Board Member Size being Reduced from 7 to 5

You're not related to Adam, are you? He's a poster who has a similar disagreement with his HOA. Unlike his, your documents have a process for increasing or decreasing the number.

In this case, it appears the homeowners have to vote on this before the board is seated. Your annual meeting is approaching, so that's where you need to bring this up and tell them what you think. Take a look at previous board minutes to see if this was discussed - maybe it has been discussed, but you weren't aware or paying attention.

In fact, if there's a board meeting before the annual, I'd go and tell them what I think, asking (1) why was this decision made and (2) why weren't the homeowners told this was a possibility.

To be blunt, it may be the number is being reduced because no homeowners have come forward to fill the remaining slots. If you're going to have 7 board members, people need to get off their duff and run for a spot (that would include YOU). In my community, we had to reduce our numbers for the same reason and we're still dangerously low for our size.

Has the board had trouble meeting quorum because people haven't volunteered? Without a quorum, you can't hold an official meeting, which would prevent decisions from being made. That could be a huge problem if you have time sensitive nutters that must be addressed.

Well, not quite. These people will only get their way if enough homeowners don't rise up and let them know in no uncertain terms your community must be run according to the documents, not solely on what these folks want or feel they can get away with

In addition to the three spots, are any of the others up for reelection? If so, target all of those spots to be voted out. Or push (hard) for a homeowner vote on this issue. You will need to get as many people as possible to show up for this meeting in order for that board to do an about face. If they refuse to, you're looking a recall, which will require a petition for a special homeowners meeting, a vote and some of those interested people to step up to serve in one of those spots.

As you might have guessed, the recall will take more effort and stir up a lot of drama, but that's what should happen when rouge board members try a power grab. I hope it won't be necessary for you and your neighbors to pass the hat and get an attorney for this - hopefully, the uprising will be enough. Perhaps the other board members will freak out and vote the president out. I suspect all this is his idea, but the other board members can remove him as president. That won't get him off the board itself - for that, the rest of you will have to vote him out or recall him so he doesn't cause more trouble. If he gets so pissed off he resigns, so much the better.

Meet up with your neighbors who agree with you - y'all have some planning and execution of the plan to do and not a lot of time. Good luck!

Thanks for the sound advice! There are a multitude of residents that are frustrated by the actions and lack of response of this board. There will be quite a few residents emailing the board and property management company regarding this latest decision. I plan to send an email to the property management company later this week. Our community has only had a property management company since January and I'm surprised that the property manager didn't raise concern to the board when discussion was taking place to reduce the board number. At the very least, I would think that the governing documents would be reviewed as a safeguard.

I did review the documents yesterday and it appears only 20% of residents need be petitioned to request a special meeting. That amounts to only 36 residents. Hopefully it won't come to that and the board will recognize their error.

I agree. The BOD does not have the authority. It requires a Member/Owner vote.

Thanks for the clarification on the property manager's role. I was hoping that they would provide some insight and guidance for the board when it pertains to our bylaws.

We reduced our board size from like think 9 to 5? The reason being that for 107 homes that is kind of a high number. Plus we barely got 9 people to attend a meeting never the less that many board members to meet a forum. The lack of participation was staggering.

When we reduced the number, it was changed in our CC&R's per the process. Which meant collecting votes and filing the paperwork to reflect the change. Will say that reduction helped us so much with meeting quorums and participation. Every year the participation levels can vary. So having a somewhat lower number covers those "lean" years.

We did a multiple changes to all our rules at the same time updating all the documents. one the changes was to reduce board number.