Communication

I was elected president of our HOA and have been working with a management company to get us into legal compliance in many areas. An illegitimate meeting was called by our former president and what came from that meeting was that the 6 members that attended that meeting said they never received any documentation about the annual meeting and the results of that meeting (small dues hike and me elected president). I know that our management company sent legal notification with time, date and agenda through USPS about 20 or more days before the meeting. Then she also sent follow e-mail with the same information. What can I do to prove they were mailed and informed of this? The e-mail has their addresses, but I don't know how to confirm the usps mailing. I am sure they received it, but they may not have opened or read it. Any advice on this?
Thanks!
Roxanne

Agree with Augustin on all. Do note the difference between how directors & officers, e.g. president are selected and by whom.

Yes,IF YOU & THE BOARD want to, just have the PM assert in writing that all Owners were sent ballots via USPS to the addresses on file and when they were sent. I assume 20 days before the election ois in your Bylaws or state statue? Did the PM also mail the notice & agenda with the ballots? sounds like it.

"illegitimate meeting" isn't really the phrase. It was just a meeting of her & others. A "real" meeting, ned minutes etc.

It helps me to know the size of the HOA and of the Board? Condos or detached homes?

With Aug, basically ignore these owners.

We would always include a mailing to the Association when we made mailings. This way, we had a postmark and membership list to prove to a court that the mailing was made. Mail takes much longer to go through the system then it used to. Make sure that this additional time is accounted for. If you have a 15 day minimum notice, I would mail it 30 days in advance.

We would also put signs up at the exits of the community announcing the meeting.

We would also publish it in a newsletter that we hand delivered to each property.

We also publish it on our Associations website.

With all of those notifications - it's hard for someone to say that they were not notified. They might not have read anything, but they were notified.

Was the prez the "former prez" when he called a "meeting?" If not a director, there actually was NO Board or members meeting. It was just a gathering. I really mean it: Ignore him.

Okay! Thanks for that good advice.

Get used to it.

If you hang around on this website, you may see discussions where someone refers to "vocational dissidents". There are people thrive on conflict and drama, and many HOAs/COAs have a few. Your goal is not to give them the drama that they want. My motto for dealing with these folks is "brief, bland, boring." You answer their questions, don't bring in any extraneous topics, don't engage in any back-and-forth arguing. You're aiming for the most uninteresting conversations possible. And you need to stick with it. If you follow this plan five times in a row and get pulled into an argument during the sixth time, you've just taught them that they have to argue six times to get what they want.

It does work, although it can take a while before the drama crowd learns that they can't drag you into a fight.

In addition, if you're new to being on the board, learn your governing documents backwards, forwards, and inside out. It always helps to quote relevant bits of it when someone wants to argue. You can argue opinions, but you can't argue with "the law" - and your governing documents are part of the contract that everyone agreed to abide by when they signed the closing documents on their homes. You'll get a lot less guff when people figure out that you know what you're talking about.