Moe, Curly, Larry & Bill Vote for Themsleves

In My community we have not reached Quorum in 10 years. We have had the same President since 2000 and have not had any real voting election. The problem I have is that The Board of Directors keep voting themselves in at the Executive sessions after the annual meetings.

GOOD OLD BOYS CLUB

It goes like this at the meeting; Bill is President

Moe Nominates Larry for a Second Term on the Board, then this is 2nd by Curly...Larry accepts the Treasurer position then Larry nominates Moe to the board and it is 2nd by Bill, Moe Accepts the Vice President Position....All in Favor.. Motion Carried... Then Larry Nominates Curly for a second term as Member at large this is 2nd by Moe..all in favor.. Motion Carried.

Then the next year after the annual meeting the Presidents term expires and this happens;

It goes like this;

At the Executive meeting and after discussion a motion was made to Nominate Bill to the Board of Directors, this is 2nd by Moe.. all in favor.. Nomination carried. Then after discussion the Board motions to Elect the Following;

Bill- President
Moe -Vice President
Larry- Treasurer
Curly-Member at Large

All in Favor.... Motion Carried..

At what point did the other 294 members of the community have any say in the voting process?

Mary, mail-in balloting is more or less how our documents require annual elections.

In fact, there can be no floor nominations/voting at all. Nominations are required to be mailed in by a certain date in January. Then a ballot form goes out and all ballots must be returned the week before the annual meeting. NO BALLOTS/VOTING IS ACCEPTED PAST THAT DATE AND NONE CAN BE BROUGHT TO THE MEETING.

At the annual meeting, the ballots are opened, verified for Good Standing, then counted for quorum. Since we usually only have about 20 or 30 people show up in person for annual meeting, the mail-in ballots go a looooong way to satisfying quorum.

The directors are then announced at end of meeting. The officers are not voted on that night, but at the first meeting of the "new" board by the board members/directors.

One could also assume that we have a "good ole boy" thing going on since the same 5 or 6 people have been on the board, with an occasional newby every so many years, for the last 10 years, but the fact is, few people step up to run to begin with.

Our officers are restricted from holding the same position consecutively more than 3 terms so in essence, several of us have rotated through the officer positions more than once.

Michelle,

The procedure you described is pretty much the same as ours. Except that the mail-in ballots are counted by the Manager b/4 the annual meeting and anyone attending the meeting can bring their ballot in.

Several years ago a state law was enacted which states: "the assn shall provide for votes to be cast in person and by absentee ballot and may provide for voting by some other form of delivery." If using mail-in ballots there are several requirements which must be complied with, one of which is that "the ballot shall set forth each proposed action." This particular requirement is what outlaws nominations from the floor. This law also outlawed proxies.

Mary

You are not getting my point:

WHO ARE THE NOMINEES FOR THESE POSITIONS?

IF THERE IS ONLY ONE, THEN THAT PERSON IS ELECTED!!!

YOUR PROBLEM IS NOT GETTING NOMINEES TO RUN AGAINST THESE PEOPLE!!!!!!

Well I've got the poster child HOA for member apathy. There are quite a few HOAs in the community where I live in Glendale, AZ. The gov. docs. of one assn requires a 10% dues increase each year. For 2 years running the board has proposed an amendment to do away with this requirement but they've been unable to obtain the required number of votes to pass it. Apathy is one thing when it relates to not wanting to get involved, not wanting to attend meetings, etc. But not wanting to take the time to vote on something that will result in saving you money!!! I'm sorry, but this really blows my mind.

Mary

I am slapping my self silly because you are all right! It's the community that needs to step up and get a new Board of Directors. We need people who want to serve the needs of the community by acting in this official position.

You are right about getting off our duffs and doing something. I think most people are acting like sheep in the pasture and are willing to reach back and take out more money to the tune of 3-4 million dollars.

They are in fear of retribution and understand the downright massive task in which we need to undertake to get this community back on its feet. They assume this Current board will do it but the proof is in the action that the Board has taken in wasting our money for years now and avoiding the facts and truth.

Here is a link to the By-Laws;
http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/pdf/neighnews/341355182/631546260/642289929.pdf

We have a 60% renter rate

We have 298 members

We have 70 Townhomes, 230 Condos

We pay $298 per month for a one bedroom and $615 for a 3 Bedroon Townhome
Emergency Assessment in Place with another 3-4 Million on the way

We have 75 Deadbeats with past dues

We have 18 building roofs that have been leaking for years now.

http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/centennial/hmca/

I Must Keep The Faith

Our elections are this week, and we have done everything to try to insure a quorum. Sent letters, emails, telling people not to vote by proxy. We even moved the elections into the clubhouse to make it easier for all.... Will we make quorum? Who knows. But I can tell you as a standing BOD member, I hope we do. I would hate to be in a postion of having the same BOD year after year. At my job, we allow proxies votes by BOD members by email or fax.(This is a multi-million dollar organization, and it works for them. That might be a solution, since people can vote from their home. The problem we have is that people now give their intent to run from the floor the night of the election. It would be preferred that they give their intent well before the meeting, so people can make a more educated choice.

It is far from a perfect process now.

Pat