Not Following Bylaws In Regard To Elections

My HOA is in Maryland and the Board just called two special meetings of the Association. The first one next week to nominatee new Board members and the second special meeting in December to vote on the new Board members.

I noticed that they are violating the following three areas of our Bylaws with this election:

1. The #1 person on the Nominating Committee is not a member of our Association. He lives in the next neighborhood over from us and does not own any property in our neighborhood. Our Bylaws clearly state that members of the Nominating Committee must be members of our association.

2. Our Bylaws clearly state that nominations for elections must be held out our Spring meeting.

3. Our Bylaws clearly state that elections of new officers must take place at the Spring meeting.

Am I being nitpicky with details or am I correct that it is important and we she follow our Bylaws to the record?

I pointed this out the inconsistencies to our HOA President in an email and she is ignoring me. She basically stopped communicating with me because in the past month I have had to force her to comply with a few other issues by contacting the Postmaster or the Attorney General's Office.

On my last Board, I always followed the governing documents and state laws completely so that I would be in total compliance. It is very frustrating for me that our Board has beening doing everything wrong like:

*hiring a resident and a relative (both uninsured) to cut our common area grass
*not purchasing insurance for the common areas
*not attempting to collect dues from over 20% of our residents
*not allowing us to examine the financial records
*illegally going into our mailboxes to distribute materials
*not enforcing the rules at all
*letting her little kids ride illegal dirt bikes on our uninsured common areas

Seems like we don't have an HOA at all. They are not doing a single thing to keep our neighborhood nice, but instead creating a lot of liability for all of us in the Assoication. Most of the people in the neighborhood just don't care and are totally uninvolved and don't even pay dues. Only a few people care enough but are too busy with work to have the time to get involved in making things better. I feel like I am practically in this alone and keep addressing each issue as they come up but this is getting to be a full-time job because the Board wants to do whatever they want and is unaware or just doesn't care to follow any laws.

Any advice for me?

Stacy

Do your Bylaws allow BOD nominations from the floor? If they do, then nomination committees are not needed. Many associations do not use nominating committees even when their Bylaws call for such.

I'm afraid that Tim is right. It's almost impossible to change out an ignorant and/or arrogant board without a lot of support from fellow owners.

(I disagree with JohnC's opinion that it's OK to ignore Bylaws. If Nominating Committees are required, then use them. Our old bylaws did require them and nominations from the floor. Our new bylaws eliminated both.)

I say when Bylaws allow nominations from the floor then nominating committees are not needed.

Yes you are correct, I do love my home.

I have been trying to gather like minded individuals and a lot of them still work so they are reluctant to get on the Board and have to take on a lot work. Some are warming to the idea so I am still trying to gather people because their are quite a few that are not happy with how things are being done.

My husband and I have also talked about moving if things don't improve.

Stacy,

When I saw issues in my Virginia Associations, it took me three years to educate the membership enough to have changes occur.
When I was elected to the board, I received my education that things are typically different looking out vs. looking in.

I'm proud of the accomplishments I was able to bring about (with assistance from other board members).
I know I left the Association better then when I was on it and made it easier for those that followed (if they took the time to read what was left behind).

So, keep in mind that it can take time to make changes.
Until then, offer to volunteer for things. This shows you aren't simply complaining but offering to bring about the changes that you see are needed.