HOA Board Without A President?

I live in a single family HOA community in Maryland and our HOA Board has 4 Board positions coming up for a vote at a special meeting later this month. The Board called a special meeting last month to see if anyone would step up, but was not able to get a quorum for the meeting so they just carried on with an informational meeting where one person did step up for a fifth vacant position that we had.

My first question is: Can our Board carry on without a President, and just have the 1st Vice President fill that role?

Our Articles of Incorporation says that we only need to have 3 Board positions so without filling any of the vacant positions, we will still have 6 Board members. Also, our Bylaws states that: "In the absence or inability of the President to perform the duties, the 1st Vice President will asssume duties."

Also, at this meeting the Board is trying to adopt the budget for 2023. Since we need to have 20% of voting members for a quorum at a special meeting. The Board has been already sending out dues notices with the anticipation that the dues will remain the same as it has been for the past 18 years, because our dues are always due by January 31st of each year.

My second question is: Can they still collect dues if the budget has not been adopted?

I cannot find anything in addressing this issue in any of our governing documents or state laws.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response. I was thinking also that we could run without a President.

Our governing documents do not address the issue if dues are not passed, but I figure in worst-case scenario, we could adopt the budget at our annual meeting in late January where a quorum for that meeting is easily attained by a majority of voting members present.