President won't work with New Board

Barbara,
Have you given any thought about the President being right?

Let's see.
1. Did the president chair the meeting?
2. Do your documents give you the right to override the Present Board?
3. Do your documents describe how call a special meeting of the members should proceed once they begin that special meeting?
4. Was the meeting opened, minutes kept, and adjourned?
5. This is one of those "What a fine mess you have got us into, Ollie."
6. Are you sure, "things got a little out of hand" is an acturate description.
7. Did you have a quorum?

First, in all probability, nothing in the meeting was legal. For all kinds of reason, the primary one, a special meeting must have a purpose, and that is all that can be discussed at that meeting. And I am not sure we should pass any judgement or point any fingers.

Why not try again and start with what and how you got developer problems? I am guessing that may be the root of all this.

Keep in mind that there are procedures to re-call the Board, and/or any specific members. There most likely are procedures to change the # of Boar members. There are specific rules for calling a special meeting and what can be address at this special meeting.

I suspect the Board and the President have a big share in this and they should be the ones resolving these disputes. Someone will have to.

I understand your concern about legal costs and it looks like the situation could deteriorate into Homeowners as a group suing their own organization, individual homeowners suing their association and maybe other people personally, etc, etc.

This is not the road to Paradise.

As far as Power Hunngry Boards and Presidents, check the search featureon the Topic discussion page. Search Boards or Board Presidents or special meetings, all kinds of stuff there.

Get back to us, and don't forget to read all your Documents, your state statutes, the corporation laws for non profit corporations in your state and any local legislative members that could guide and direct getting this cleaned up. Your county offices may be of help.

If you are not shed of the developer, most of what I said don't apply and that becomes the first order of business for the Association. You can not act as an association until you have the turnover complete.

BarbaraP2: RobertR is correct! You must do things according to the documents since they give you the power to do it. Otherwise, what you do means nothing.

You do not state if turnover from the developer to resident control has occurred. That is when Developer Board-control ceases and you continue with a membership-elected Board to run your association. IF your documents state there are to be x amount of Board members, then that is what you are to have, UNLESS and UNTIL an amendment to the documents is voted upon to change the dictates you are to abide by.

Before you decide the now-president is power hungry, he may be correct in this situation. Be sure that all is being done according to the dictates of the legal documents you are to follow.

Pertaining to a Special Meeting, it must be called according to the process the Bylaws dictate. If the process was not followed, it could very well be null and void.

Your concerns over the developer might warrant a new Posting with that as your subject.

Thanks all for your advice. To clarify some things, we did follow our Bylaws in organizing the special meeting with the exception that the homeowners working to call the meeting provided the notice to the subdivision b/c the president wasn't trusted to actually schedule the meeting. However, according to Wisconsin statutes, it seems that since the president attended and did call the meeting, he waives any right to dispute notice. Yes, he did preside and minutes were kept.
As far as saying that things got out of hand, they truly got downright nasty. The president refused to listen to homeowners or call for votes on proper motions and homeowners got increasingly angry throughout the meeting. Bad behavior shouldn't invalidate a meeting though, right?
Our Bylaws state that the Board must have "at least 3" so having 7 should not be a violation. We are working to formally amend the Bylaws to state "at least 7" and hope to get that approved at the annual meeting in two months. For now, the entire previous Board recognizes the new members, it is just the president that is disputing.
An agenda was provided to discuss the budget, dues assessment and potential lawsuit. We also included a statement that said "other items as approved by 4/5 of the members present" b/c this is what is required by our Bylaws to amend the agenda. The only real matter that came up was this motion.
Thanks again! I appreciate any thoughts as homeowners are angry and tensions continue to rise in our formerly happy subdivision!

Isn't the President usually voted by the Board. If so, and the Board recognizes the new board members then the BOD should remove the President from his position as President. Then he is just a board member like the rest.

Yes, he was elected at last year's annual meeting and his term was to run for 2 years. It is my understanding that there are some issues with the validity of the election - that there was not a quorom and that votes were removed from the premisis to be counted - however, it wasn't really an issue that the majority of the neighbors wanted to take up since it opens another big can of worms. Although it sounds as though looking further into that issue could help us in the long run?

Mistake,
I meant to say DJ and said Brian.

But it could have been either one as they are both very perceptive.