Agenda feedback

Yes, it's TracieS again...

Our yearly members' meeting (and BOD meeting) is at the end of next month. For those of you who've read the issues I have with our association, you know it's going to be a big meeting for me. I already mailed a spring letter to our owners, and in the notice, I gave them the date/time/location/purpose of our meeting. I have to mail out a "formal" notice of the meeting within two weeks to meet the rules regarding notice of meeting for our by-laws, and in that mailing, I include the agenda, the proxy information, the location/date/time, etc.

Here's a draft of my agenda... Does it make sense? I'm following the outline of previous agendas for our association, but I'm really expanding on the new business. Does it "flow"?

Call to Order
Roll Call - Proxies - Quorum
Proof of Notice (Colorado specific requirement?)
Reading/Approval of Minutes
Financial Report (this is me as the "acting" secretary/treasurer)
Manager's Report (this is me as the Property Manager)
Directors' Reports (I'm also the President and Chair of our BOD)
Election of Officers/Directors (another time to raise hands!)
Unfinished Business - none from last year.
New Business
1. Update CC&R
2. Amend By-Laws
3. Amend Articles of Incorporation
4. Reserve Study
5. Financial Audit
6. New Law Firm
7. THA Website
8. Amend docs re: Water Bill
9. Insurance
10. Recycling
11. Corporate Seal (it's missing - who may have it?)
12. Carbon Monoxide Detectors (new Colorado law)

There's a lot of big issues they need to think about. Is it better to add some descriptive information to the agenda, so the members have a chance to think about the issue? Should I greatly expand on the new business stuff?

During the Manager's report, I'm going to drive home the issue of the CCIOA, SB 100, SB 89, SB 1359, and how our association is not compliant with ANY of them. I'm also going to have copies of all our documents at the meeting, so we can BRIEFLY discuss how out-of-date our founding docs (Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws, and CC&R) are, and then discuss the process of coming into the 21st century.

Thoughts, input, advice...all greatly appreciated, even if it's only $.02!

TracieS

Tracie,

Most likely you have way too much on the plate and will lose the interest of most of them after the financial report. The agenda is standard and looks fine but the new business needs to be either reduced and have another membership meeting or send out a draft of what your speech woudl ahve been to go with the annual. You are not in a position to put anything on the table yet, I don't think, that the membership can actually get their hands around and unless I am mistaken you have nothing for them to vote on. Maybe at this meeting it is simply a time to esplain what an association actually is and how it functions and its relationship to the State Laws as they effect your association. And by the way you are missing some of the laws that have passed. go to Hindman Sanchez's site and you can find all of them. But you have the three most critical CCIOA, SB-100 and SB-89.

any meeting that lasts longer than 1 1/2 to 2 hours loses its audience and the last half has little to no impact on the majority.

I appreciate the input, and I know it's a big agenda.

The problem I have - this is our only meeting all year. It's the only meeting of the members/owners and it's the only meeting of the BOD. We have 19 units, but a few people own several units.

Here's our breakdown:
- 1 person owns 4 units - she will send her proxies to me, as she hasn't attended a meeting in years.
- 1 person owns 3 units - she may or may not attend, but she will not serve on the board, nor does she have any concerns.
- 2 people are in the process of selling their units, so I don't think I'll even get proxies from them.
Let's see, that brings me to 9...
- 2 units are behind on dues, so they can't vote (DOES THIS CHANGE MY QUORUM COUNT????)
- 3 units are owned by members of the same family. One person will come to the meeting with the proxies for the others, and that one person will usually be goaded into serving as VP.
- another owner will send me one proxy.
- another owner will send me one proxy.
- finally, two other owners may or may not show, but they won't serve on the BOD.
- last, but certainly not least...me.

So, I'm betting that 4 people show up, but we'll have a quorum due to proxies.

KirkW1 - yes, I'm pretty sure our documents need some refreshing. They haven't changed since 1989, still list the two classes of membership, and we don't follow them. We either need to follow them, or update them. Also, I'm the elected President, and our by-laws allow the office of S/T to be held by one person. I'm not the elected S/T, just the acting S/T. Violation notices - what are those? I've never issued a violation notice... Political signs have been shown to be free speech, and I'm a huge proponent of our constitution and the individual freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Our association is so informal, I can't imagine what type of violation notice I would ever issue.

AnnJ2 - yes, it's big. But, with so few people, from Roll Call to New Business usually only takes about 10 minutes. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm missing even MORE laws that we're not compliant with???? I'm not even sure what to say about that, other than, jeez-o-man...is it ever going to end??? You're right in that there's nothing for the "membership" to vote on, just the BOD to release funds to being compliance with the laws I knew about...

SusanW1 - yes, it will be a fully outgoing board, but we'll vote the exact same people back in. Committees? I can only get 4 people to the meeting (including ME!) and I have to strong-arm people to be a figurehead and hold office so we can at least comply with that bylaw... I do agree that perhaps I'm heaping too much on, and make it more of a "these issues need to be explored and resolved". The members haven't spoken in the 6 years I've been attending these meetings, let alone being involved and on the board. I'll add a line item to the agenda for member time, but I doubt it will be used.

I think I'll revamp the New Business to the following:
1. Statutory Compliance (this will include CCIOA, SB 100, SB 89, and whatever others I'm missing, along with updating founding documents to be in compliance with state laws regarding common interest properties and non-profit corporations.
2. Operations (this would include the reserve study, financial audits, taxes, legal, website, insurance, etc).
3. Amend for water bill - this is a needed amendment, but who knows when we'll actually amend. Perhaps after legal advice on our documents.

Would that be a better, less intimidating way of handling this quagmire?

TracieS

A PROPERTY MANAGER should be hired. You don't have an active enough board or membership to run this HOA. A small executive committee can oversee the PM, and get a yearly report, .but the day to day activities should be taken over by someone.

Hi Mary,

You asked what is the purpose for alerting people to the fact that we're not in compliance. Well, in my eyes, I was hoping that by raising these issues, I might get at least one person to stop being so complacent and who might help me right things. This is NOT a case of "the last board/PM were so horrible, and now look at what I have to deal with?". It's a case of "wow, laws have changed considerably, and we haven't noticed. Let's get things fixed now before we get fined/sued/lose our non-profit status/etc."

Was I hoping incorrectly? I know our owners, well, most of them anyway. They won't be too concerned about HOW things got this way, just that we start getting them fixed. Our owners are laid-back and really just want to live their lives without too much hassle. I don't think this is going to "raise a hornet's nest" or anything even close to that. They know I'm not disgruntled, and they also know that I truly am acting in the best interest of the association (which means I'm working to PROTECT THEIR PROPERTY VALUES!!!!).

Thoughts?
TracieS

Here is the way I see it (worth the price yo paid for the advice).

You likely need 2/3s of the units approval to change the documents. That makes 13 units. You have accounted for 12 to 14 of the needed votes. (By the way those behind on dues can vote on this part.)

With the exception of yourself nobody seems to care. (Or at least they don't care enough to do anything.)

Given all of this, I would simply alert the owners that to keep things legal some changes need to be made to the documents. Tell them that you will be working with an attorney to get together proper wording and such for the documents.

Then after you have a chance to put together the amendments, work to get your needed 13 signatures.

Really, cut to the chase and give them the "Reader's Digest" version. Make the meeting short and cut to the point.