Changing Bylaws to allow POAs to be Board Members

The annual meeting took place this evening and the president has quit, effective immediately. Since there were no nominations or volunteers present, a previous president was guilted into volunteering to fill the remaining year as president. I am not an owner of record. I am the owner's POA and am active in our HOA and attend all the meetings. Historically, it has been difficult to attract new board members in this small, 42 unit development of which about half of the units are owned by immigrants for whom English is not their first language.

Can the bylaws of our HOA be amended to allow POAs to be board members? Like myself, there is another POA here who would also like be a board member.

So, the members elect officers at the annual meeting? Normally, only directors are elected at annual member meetings... and then directors elect officers.

If no one wants to be on the Board, perhaps it’s time to fold ... or hire an MC and bill everyone?

JayD5, it was another HOA where the I lived where the Bylaws did not require directors to be members of the HOA. It comes up here from time to time, and people have reported similar experiences. Here's all I would be able to present.

-- Amendments of Bylaws are appropriate as long as they do not violate federal law, state law or municipal law or case law. The courts look to what the Bylaws and CC&Rs say and also want to see "reasonable and fair."

-- I presume your HOA is incorporated. Parallels between corporate shareholders and HOA members are drawn all the time in case law. (Both shareholders and HOA members own property of the corporation jointly.) You could observe to your HOA Board that corporations with shareholders generally do not require that the directors be shareholders.

-- Advise the board to consult a HOA attorney. The first thing the attorney will do is scour your governing documents and Vermont law (https://www.hopb.co/vermont/) for HOAs.

In Florida, if the governing documents require directors to be members then someone holding a POA may not be on the board. As others have said, you could amend your documents to allow certain non-members to be eligible for the board unless Vermont prohibits it.