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GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276
Posted:
My HOA will have its Annual Meeting in late January. Customarily there is a short Board of Directors meeting that immediately precedes it. Likewise, there is usually a short organizational meeting of the new board that immmediately follows the Annual Meeting so that the new board may elect Officers.

Can three notices, one for each of the separate meetings, be combined on one sheet of paper? Seems like an easy question to answer but I've never thought about this before. In the 4+ years that I've been here this is the first Annual Meeting where we'll have a competitive election with 5 people vying for 4 open seats.

I reviewed our Bylaws and chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes and I don't see anything that says each meeting Notice has to be on a separate sheet of paper. Does anyone have any thoughts about it? What's required in California, for example? CA laws seem very close to FL when it comes to HOAs and Condos (not identical, obviously).
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059
Posted:
Yes, they can be combined.
GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276
Posted:
Thanks, Tim. Another question re. proxies...

I've seen sample proxy forms (I think you posted it, Tim) where the unit/homeowner can fill-in-the-blank and specify his/her proxyholder by name. If that's left blank then the proxy is assigned to the "Board of Directors". How does that work? With a General proxy does the board have to vote on how to vote the proxy? They'd have to do that at a board meeting and not at the actual Annual Members Meeting, correct? I've also seen proxies that default to "the President" or "the Secretary", which are self-explanatory, but assigning "the Board" as the proxyholder seems confusing.

We're relying on ballot and proxy language that's 5 years old for pertinent language to use in the upcoming election materials. It's a mess. For instance, this was from the previous Annual Meeting Info Packet when there were 4 vacant seats and only 2 candidates:

"NO PROXIES OR BALLOTS FOR BOARD MEMBERS ARE NECESSARY THIS YEAR AS THERE ARE LESS VOLUNTEERS FOR THE BOARD THAN VOLUNTEER CANDIDATES."



More cruft and slop that needs to be cleaned up. Shoot me now.
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059
Posted:
Our Board always voted prior to the annual meeting on how to vote any general proxies they received.
Typically it was for/against proposals the board had already discussed and for all declared candidates (we accept nominations from the floor).
It's not a requirement to vote, but it's a good idea.

The board will typically appoint one or two directors to handle the proxies assigned to them.
Remember, assigning a proxy to the Secretary or the President allows that one individual to control those votes.

You always need proxies. At the very least, you may need them for a quorum.

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