Board will not let President preside over annual meeting - hiring non-Board related attorney to do so

My POA will have an annual meeting in a few weeks. Our bylaws state, "The President will preside over all meetings of the Association." The President wants to preside but the Board voted 3-1 to hire an attorney to preside in place of the President.

I just talked to the President to confirm all this. She wants to preside but the Board does not want her to preside. She does not know the true motives behind this but the given reason is they do not think she can handle controversy if there is any. The attorney being hired to preside over the meeting is NOT the Board's attorney - it is some attorney the Board director, who is directing all this, knows.

Any thing that can be done about this - or do those 3 just get there way on this?

Techniiicalllly, the right way to do this is for "those 3" to remove the person who is the President and appoint a new President, who agrees to let the attorney preside. (The attorney, who is not of counsel to the HOA, presiding is a stupid move all by itself, but please start another thread to address this.)

Bottom line: While these three are being slovenly, they are a majority, and IMO one way or another they arguably can choose the person who presides. "Arguably" meaning it would be a long drawn out dispute to shut them down. The HOA attorney has to take their side, since they are in the majority.

HOA members vote for the Board of Directors. The Board then votes on the positions of the board held. They can vote to change those positions at any time.

"it is some attorney the Board director, who is directing all this, knows."

What/who is a "Board Director"?

Obviously Roger's BOD does not believe the President is capable of handling the meeting. So be it.

My question is, is it proper for the BOD to bring in another person in to preside be they a lawyer or not.

The moderator of that meeting is the director (Secretary) that is steering all this, not the President. The President was driving in her car during that meeting, and again, the director who is steering all this was the Zoom operator/administrator for that meeting.

The Zoom moderator is the same director who has caused four different directors to quit in the last two years. The same director that many residents literally say they hate...not dislike or not trust, but they literally say "hate."

It might not be the most presidential thing, but it was a Zoom meeting and so anyone can log on and be anywhere (the car, the basement with the TV on mute, the bathroom doing whatever....)

I also forgot about the racist episode - seems the board has at least one person (the secretary) who's causing drama and the president who apparently can't or refuses to stand up to her (this also applies to the remaining board members who are just sitting there and letting all this happen). Maybe the association should just sack the entire lot and start over.

And yes, Roger, YOU may have to throw your hat in the ring and be one of the homeowners who step up - from your questions, I think you KNOW what the problem is and how to resolve them, but may or may not have the nerve to say so to your neighbors. It's hard and scary to be the one who points this out, but the great things that happen in this world usually start with one person. You'll just have to decide if that person is you. In fact, it may be you will have to be the one to get things going, otherwise this will continue.....

I agree.

For the meetings that I run, I have a 30 page powerpoint presentation that we walk through during the 90 minute meeting. It is a pain to make but helps guide the conversation and makes for our meetings to be very purposeful and beneficial and allows us to make good decisions quickly and efficiently.

I cannot imagine trying to run a meeting from the car.