Rescinding Resignation -Help!

The President of our HOA ask the Board to accept the rescinding of his resignation. The The remaining Board members accepted (quorum). At a emergency meeting of the HOA a homeowner and wife made a motion to deny the rescinding and the wife second it. Is this enforceable.

SusanW1,

Thanks for your reply. I am the President in question that had resigned (family medical-cancer) w/o a formerly held Board meeting nor was the resignation accepted/acknowledge by the Board. Because a issue was brought up by a member about Covenant enforcement I sent an email to the Board members asking to rescind the resignation so I could address the issue as President and they accepted before the meeting. Our Bylaws state that the Board can appoint a replacement following a resignation. I'm in the State of Florida and trying to review Chapter 720-HOA.

Ben

RobertR1,

Thanks for the response. No, my written resignation was not given to the Board at a legal meeting of the Board. I took over as President at a special meeting of the HOA in April 2006 when the previous President just quit out of frustration and the remaining members of the then Board quit along with her. At that point, the Membersip just tried to get thru a bad situation and I was ask to be President and a new Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and two at-large board members were elected. Since then, the Secretary quit after three months , the Treasurer after six months and the Vice-President after ten months and one At-Large never did not show up at any Board meetings and was automatically removed after missing three meetings according to the Bylaws. It has been difficult just trying to get volunteers to fill these positions.

In our HOA, officers serve dual roles as Director/Officer but our Bylaws state the Directors are to serve three year terms and officers, one year terms. I wasn't able to have an annual meeting last year (2007) and the Annual meeting for 2008 will be held the fourth Thursday of January 2009. All current Officers were elected by the Board except the President. At this point, I'm not sure if I have a properly elected Board or not.

Ben

Ben, we had a situation similiar last year. Our then president sent out a letter to every member that she was resigning from the board as of August 1, 2007. (She did this in mid July.) We were panicking until August 1st because we were afraid she would back out and say she wanted to stay on the board. We held our breath until we had a meeting on August 2nd to ACCEPT her resignation and to announce that there was an open seat on the board.

Until it is officially noted and accepted as part of the minutes, she could have stated she "changed her mind" at any time before that. If your board has not responded, nor accepted your resignation you're still on the board. Regular members (not board members) have no say in the matter. One you are all elected, the only time members can get you off the board is through a proper, legal recall proceedure.

If you are going to be president, then act presidential. Fill the board with people until the next election. This should not have been your job alone.

There should have been (established by YOU) some kind of Nomination Committee whose job it is to find viable, willing board members. That's not your job.

I am concerned about this line in your post: "I wasn't able to have an annual meeting last year . . "

Since the Annual Meeting of the Members is not YOUR meeting, the members should have held it anyway and elected someone to preside over it, if you could or would not.

Anna,

Very helpful reply. I'm getting to the point that I am in agreement as to my status as President after reviewing Chapter 720 over and over, our Bylaws and Robert's Rules of Order. A couple month's ago I started sending out Community Updates as the Board of Directors---since becoming President I've been the Jack of all trades, assisting the Treasurer and Secretary. The members that typically attend our meetings have been satisfied with what I have been trying to do for the Association and don't want me to resign. This last Community Update I sent out was to provide minutes of our last Board Meeting and announce our initial "Rules and Regulations" and the establishment of a "Fine Committee" and a tentative schedule Fine amounts. My wife (Treasurer)is going through Chemo for breast cancer,and at the last moment---I guess thru fatigue and frustration--- I included in the update that we were resigning and that I would assist with the duties of the President and assume the duties of the Treasurer--pending Board Approval(probabbly not the best way to handle it). None of this had been done formally to the Board and neither had they accepted my resignation. My intent was to remain on the Board to help out but reduce some of my workload.

A couple of days after the Community Update, a member dropped off a note on the windshield of my vehicle complaining that we were in violation of Florida Sunshine Law and didn't have the authority to fine and establish a Fine Committee. I responded, referencing the sections in Chapter 720 and our Bylaws that covered this. Since then it's been tit for tat. I talked it over with my wife and decided to try and rescind my resignation via email to the remaining board members and they concurred although we have not had a board meeting to formally do it, and even though I have not sent a formal resignation to the Board. The reason I asked to be reinstated was to address this member's concerns and called an Emergency meeting (24 hour notice)of the HOA just to deal with his complaints. He made a motion to delay the establishment of the Fine Committee and the issuing of fines until the Annual meeting in January to let the general membership decide and it died. He then made a motion to not accept the rescinding of my resignation and this time his wife seconded it ask me if I would step down as President. I refused and the meeting ended. I believe, at the heart of all this, is that this member was sent a notice for parking a trailer in his driveway and also a maintenance contract was cancelled that he was associated with.

Ben

okay, I just read your post. We were obviously writing at the same time.

It sounds to me that you are still president.

I don't know squat about Fl rules/laws, but I believe that officer elections/assignments are handled within the board and not by the membership anyway.

Usually.

As a rule of thumb. . . .

But not in all cases. . .

So, what do your governing docs have to say about how the officers are elected? If board selection/election only, then the motion by a member (seconded or not) to address your status as president is possibly and invalid motion?

Susanna,
Are you say in Florida, a President can be walking down the street totally alone and resign his Presidency.

That don't sound right. The President would normally submit his resignation to the Board in writing, or at a legal meeting with a quorum. The Board can vote at this time to accept it and make a note in the minutes. That means that the vice president or appointed by the Board delegate would chair that part of the meeting because the resignation would be a voice vote by the board and required recordation in the minutes. If the Board does not vote to accept the resignation the Presaident can submit his resignation in writing and that is that.
The membership never had any say in the matter of who is elected presiden. If there is a vacancy the Board can elect the new president.

Either I or Florida is out of whack, or both, and that is likely.

Ben, stick with what you're reading in the Florida State Statutes 720. Your answers are indeed there and you seem to have found what you're looking for. Good job!

It sounds as if your "neighbors" need a lot of education about what applies to your homeowners association. (We've got a neighbor JUST LIKE THEM.) They do their own little researching and try to quote laws that have nothing to do with HOA's, but try to pick out something that they think they can use against you. Board Meetings are for Board Members to conduct Association business. They have no right to make motions or votes or anything else at those meetings.

Florida Sunshine Laws do not apply to HOA's or Condos. That's why we have out own set of statutes for us.

There have been plenty of meetings across the country where a board member may get mad or frustrated and announced, "I quit" and walked out....only to show back up at the next meeting.

Keep doing what you're doing. You sound like a very valuable member of your board. I wish you and your wife a happy holiday season.

Anna

This thread is too much for me but I wanted to clarify that I have indeed read somewhere that a board member resignation does NOT necessarily have to be in writing. It can be verbally stated at a meeting, and the Minutes will reflect it. A board member in FL can also be removed from office by a vote at a meeting. But that's a different topic.

FL Chapter 617 - corps not for profit,
"a director may resign at any time by delivering written notice to the board or its chair or to the corporation."

There is also confusion about board members not necessarily acting as Directors or Officers of the HOA.
For the most part in FL all Directors are board members but there are instances where for whatever reasons, this is not the case.

Susanna, please start a new thread about this good news!!! I have something to say to you but I don't want to mix it with the original post on this!