How can a Director alert membership of 140?

First, “wrong” is subjective – just because YOU disagree with the decision doesn’t necessarily make it wrong – and since you’re one of three directors, you can be outvoted, which apparently has happened. “Expensive” is also subjective – the board makes decisions for the entire community. You don’t say what the decisions were, but if there are 140 homes, I would think that means a fairly large common area and taking care of all that isn’t cheap. As you know, supply chain issues and increasing labor costs have driven up the price of everything and sometimes there are repairs or replacements to the common area that simply can’t wait.

Nor can you or your colleagues control how the homeowners feel about anything – if they don’t like any decision made by the board, they have the power to vote all of you out and replace with others. Why haven’t they done it, who knows – it’s possible that some (most?) don’t care at all (trust me, if the board does something that pisses EVERYONE off, you’ll hear about it sooner or later). To that end, the homeowners are adults and while I agree 4 pm is inconvenient for many people because they work (and some are still working at 4 pm, even if they work from home), why hasn’t anyone else come forward and suggested a later time or perhaps make virtual attendance available so they can at least listen in on the proceedings?

As for you, if you feel very strongly about a decision, you can prepare a statement (no more than one page) and ask that it be attached to the minutes after they’re approved. Minutes are supposed to reflect the decisions of the board and nothing else (because they’re legal documents), so if yours consist of who said what about X, or the vote didn’t reflect the actual motion that was made, that’s incorrect in a big way and needs to be pointed out and changed immediately. As I said, these are legal documents and all kinds of problems may commence if someone proves they’re inaccurate.

In the meantime, you may have a decision to make if you feel you can’t work with your colleagues any longer. It’s inappropriate for a board member to undermine a board decision made properly (someone makes a motion, accepts it, the president calls for a vote, the vote is taken). Once the decision is made, you should do your part to make it work. Time will ultimately show whether you were right and if you don’t want to way, the thing to do is resign and then work with like-minded homeowners to put up a slate to replace the others. You can then tell people how you feel about the decisions being made, but you need to be careful because libel or defamation is a thing. Best to run on a slate saying some (all?) approaches to community issues aren't effective, unnecessary or cost-effective and keep the personalities out of it. If you want to run for a spot with the new slate, have at it.

It depends what you intend to communicate.

Typically boards will make meeting minutes available to the membership. They can do this proactively (sen them via email to the entire community or post them on the community website). If there is some urgent matter, many communities/managers use email blasts or even text blasts alerting the community (for things like water shutoffs).

Keep in mind that board meeting minutes aren't a detailed description of what happened. The minutes are a list of motions that were voted on. For more detail, people would need to attend the meeting. Things like Zoom can be very helpful if they allow the meeting to be recorded for viewing later, since no board meeting schedule will meet the needs of everyone.

The only people who have to be at the meeting are the board members (and manager if that person is involved), so their schedules take precedence. FWIW, our attorney recommended holding board meetings during the day. These are business meetings, not social hours, and holding them during normal business hours tends to produce more effective meetings and better decision making. If directors are working full time during the day, their brains will be fried in the evening.

No individual board member should be taking it upon themselves to communicate with the community. This should be a board decision. In addition, if you were outvoted and want to make your case to the community, you have to create your own platform and make it very clear that you are not speaking for the board (which many people will ignore, resulting in confusion and misinformation). Many codes of conduct for board members refer to a duty of loyalty - meaning you should not be undermining what the board as a whole has decided. In many ways, if you're the odd man out on a board, you have more options for maneuvering if you are not on the board yourself - if you're a director, there will be limits to what you can do.

I have personally seen some of the documents the OP is referring to. The OP is the President of the Association. They are tasked with setting the agenda, along with input from the other board members as well as the association manager, not the other way around. The association manager insists that all communication to the membership goes through the manager only. That is BS.

If what the association manager is claiming is true, then in Kerry's HOA, the Board has the authority, not to censure them, not remove them as an officer, but has the power to remove them from the board. This may have the effect of a good board getting rid of rogue members, but it can also have the effect of a rogue board getting rid of good board members.

I have personally been in the shoes of the OP. As president, I went up against a rogue board, a rogue MC, and a rogue law firm. Sometimes you have to do the right thing and worry about the consequences later.

As a member of the HOA, ask for a copy of the membership list, and as a member of the HOA (not a Director) start sending out emails?

I understand you don’t want to resign and if your colleagues are as corrupt as you describe, someone has to stay and fight. However, you can’t change things alone if you continue to be outvoted and you have community apathy. There have been other folks like Max who’ve had to take on the world to get it to go round, but all of them will tell you it’s not easy, won’t happen overnight, and there will be drama – such is the stuff of revolutions. At some point, you have to get enough homeowners involved to back you up (they’re the ones who vote for the people who hire the attorney and property manager, after all).

I still say it's inappropriate to undermine a board decision once it's made, so if you want the homeowners to know what's really happening and stay on the board, you need to get some of them to attend. Go outside and walk around the neighborhood, talking to a few people to see who’s also retired and/or working from home and encourage them to attend. It's only once a month and even if you start with two or three, they'll be able to hear and see for themselves. This may also mean they hear a few things that suggest that perhaps you're jumping to conclusions or are pouting because you didn't get your way, so be prepared to listen and see the other side.

If those homeowners see something concerning, they could get the word out to other people and then you'll see more people show up or at least call or email the rest of the board and pressure them into changing the meeting time. Your colleagues may suspect you're behind it, but so what? Nothing the board does should ever be a surprise to homeowners, so you or other people can always come back with “are you AFRAID of homeowners listening to how and why you made the motion or voted the way you did on X issue?” Ask that question during a board meeting and see how they’ll react. And bring popcorn, that could be fun to watch.

Max noted you’re board president and set the agenda, so why not add a resident forum? This shouldn’t be long - 10-15 minutes is plenty, and it’s ok to time it so everyone has a chance to speak. The board doesn’t have to make immediate decisions on what’s said. Some questions or comments may concern something already on the agenda so you can address it during that discussion and research everything else and get back to the resident and note the findings at the next meeting.

You’re the president, so do your job and preside - after the forum, thank everyone for their comments and encourage them to stay and listen in, but no questions or comments will be allowed during the meeting so the board can get through everything on the agenda. You didn’t say who takes minutes during the meeting, but whoever does give them a template to use – there are dozens all over the internet (or in Word). You may need to take your own notes for comparison to ensure the minutes have been prepared accurately (that discussion is something else the residents need to hear, especially the ones who were there.) If your documents allow it, why not appoint someone to take the minutes for you – that might be a nice part-time job for a trustworthy teenager or college student. Send everyone a draft copy 24-48 hours before the meeting and everyone should be prepared to discuss and approve them or make corrections and then approve them.

To drive home the point these are legal documents, perhaps the association attorney can send everyone an email to that effect. In my community, all board members had to sign off on the meeting minutes, so if you didn’t want to sign off on something that was totally wrong, you’d better open your mouth and note any concerns before there’s a motion to accept the things as read or read with corrections.

Finally, the property manager. He or she IS NOT a board member, so if he/she is making moves that aren’t within the contract (which all board members, including you, should read), it may be time for a come to Jesus meeting with the other board members to make it clear that the property manager needs to stay in his/her lane. The stuff about the ARC fees – I blame that on you and your colleagues. You said your documents allow it, so when that homeowner told you about the $485 fee, why didn’t someone check to see how that’s set or if a fee schedule is issued to the homeowners and when? You’ve been in that community for 22 years – are you saying there’s NEVER been a conversation about collecting the fee – especially if you submitted three ARCs in 2020 and weren’t charged?

I hope the board issued that homeowner an apology (and a refund). As Max noted, the property manager works for the association, not the other way around, so if he/she made the wrong assumption (on purpose or not), he/she should have been corrected. Then you and your colleagues should do YOUR job and settle this fee business once and for all. If you want a fee for this or anything else, send out a complete fee schedule. If not, talk to the association attorney about updating the documents to that end – you know or should know that will likely require homeowner approval, so pull out your documents to see what they say about amendments and get going.

Sheila,

In a working-class neighborhood, having a Board meeting at 4:00 PM is not going to get many, if any homeowners to a meeting. I believe that is the intention of the association manager. While she is the president and should be able to set the agenda and preside over the meetings, the other two won't let her. Since this is a corporation, and she is the CEO, she has similar rights as the CEO of Bank of America.

As far as alerting the members, arm yourself with an email list and go for it. As long as you're not divulging confidential information, the sky's the limit.

Kerry,

I NEVER said the president can write agendas and place only executive sessions. If you had read anything, you would have seen the manager, NOT the president is writing the agenda. Well in the hell do you get off writing shit like that about me!

I have had one senior community where we could have meetings during the daytime hours, as all were retired. For other communities, if the meeting is held virtually, the meetings generally start at 6:00 PM, and in-person start at around 7:00 PM. Unfortunately for Jackie, the manager is running the show, with support from the other two members.

Jackie's solution, as she is intent on staying on the Board is to gather a majority on the Board. It shouldn't be that difficult, but you never know what obstacles both the two board members and the manager throw in her path.

Apathy will always control, especially in working-class communities, not so much in the senior community where time is their friend. How did I deal with it, communication, and transparency? It took a year to get majority because of staggered terms, and we fired both the attorney and MC at the annual meeting in front of everyone, priceless.

FYI, there are just under 400,000 HOAs in the United States, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million volunteer board members. California itself has almost 60,000 HOAs.

I sense the effort and emotion with each response. My sincere thanks. Sheila, we simply aren't on the same page. Max was spot-on with his comments. Rogue PMC and 2 Rogue Directors. My recent attempts to encourage member interest include: my dedicated email account, member list which I EM neighborly stuff along with encouraging running for Board/committees, change in meeting date and times(PMC didn't E-blast and Bulletin Board had old info.), posting "lawn signs" at both entrances and Bulletin Board "HOA MEMBER MEETING TODAY" @ day of meeting, local bimonthly meeting @ my home (Hot apple cider served-lol) and a promise of confidentiality to any owner with concerns. FYI, as an RN/NP x 50 years, I understand confidentiality. I have never received an HOA violation or a censor. I have voted NO when I disagreed. I objected to a Financial Check spent, but issue wasn't included in DRAFT minutes, of which I objected in writing the same day received. Equally important, DRAFT exec as follows:

"PERSONNELL MATTERS-DIRECTOR COMMUNITY ISSUED EMAILS
A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously carried to approve a policy stating if a Director would like to send an email to the membership, the email will require a vote from the Board during a regularly scheduled meeting(bimonthly). It was further resolved that all approved e-mail communication pertaining to the association and its Board of Directors will be sent through management. It should be noted that Director Jackie Brodsky voted against this policy."

I agreed and suported that ALL HOA INFO should go through the Board including notifying members of mtg changes. "Unanimously carried" to have Board approval to send any EM? NEVER, EVER!!! not with a gun to my head! We are awaiting ballots for May election; Yes, this Board had only 3 meetings due to a "glitch" in last year's election time. PM and Pres. of Board thought they were every 2 years. Pres is now Secretary. He said "who cares? no one comes to meetings." PM has been with us 3 years; PMC x6 years.

There is a Fox in the hen-house. As always, Max has simply stated the solution is to vote New Board in and kick Rogue PMC out. I agree and was hoping to get suggestions (??) if there is a way to alert "the chickens" without getting skinned?

Kindly,
Jackie

Kerry, "campaigning really hard" is obvious. But most members are clueless as to problematic issues which I have described ad nauseum. Only about 50% vote and then, NOT KNOWING THERE IS A FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE, just vote for incumbents.

WE say that because in California they are required to be disclosed to owners that want them and won't abuse the list.

Stop commenting on issues you have no clue about. This is California, NOT Alabama!

Please don't tell us your comments are common sense!

A rogue law firm? Do tell! Our BOD keeps telling the owners that the attorney "approved" the storage shed project that the town building code department determined was quite illegal and the attorney "approved" the election fraud that happened at the last annual meeting. Given that this attorney is allegedly one of the best community association lawyers in the state, I've been assuming he was being thrown under the bus by the BOD and has no idea how he's being blamed. Never occurred to me that a lawyer could be rogue given the consequences if found out.