Why have a Nominations committee?

Our bylaws encourage* us to have a nominations committee, consisting of 1 board member plus 3 or 4 homeowners, to solicit nominations for Board positions.

I'm really confused by this. It's simple enough to send out an e-mail blast to the whole community saying "anyone who wants to run please submit your name", so why do we need a nominations committee? Seems old fashioned to me, like predating the electronic age. Does anyone have any insight to a nominations committee and why we should establish one?

* the by-laws says "shall establish" in some places and "if established" in others, so I can't readily tell if it is required or allowed but not required.

If your bylaws don't specifically state that a Nom. comm. is required, MichaelT, then it is not. it's odd that it would say "2 or 3" owners.

Our old Bylaws required one comprising a director and 2 non-director owners. the Board dutifully appointed one, said meet with the PM when candidates dealing is due and determine if they are owners of record. So that was it: the PM looked up each candidate's status, met with the 3 Nom Comm members and approved them. Our restated bylaws also eliminated nominations form the floor.

I think I read here once that the purpose of requiring such a committee was that while the developer controlled, that firm could pick & choose which owners to place on the Board by eliminating owners they didn't like. Don't know if true, but I cannot think of any other purpose.

I agree with Michael.

I consider a nominations committee an anachronism from a time in the past.

Frankly, I can see no end of trouble if such a committee does not place on the ballot the name of every eligible candidate who raises a hand and says "I wish to run". Too much opportunity for charges of favoritism and worse.

Our 105-home sub association puts out a call to everyone asking for those interested to submit their name as a candidate. Our 9,300-home master association does the same, with much publicity regarding the responsibilities of the members of the 7-person board, including the considerable time commitment required as each member of the board is also the liaison to one of the committees.

As with Tim, at the annual meeting, nominations from the floor, including self-nominations, are encouraged and welcome.

Max

The association in which we reside, and those we manage, have dealt with your questions as follows:

1. If the nominated person does not confirm they wish to be considered, their name is not placed on the ballot printed prior to the meeting, nor may it be considered if a write in

2. In Texas any owner may be a candidate; most of the eligibility rules other than ownership were eliminated by the Legislature a couple of years ago. We can access the county central appraisal district ownership records during the meeting to determine owner eligibility if necessary.

3. We have delayed announcing the results on two occasions when there were issues which required clarification. States do so, there is no reason an HOA cannot as well.

A number of Bylaws state the association must or shall have a nominating committee, but Michael sees no need. Most CCRs state an association must or shall have an Architectural Committee, I don't see a need. Let's do away with the ARC.

Just do it like we did MichaelT. Will take a total of 10 minutes of time.

I had never heard of it until an earlier thread here, and they sound terrible. The only time I could see it being useful is if you can’t get enough candidates, and you want to search for good people to run. But that doesn’t even seem to be their purpose.

As we allow nominations, including self nominations, from the floor we see no need to have a Nominating Committee even though our Bylaws call for one. Thus we ignore the requirement.

MichaelT, I started a recent thread on nominating committees a month or so ago. The provision was in our bylaws from the 1970s, and was ignored for decades until this year, when the board formed a nominating committee and then placed ONLY its candidates on the ballot, ignoring a homeowner who had self-nominated.

I see no harm in a NC if it is just to search for good candidates, but when it is a group consisting of majority of board members who nominate only their friends and exclude others, then that's an abuse of the board's authority. The best solution is to eliminate them altogether. Or to specify in your bylaws that other candidates may not be excluded.

After discussion here, I sent a letter to my state delegate recommending a change to state law re nominating committees, to prevent this kind of abuse. The timing was good, because Virginia's next legislative session was approaching, with the deadline for draft bills about a month away. My representative agreed with me, and a bill is in draft right now. The Virginia legislative session starts in January.