how to respectifully stand up and trash a Board Member running for reelection?

Started by AdamL1 • 23 replies • 872 views

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AdamL1 (UnitedStates)
Posts: 559

Posted:

Upcoming annual meeting and several board members are re-running.

Looking for advice for how to stand up and challenge and educate the Membership about all the failings of the Board over the last year without breaking normal rules of conduct. Is there generally a open statement section before elections? how to get this in front of people?

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

-- Are you targeting solely one person? If so, I have seen a negative attack on one candidate backfire massively, with people hating those who put the negative info out. That the negative information is fact that is easily verified may be irrelevant.

-- If you still want to trash the one director, I recommend a mass mailing of a single sheet of paper, one side, with five bullet points, in large font, with just the facts and free of emotion.

-- Maybe run what you want to say by the members here at hoatalk? This could be a lively thread.

-- If there is some kind of "meet the candidates' night" or other open forum dedicated to the election, one can read from the flyer and pass out copies of it.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Good luck on that "education" everyone loves to be told what their opinion should be as long as it matches yours...

Simply put if you don't bring a copy of the rules to the meeting then your talkinng out your behind anyways.

Former HOA President

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

May voting only be done in the annual meeting of the members? Or can votes be sent in by mail or electronically in advance of the meeting? How many candidates for how many openings? Are all incumbents eligible for reelection seeking the slot?

IF voting is done only AT the meeting, it might make sense to make a strong statement in favor of candidates you prefer saying why they are best for your community. But, they may be no agenda item for such speeches. Negative rants, anyway, at a meeting about one or more incumbents will mainly upset voters and even turn them against you & your candidates,

IF owners may vote before the meeting, craft a colorful and succinct flyer about why owners should vote for your preferred candidates. Distribute it to every owner occupied home and mail it to offsite owners.

Ideally, as in many associations, there would be a Candidates Night, where each gives a very short review of their qualifications, perhaps several questions written by owners (anon.) that go to each candidate to respond to, and finally an open period who owns can ask question from the floor. But it's up to the board whether to hold one. I'd say try your best to encourage owners to ask the Board for such an event.

Perhaps you can encourage your preferred candidates to run as a "slate," with a letter or flyer going out from all, let's say, three, of them with their pics and the values they share to improve your community. They also, however, should note that they each are "independent thinkers." They should mention the three or four main changes they want to initiate without EVER slamming the incumbents. My first stint on the Board, we three did this and it worked out exceptionally well with all 3 being elected.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

I would focus on the positive that you will bring to the board, leaving it implied but not stated that the current board may not be doing the same.

Example:

- As a Board member, I will commit to following all CC&Rs, Idaho State laws, and by-laws in the course of my duties at a director
- As a Board member, I will place the fiduacy duty we owe to our homeowners first and foremost on my agenda, and only make decisions within the bounds of the fiduacy duty that I am obligated to follow.

Etc, etc.

I wouldn't directly trash another prospective board member, just state your platform and let the homeowners figure out the rest of the story for themselves.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

It's not clear that Adam is running.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

I don't think you can "respectfully" trash anyone.

I faced exactly this situation when I ran for election in my community. I focused on the positives that I hoped to accomplish (eg. better communications). Of course the implication was that the current board wasn't doing these things, so I got the message across without saying anything outright.

In general people dislike negative campaigning, and after 2+ years of pandemic-related idiocy, I think people's appetites for conflict are at a low. So stay positive.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Another comment: the typical homeowner is pretty uninformed about how HOAs operate, and you're not going to fix that at the annual meeting.

If you're holding your annual meeting in the evening on a workday, people usually want to get the meeting done and go home to relax. Their reaction to any form of education will likely be "what is he going on about?" and "why won't this guy shut up?" It will probably be counter-productive.

I started my education campaign after I was elected to the board. It's an on-going process.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Exactly Cathy... It only makes you look bad when you trash someone else or be a smart alec doing it. Lesson learned. I had to deal with a scum bag con artist rip off elderly people with Alzheimer's dirt bag. Those were his "good" points. You know what happened when I spoke the truth and those names? I looked bad as they did. The people who believed me were the ones who knew the truth. Those who did not no amount of "education" was going to work. It was up to him to keep proving it on his own.

Former HOA President

LoriM15 (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

In order to bring the negative you also have to bring the positive. So in order to "trash" a bad candidate, you have to talk about how great another candidate (yourself or someone else) would be.

Candidate Badguy did this last year. Candidate Goodguy would have done it this way - and look how much better that is!!

An HOA election is not the place to trash people and air dirty laundry - even if they deserve it. Your primary goal is to foster change by getting your preferred candidate(s) elected. You can say the bad stuff but not unless you give an alternative or you will just look like a disgruntled homeowner using the election as another excuse to tell the board what idiots they are. Uninvolved people generally don't like negativity like that. Unhappy involved people will love it, but they are probably going to vote anyway.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Some years back in another association, owners were allowed one minute to speak before the BOD election was held. We had 4 people running for 3 spots. 2 incumbents and 2 new. I took my one minute to extoll the virtues of 3 of those running. 2 new and one incumbent. It was obvious to all I did not like the one incumbent.

Years back in high tech sales, I was taught to know my competitors weaknesses and to extoll our capability in those areas without ever mentioning my competitor. I put them on the defense from the get go.

BarbaraT1 (Texas)
Posts: 821

Posted:

A lot of good advice already but to address the OPs specific questions - there might be a spot on the agenda for candidates to speak but there usually isn’t an open forum for members to trash (or praise) candidates.

If there is a general open forum at an annual meeting it’s often at the end.

And everyone speaks at the discretion of the meeting chair, who could just refuse to recognize you or ask you to stop once you get started.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Our annual meetings are like Barbara describes. And there's not an agenda spot for candidates to speak because, I imagine, 99% of our votes come in by absentee or mail-in ballots before the meeting. For the same reason, nominations from the floor would be futile.

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

I'm more impressed by people who stick to the issues at hand instead of name cslling. if you have to resort to that in order to get people to listen to, you probably don't have a lot to say to begin with.

I agree with Kerri it's better for HOAS to have a meet the candidates might where all the candidates can make their case before the homeowners. If they vote for you, fine. If you win, that's great, but if you dont, that doesn't always mean you or your opponents did something wrong. Unfortunately, there are homeowners who will never give a fast you-know-what about association business and how it ultimately affects them. Others are easily swayed by simplistic messages and the rest fall somewhere in the middle.

Make your own candidate statement and walk around the neighborhood to pass it out, or mailing and then walk around the community so people can put a face with a name. N if they recognize you as the guy with the bees, this is your chance to show you're not a crank and you really care about the quality of life in the community, being fiscally respondibke, etc. Don't make promise you can't keep and as you get closer to the election, talk your o people again to encourage them to vote.

Getting together with like minded candidates is a good idea. Maybe you can have your own "meet the candidates" event, where you can serve coffee, lunch and cookies and talk honorable face to face.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

I think Shelia's idea about a "slate" of candidates hosting their own really casual coffee & cookies gathering to share their ideas and field questions from owners is a fine idea. I think it works especially well if your association's voters are mainly owner-occupants.

If most owners are away at work during the day, little wine & cheese in the early evening is good too.

It seems it would be good to have a supporter of theirs be a "moderator" to keep things on track.

Say, David in Delaware, this might be good for your group of candidates!

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

We had our Annual Meeting this past Thursday evening. We had 24 out of 112 owners in person and 8 Proxies so 20% quota was met. As has happened in our past BOD elections (5 of them), we had to beg owners to run. We had 3 (incumbents myself included) nominated for 5 positions open (the entire BOD) and we got two more to volunteer. One will be easy enough to work with. I do not believe the other knows what day it is.

We allow questions during presentations that pertain to the presentation and then have a General Q&A Session prior to adjournment. As is typical, well over 90% of the questions are concerning landscaping which our association does all landscaping including ones own yard.

We had one argumentative owner concerning an issue from a year ago. He claimed our landscaper had cracked/shattered his rear patio door glass. Each back yard is surrounded by a 7ft privacy fence and our landscaper does not enter the fence meaning our landscaper does not maintain the backyards. We asked our landscaper about the possibility of his equipment throwing up a rock or something. He said all his mowers are mulching mowers so they discharge nothing and on top of that, any possible discharge would have had to clear the 7ft fence and then travel some 20 feet with enough force to hit the patio door glass and crack it. The BOD informed the owner that after discussions with our landscaper we did not consider the cracked glass to be our landscaper's problem. The owner raised the issue again at the meeting and I informed him the BOD had ruled on it and there was nothing more to say. He ranted how we were disrespecting him. I admit I was getting upset. I said: Sir, the issue has been raised, investigated, and ruled on. I have nothing more to say. He replied you are disrespecting me. I replied: we have nothing more to say on this issue. He stormed out. Guess he will not become my new best friend.

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

The danger in "educating" the community about a board's "incompetence" is that the complainant completely makes themselves look literally foolish and unite the meeting attendees beyond the board director/president being publicly shamed. I've been treated this way, personally, on two occasions - once by a bullying vendor and once by a new board director who was gonna takeover and "do it right."

The vendor had a sympathetic ear going into the meeting....then had a unanimous board choosing to non-renew the contract within 45 minutes.

Make that an ex-vendor and former (and ignored) ex-board member at this point because emotions ran too high to convince anyone I was either incompetent or corrupt. I'm neither.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

I would point out the shortcomings that the past and current board members ignore, point out how you will affect change. No personal attacks, it could backfire.

BillD16 (Texas)
Posts: 971

Posted:

I’m reading this with great interest. My Board will be holding an election soon to fill 3 empty seats. I’ve found an intelligent, experienced person to run, and I plan to endorse him (somehow) as best I can.

One current Board member will be leaving - although I’ve been wondering how to respond if they change their mind and seek re-election. If I can find one more like-minded candidate, we’d have a 3/5 majority *fingers crossed*.

BillD

HOA Board ex-President
Austin, Texas USA

“You can’t put too much water in a nuclear reactor”

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The board member could change his mind, but if there are three seats up for grabs, your friend may get one of those spots.

You could assist the friend with his campaign without a formal endorsement, although there's nothing wrong with saying you're excited at the prospect of him joining b
the board because you to e him to be a well qualified candidate who will serve in he community as well as the nearly departed board member has done. The homeowners Have to make the decision anyway, so let them.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

ThadC2 (Florida)
Posts: 820

Posted:

when you argue with a fool, it makes you look like a _ _ _ _.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Your question generated a lot of replies, Adam. Did anything help you think about how you might campaign for those you'd like to see on the Board? Usually, you're not so silent.

AdamL1 (UnitedStates)
Posts: 559

Posted:

sorry for the delay....a lot happening over here.

We are 15 days away from annual meeting and bylaws vote and we just now received the notice in the mail.
- Still no actual draft version of the bylaws restatement
- no information about board elections, no solicitation of candidates, nothing. just a calendar event and a proxy form.

So I'm thinking of sending this email out individually to majority of the Members. What do you think? Too wordy? to long? to on the nose? What would you do/feel if you received this email from a random neighbor?

================
Good afternoon [insert name here], (** sent individually, using the member list email.)

We probably haven't met, but I'm FirstName LastName. I live on FancyStreet Lane, and I am President of the FancyStreet HOA within our Master HOA. You've probably seen me riding bikes back and forth to the Tot Lot with my two young kids. I received your email address from our Membership list.

I wanted to email you for two reasons: first to encourage you to attend our upcoming May ## HOA meetings, and second, if you are not attending the Annual Meeting, then I’d like to ask to carry your proxy to the meeting.

As I'm sure you know, there's been some management flux with changing policies in our HOA recently, and I am interested in driving towards a clearer and uncomplicated vision of how our community should to be run, fair and balanced application of our CCR's, fiscal responsibility, and a general tone and culture of building a mutually supportive and vibrant neighborly community. HOA management should be boring and uneventful, not confrontational and ___??___ (***not sure about using this line ***)

These are several topics I believe our HOA needs to focus on, I hope that you agree as well:

- Reverse the current policy of removing nesting boxes and restoring and encouraging our namesake avian to return to our community (**editors note: yes, the Board has actually started taking down nesting boxes and sending threat letters to homeowners***)
- Re-establish fiscal responsibility to reduce legal expenditures, reduce annual dues (to what is appropriate), and obtain competitive rates from contractors, allowing our dues to be used on improving our neighborhood.
- Use our Management Company for management, not enforcement or member discipline
- Re-establish a proper relationship with the Management Company that serves the members and HOA properly and without conflict
- Create neighborly conflict resolution with conversations and openness without requiring strongly worded letters or threats of litigation
- Require Committees to use proper interpretation of CCRs applied uniformly rather than selective or confrontational enforcement efforts
- Provide Membership with full and ongoing disclosures of records, financials, fiscal decisions and HOA expenditures, preferably through a website portal
- Comply with prior agreements between our HOA and agencies serving the Conservation area, the Greenbelt, other agreements that serve our community, which have been neglected over the years
- Implement Conflict of Interest disclosure requirements for Board and Committee members
- Promote an inclusive (not divisive) community ethos while encouraging young and newer Member families to flourish and their children to prosper alongside established Member families

If you'd like, I'd love to chat with you and listen to your ideas and HOA experiences in more detail. If you are busy and/or can't attend the meeting, I can just swing by to pick up your Proxy and your instructions. Please let me know what you think and if you are going.

I hope to see you there at the meeting,

Sincerely,
FirstName LastName
FancyStreet HOA President and Director

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

I say: Not bad at all. Good job re-directing what you would like to do instead of attacking others.

Yes, delete the confrontational part; the comment on the board taking down nesting boxes; and the "not divisive" remark.

When it comes to readability and likability, I think the positive tone makes a huge difference.

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