Vacancies in Board

Our HOA president recently passed away. His term would be up 2011. It was announced at our January 14 BOD meeting that we would be replacing the president right then and there. This New Buisness was not on the Agenda I had received several days prior but was listed on the 'Revised Agenda' that was handed to me. The acting president had recruited a resident to be at the meeting and he proceeded to nominate the recruit. I was opposed to this because I felt like notice should have been given to the residents before appointing a new board member. the night before the meeting I sent a message to our neighborhood Yahoo group (not all the residents are on the group) that there was a position available but I didn't know we would be appointing someone the next night since it was not on the agenda. I was out voted by the 2 other BOD that were in attendance. Is this the normal way to fill a vacancy?

My other concern is that no matter who filled the vacancy they would assume the open position & term which was the President. That is how I had interprutted our Bylaws below. After reading an email tonight, I understand the VP is still the acting President until elections in June and the new board member is a director.

Please share your thoughts on this.

Vacancies in Board.
Whenever a vacancy in the membership of the Board of Directors shall occur, the remaining members of the Board of the Directors shall have the power, by a majority vote, to select a person to serve the unexpired term of the vacancy.

Thank you,
Meg

I don't see a problem with how this was handled. We have had to appoint someone on short notice before as well.

Meg,
The only thing that I see your Board did not follow the Statutes was in not posting the correct agenda 48 hours prior to the meeting. They should have postponed the meeting and rescheduled it with the correct agenda. But I think that you are being overly concerned about what position the new member takes on the Board. It is their duty to select among themselves , who will fill the directors and officer slots. This was basically an emergency situation and not something that you should be irred about. At least you have a full Board again. Many places are so hurting for Board members that drastic steps must be taken to fill the positions.

Thank you all for your replies. My question has been answered about 'how to fill a vacancy'.

I agree with Gerald, "In my opinion the best method for vacancy fill is to provide the entire membership notice of the open seat and to hold interviews and make a choice as a Board."

That seems like a fair and just way to operate.

BTW, My message to the Yahoo group went out after I heard the acting president was lining up a candidate. So yes, Word does travel fast! I did the best I could to notify the residents.

Open communication to all board members would be a wonderful thing.

Thanks again

The current Board or anyone who has attended meetings in the past would know of other residents who are interested. I have lived with the same neighbors for the past 5 years and am very aware of who is and definitley isn't interested.

We do not need to notify the entire membership to call someone up who was interested at the last meeting and ask them to take the spot until elections.

Yup, I agree with Susan,

The Statutes say that the Board appoints a replacement for missing BOD members. It is not a political process where the membership gets it's say-so. A good Board might take the time to ask for volunteers and we do not know if Megs board did that.