Proxy

RogerM6, for the annual meeting, best practices is to prohibit motions not on the agenda (that was presumably sent out in advance, per notice requirements).

If the president is permitting random, un-noticed motions, then he or she is holding the HOA out to a legal challenge. Such motions, if passed and then challenged in court, have an excellent likelihood of being voided.

A competent president will inform people that anything they want on the agenda must be provided to the HOA manager by such-and-such date, several weeks before the annual meeting.

Max is right, Roger, so you need to learn what the requirement is in your state & in your bylaws. Many states, like CA, require that no item of business may be on a meeting agenda without certain # of days notice before said meeting.

My apologies, Roger. Max likes to sabotage posts. But in case someone from Ca is reading this, please visit Calif. Civil Code 4920 to see that a notice of open board meetings must be posted and must include an agenda.

Maybe I was not completely clear. Hope notes below help.
1. California Rules, Regulation & Laws do not apply in our State.
2. Per our Founding Documents and CC&R's this is classified as the Annual Members Meeting not a Bi-Monthly Board Meeting.
3. Yes the Board oversees the meeting.
4. Yes the Board presents financials.
5. This is the meeting that new Board Members are elected.
6. Past years Members would sign up to speak, (no subject required) at time of sign in to meeting.

Proper notice would be required for a binding vote by the membership on topics that are regulated by the CC&Rs (eg. amendments). Failing to do this is inviting legal challenge.

So I expect that if no notice was given, any vote would be non-binding regardless of the topic. And if the vote is non-binding, I don't see the point of a proxy - it gives the appearance of importance and force when it's not warranted. Finally, HOAs often have issues with achieving quorum at the annual meeting. You don't want a small minority making important decision for the entire community, so the board should view a vote like this as simply a statement of opinion by some homeowners.

There are more effective ways to accurately poll the membership, or for the membership to make their opinions known, if that's the intent of this.

Sabotage posts, you didn't know what the hell the subject was!

I think we are getting off point.

Over the past several years a Member may register when signing into the meeting to speak and bring up an item that may or may not end up becoming a motion that may or may not get a second. And, If said Motion is given a Second it may or may not pass. In each and every case this process never been an issue. Thus, I have to believe a precedence has been set allowing a Motion to be brought before the Members at their Annual Meeting.

Now lets go back to the original question before we got off point having to do with a Member issuing two Proxies for very distinct reasons. Please review my original post and comment.

Proxy forms are sent out by the Management Company at direction of the Board. The Mailing contains but is not limited to, Blank Proxy Forms, Agenda, Individuals running for Board and their Statements. Proxies may be returned to the Management Company via US Mail, Electronically or at Meeting Site when signing in. This is same sign in process that a Member may register to speak.

Past practices are unlikely to have any legal force here. Furthermore, if motions are made and voted on when the Declaration does not grant the owners the power to decide the issue so motioned, then this violates the Declaration. The proper procedure to give owners the power to vote on xyz issue is through an amendment to the declaration. To achieve an amendment to the declaration, all the owners would have to be properly noticed of the proposed amendment, and then a vote would have to be scheduled.

Roger, the reason the question cannot be answered is because its premise is false.

Proxies are simply legal documents that allow one person to act for another person in specific and limited ways. Typically the proxy will spell out the exact circumstances of this, including the time period for which the proxy is effective.

Proxies can either be used to determine quorum only, or to determine quorum and allow the proxy holder to cast a vote on behalf of the proxy giver. In addition, the proxy can be directed (ie. the proxy giver directs how the proxy holder must act), or it can be undirected and leave the voting decisions up to the proxy holder.

A proxy is not a ballot, although some associations combine the two.

It should be obvious that a community that uses directed proxies must spell out in advance the issues that will be voted on.

In communities that use undirected proxies, the proxy still has to spell out the matter(s) on which votes will be held (IMHO). Otherwise the proxy giver may be giving the proxy holder the right to act in ways that the giver did not intend and may be a valid cause for invalidating the vote(s).

Given this, there isn't a lawful way to introduce motions at an annual meeting, vote on them, and have the motions be legally binding. So, as others have noted, the question is moot.

(Re: the topic of agendas, generally the only items of business at the annual meeting are the reports and the election. Since the announcement contains election materials - at least in my state it does - an agenda is unnecessary. If the annual meeting will involve votes on other matters in addition to the election, these would also be spelled out on the proxy form and other announcement materials. So the announcement serves as an agenda.

(Usual disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.)

From experience: state law, bylaws and covenants are not going to respond to the OP's question in a way that has any legal force. But if the OP wants an answer based in logic, here's what I suggest:

The owners are undoubtedly violating covenants with this longstanding practice of making un-noticed, spontaneous motions concerning (I bet) virtually anything under the sun. By acquiescence over the years, the owners are saying that anything goes at the annual meeting, when it comes to votes, as long as the 'anything' gets a majority of the vote.

Prepare a motion for the annual meeting stating that proxies for such-and-such shall be counted in such-and-such way. If the vote passes, then all the OP has to do is have these proxies set and ready to go.

If the vote fails, a majority of those at the meeting do not want what the OP wants.

The OP can either accept this; try to change the board to change how things are done; lawyer up; or move.