decisions are going to be made, due to the fact that the statute states no election/vote. Done deal. No asking required.

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

Tim, thank you.

Our current board is in place due to unusual circumstances: all of the past board abruptly resigned, and in doing so said this group "who will soon be your board" (appointed?). We had begun a recall; Long story, with conflict, but we placed an interim board- until the election, now the interim board are the only ones to apply for the positions.

I felt that it was not necessary for the quorum at annual meeting because no decisions are going to be made, due to the fact that the statute states no election/vote. Done deal. No asking required.

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

Tim, thank you.

Our current board is in place due to unusual circumstances: all of the past board abruptly resigned, and in doing so said this group "who will soon be your board" (appointed?). We had begun a recall; Long story, with conflict, but we placed an interim board- until the election, now the interim board are the only ones to apply for the positions.

I felt that it was not necessary for the quorum at annual meeting because no decisions are going to be made, due to the fact that the statute states no election/vote. Done deal. No asking required.

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

ConcernedH (Florida)
Posts: 14

Posted:

hiccup apologies

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ConcernedH on 09/22/2016 5:55 AM

Aren't quorums are only needed for amending docs, assessment increase, and elections.> whenever members vote
Other than that, the Board makes the decisions?

No. As I pointed out, quorums are needed to have a meeting.

If you do not have a quorum, the only options are:

1) adjourn the meeting
2) suspend the meeting to a later date or time in hopes to obtain a quorum.

Rather then a simple definition of a quorum I provided earlier, you may want to review the following:

Meeting Moment – What is a quorum and what can you do without one? from a FL attorney website

Quorum from Roberts Rules of Order

Nuts and Bolts of Community Association Elections from a Northern Virginia attorney.

By the way, even with three seats and three candidates, you are still having an election at the meeting. You are simply not utilizing ballots for voting and are voting by acclamation or unanimous consent. (see previous posting and click on the words for definition links).