Five (5) Member Board - Defining Terms of Office

Off the top of my head, I would go for two year terms and every year 2 or 3 are turning over. This may require an adjustment when initiated such as the 3 highest vote getters will serve a two year term and the lowest 2 vote getters will serve a one year term. Example:

2018 members A B C D E
2019 A B seats up for election
2020 C D E seats up for election
2021 the above repeats with A B seats up for election

Also clarify that if the BOD appoints someone to fill a vacancy that they fill out the term of the vacancy. This will keep the above in sync.

We also use staggered terms and ran into the same problem when we lost track of when board members came on, whether they were succeeding someone and when that person’s term was up. We rarely had anyone run against current board members (it was and still is extremely difficult to get anyone to serve), so everyone ended up continuing their term. We usually made quorum at the annual meeting thanks to proxies and since no one wrote in candidates or volunteered from the floor, we’d make a motion to accept the current board members by acclamation and then summarize all this in the annual meeting minutes and next newsletter. To this day, no one’s objected.

Anyway, when it was time to plan an annual meeting and a number of board members couldn’t remember when they started, we (well, I did) went through about four years of Board meeting minutes, as they listed if someone was appointed, resigned or reelected, so we were able to determine subsequent end dates from that.

Board terms are for three years, so, for example, if someone was appointed in 2007 to serve out the term of another whose term was up in 2009, he or she would have been up for re-election in 2010, 2013 and 2016. I left the board in 2014, so I can only assume this has continued.

I'll be the odd man out here, our docs don't call for staggered terms, we elect the entire board every year. The continuity issue hasn't been a problem so far (almost 20 years since turnover), rarely do incumbent board members who are running get voted out. At least a couple of board members have always been re-elected, and usually more like 3 to 5 (out of 5).

I'm for and against staggered terms.

I understand the reasoning and based on that, I'm for it.

However, it's hard enough to get volunteers to serve a one year term and when the two year terms come up for election, it may be tougher to find those willing to commit.

Thanks everyone for your input ; over the last several years we've had property manager turnover and good records weren't kept - someone mentioned putting the most recent information about terms of office in the annual meeting minutes and the newsletter , good idea - unit owners have historically shown little interest in being on the BOD and typically incumbents continue to serve but I feel that if the bylaws have the rules outlining the terms of office and we keep good records going forward , then it's not a big deal if the same people end up on the BOD every year .

thanks again for your time !!!!

Curious if anyone else, like DouglasK1, has entire Board elections every year and how that has worked for you.

We currently attempt 3-year staggered terms with 3 board members, but it has always been a challenge. Resignations essentially negate the intent of the 3 year terms and staggering. It's also always been a challenge getting volunteers to run each year (from among 100 homes). I see several benefits w/ the 1-year terms:
- More attractive to people who don't want to commit to a 3-year term.
- Simpler to get rid of an undesirable, unproductive Board Member (by voting them out at next election).
- Good, motivated Board Members are likely to win elections, and are encouraged to advocate for themselves and stay motivated if they want to stay on the Board.

I think we may actually be neighbors, ND. Many attempts here over the years to make sure the terms of directors are staggered but it never lasts long and resignations are the reason why. We also have severe challenges getting volunteers to run each year. Nobody has actually had to "run" for the last 5 years since there haven't been more candidates than seats open. As a result, if someone wants to be on the board and they've got a pulse, they're on for a 2 year term (assuming they don't resign before it's over). We also have 100 homes. Are you SURE you don't live here?

We had a rougue board for a while the treasurer was running everything and about spent us out. She had someone on paper to be president but she ran everything and he resigned. Now there's a lot of questions where money went. Oh and did I mention she destroyed all the hard copies of files of our HOA history, repairs, vendors , minutes, meetings etc. Anyway, we had to elect a new 5 member board. One person has lived in the development 27 years (me) the other 4 less than a year. Talking about a hot mess. The finances were so messed , we couldn't do 2013, 2014 audits. Payments had not been applied to accounts. But we are getting back on track and trying to get some of our money back.
We have a five member board though our bylaws only state we need a president and treasurer, and terms of one year. We have a President, VP-Architectural Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and one non-dutied for breaking ties in votes.

Tracye, directors and officers don't mean the same thing. Look again at your bylaws to see how many directors (members of the board) you need. Might be five; might be a range.