Hate-filled emails from Board members

Arva,

I expect that you mean general membership meetings (where the whole membership is invited) are held twice a year (vs Board meetings).

Is the behavior you describe acceptable? No, of course not (and I believe you know that).

Is the behavior you describe common? Sometimes, yes. We are all human and typically become defensive when challenged. Some individuals can quickly get past this defensiveness and some will carry it for years. If your entire Board is acting this way, the only way to stop it is gather support and remove them or simply not reelect them. This will also require others who are willing to do the job they are doing (perhaps you will volunteer).

I echo what Larry said.

Harassment of members who legitimately complain and follow procedures is common at many HOAs. The harassment may be actionable in court if it invades privacy; puts the recipient in a false light before others; slanders the recipient; is intended to inflict distress; and so on. Many states also have statutes detailing when harassment is a criminal offense.

Thanks for this. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of residents willing to participate in any HOA issues, so it would be almost impossible to gather enough support for a recall. I know I don't have the time nor the energy to spend on that huge task. Additionally, no one wants the job. We're stuck with this horrible Board until re-election time.

So, Arva, Board meetings are not open to homeowners? And that's the law in your state, i.e., board meetings can be closed to members (h'ownrs)?

How many board members do your bylaws say you must have?

Unless you're willing to follow Larry's advice, it seems like your option is to prepare for the annual meeting and round up some Owners who are willing to serve on the Board.

Fair point, John. Maybe the Board has had to deal with additional things I'm unaware of. However, for any conflict resolution, especially between neighbors you see every day, I would expect leaders to exercise a more professional way to handle it. Their responses seemed pretty harsh and my respect for them has gone downhill (not that it matters).

When I left being President the new board was made up of the very people I was protecting the rest of the neighborhood from. They were some of the most selfish short sided people. Also did not help they were manipulated by a con-man. The very one I had stopped from taking advantage of the HOA and neighbors. (The reason he wanted me out).

My HOA became a rental property and I volunteered to be only a board member to help in the transition. The new board as expected became very venomous people and even spent all the HOA money before knowing the budget. One even threatened me and tried to attack me physically. They went door to door telling lies about me. I had tried to stop an illegal special assessment they were misrepresenting. I went so far to hire a lawyer. He wrote them a letter forcing them to take the proper necessary vote for the project.

Anyways as you can imagine, this board did it's best to disgrace me. It was shameful. However, after they lied about the special assessment details, me, and increased their term so could not be removed... People woke up. I even had the new President calling me and apologizing. Multiple members approached me informing me of being wrong. They told me some of the vicious unfounded lies that had been told about me. Some were really funny or sad...

Sometimes you have to expose the real ugliness of people to see their ugly. I feel like others will also have the same view as you on this situation. You can't tell people this is how these people are. You have to let them experience it themselves. I think in time as long as this person they are "attacking" doesn't go to their level, will succeed. I didn't let their lies and misinformation bring me to their level. I held my own. Eventually, it was all exposed and people got more involved in the HOA to monitor them.

It really was me, ArvaF, who responded. The system must have picked up the wrong login.

I'm also confused on both counts: meetings and Chuck. System glitch?

I can't find anything in our By Laws or state law that requires a certain number of meetings except this: RCW 64.38.035
Association meetings—Notice—Board of directors.
(1) A meeting of the association must be held at least once each year.

So far we've held the Turnover Meeting, the Member Meeting, and a Board (Budget)/Special Meeting. I don't have the minutes from the Board meeting yet, but I thought I heard that the Board plans to hold two meetings per year--Member Meeting and the Board (Budget) Meeting.

From our By Laws:
Meetings of the members of the Association shall be held at such reasonable place convenient to the members as may be designated in the notice of the meeting.

Meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held at such place as may be designated from time to time by the Board of Directors or other persons calling the meeting.

Annual meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held within 60 days following the adjournment of the annual meetings of the members.

Special Meetings of the Board of Directors for any purpose or purposes may be called at any time by the President or by any two Directors.

I'm also checking with our Property Management company for clarification in case I've missed something. Hope this helps.

Until I see the letter sent, I would refrain from calling it hate mail. Maybe it did call a spade a spade and it upset somes of the spades.

We have an owner or two that are PIA's at meetings and are always spreading false rumors. They have been chided in letters from the BOD and I assume they might well call it hate mail.

The reason that most Boards seem to be required to meet 4X year is that in some states, CA, for instance, the Board must meet, by statute, that often to review the financial docs. Those meetings must be open for Owners (members) to attend.

You've cited your Bylaw requirements about special mtgs of the Board. But do they say nothing about regular meetings"? Assuming you're incorporated, WA corporations codes may have some requirement about numbers of regular meeting per year. The reason I'm following up on this topic is that I haven't noticed posters here having no regular meeting of the board stated in their Bylaws. But perhaps your HOA is quite small. How many homes/units are there?

You also mentioned there are 4 directors, which is an unusual number for bylaws to require. What, exactly, do yours say about required number of directors?

Along with JohnC & ND, it doe seem as though it might be best for everyone if you try to find a way to work WITH your board. Maybe offer to start a committee or edit a newsletter if you have the time & interest