Recall of the Board

This letter was suggested to go with a copy of the signatures on a pettion to recall our Predident and ammend a current CCR
I'd love some input on the letters wording THANKS:

To: The Current Board of Cherry Ridge Home Owners Association
From: A Group of Home Owners in the Neighborhood of Cherry Ridge within the City of Troutdale Oregon
Enclosed is a petition of signatures representing at the very least a minimum quorum of home owners of the Cherry Ridge Home Owners in Troutdale Oregon . The enclosed petition contains 78 signatures of home owners and is notice by these signatures of the board to hold a special meeting under the guidelines set forth in ORS 94.650

This letter notifies and requests the current home owners board members to hold a meeting of the Cherry Ridge HOA at the earliest reasonable date, time and place.

At the onset of this meeting a registration of all home owners in attendance shall be taken. This registration shall be taken by a third party such as an accountant, bookkeeper, attorney, that in performance of their duties are being compensated by the Cherry Ridge HOA. This person will also be used to count and tabulate homeowners votes when necessary.

It is rather unfortunate that a special meeting was required and met due to the unwillingness of the board to compromise on a number of topics. The board rather than seeking to work with our neighbors has chosen to force them to hold a special meeting.

Below is a list of agenda items for the meeting. The meeting must be conducted using Roberts Rules of Order. If the board does not follow the general guidelines set forth by Roberts Rules of Order, a person shall be appointed to act at this facilitator.

The meeting will be called to order using Roberts Rules of Order by the current President of the Association or by a facilitator voted for by a show of hands appointed by the people, or both.

The first item on the agenda due to the need under ORS 94.640 6b is the discussion, vote and possibly removal of each board member.

Second, If board members are removed nominations for board member candidates will be considered voted on and appointed.

Third, Basic rules of the HOA when addressing home owners will be considered. For example, request for hearings, how the board votes what represents a decision of this vote, how this vote is to be conducted, for example in public and what discussions by the board can be in private under the associations bylaws and Oregon Law. These are just a small list to consider, but all times brought up in discussion shall be addressed by the board whether at the time of this meeting the answers are available. It will be the boards duty to find the answers to these questions as requested by home owners as best they can and with reasonable consideration for each question.

Forth, Time will be given and discussion will be considered to changes of the current association bylaws. Discussion will seek to understand the process in amending the current bylaws, making resolutions to the bylaws, etc.

Fifth, All home owners will be asked if they would like to discuss certain particular matters with the board. Each of these items will be considered with reasonable time give to each issue. If the board finds further discussion of these items are necessary the board may request the meeting to be continued at the soonest earliest reasonable date, time and place.

Sixth, The floor will be open for all items of discussion.

Finally, A motion shall be made to conclude the meeting and if a second is taken and vote of the majority is met, the meeting shall end

Well the first thing I noticed is that you plan to 1 remove the old board 2.get a new board and 3 put the new board in the hotseat to answer questions (most likely questions that they are mad at the old board about) Would the new board be ready for this? What if you don't like the answers the new board gives? Do you think you will have trouble getting people to volunteer or do you already have a new board in mind

second thing I notice is from A group of homeowners in the cherry ridge neighborhood Are you in the association or do you just live in the neighborhood? if you are in the association it should state so, leave the neighborhood part out How many boards members do you have? how many do you want to remove? What positions are these? The truth is that a lot of homeowners probably have no idea how many or who is on the board or what they do or don't do. And you may have a perfectly good board member that is being thrown out simply because they are a minority vote on the board. And I agree with the previous post, with 78 on the pettition alone it looks like you may be planning a 12 hr meeting

Helen ,We are an assoc. Our by-laws state a with or without cause removal. We only want to remove 1 if his buddys want to go so be it . We have members ready to step in pro term. We currently have 4 boards and 2 rarely get involved in residental issues. They over see a apt. and strip mall. So realy only 2 run the assoc. We want to change to add 3 plus the 2 . My main concern is the letter going stating the agenda for the special meeting is correct.

I agree with Susan. The petition should be direct and to the point. Don't go on and on about everything that is wrong or needs to be amended. As long as you state what is on the agenda that should be fine.

I would not advise holding a Board meeting to discuss the "issues" immediatley after the new members are voted onto the Board. They will have been on the Board for all of "0" minutes and they are to start making decisions? Give them some time to properly consider the issues at hand and then set a Board meeting to focus on those items alone. It smacks of a personal agenda when they get elected to the Board and start making decisions to amend the docs right off the bat.

Two things, Jim, first, why do you need a "recall"? If the homeowners are unhappy with the current board, vote them off next election. You mention you "notified" them of something in October of 2009? No action was taken? That you know of. . . . so you want to immediately kick them out? Just get rid of them in a couple months at election time. You should already be well within your neighborhood campaign knocking on doors and letting people know it's time for the deadwood to go. . .

Next, I really really REALLY a detailed explanation of THIS statement: "Most are on the board to . . < snip >. . serve themselves with their own perks."

I've been on my board for over 12 years. I'd like to know what "perks" I'm missing. . . .

To MicheleD
You ask:::
MicheleD: You say::::
Next, I really really REALLY a detailed explanation of THIS statement: "Most are on the board to . . < snip >. . serve themselves with their own perks."

I've been on my board for over 12 years. I'd like to know what "perks" I'm missing. . . .
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Michele: How about when a "homeowner" formally submits an arc request to replace a kitchen door with, a type of door not previously approved by the association?
The request is denied, because it is not among the three types of door previously approved.
Her door replacement is denied on Tuesday, at the board meeting. Then on Friday, of the same week the board members receive an email request from a "fellow board member" saying she had found a set of French Doors at Lowes on sale, and wanting to save $100.00 needed the door approved by Saturday.
Five of the members out of nine voted without question for her to replace her sliding patio doors with the new French Doors.
These type of doors had never been approved as replacements on the patios, and I think it clearly comes off as a perk for the board member.
Our bylaws clearly state before any changes to our guidelines can be made, they must first be announced, and opinions received from the entire association.
The same board member put in a request to replace her front door and, remove one foot of bricks on each side of her living room to have an extra large window. The window was denied, but we decided since she had already installed the illegal front door, to grandfather it in until they moved.
Then she removed some bricks in the front (no arc request)and installed a pellet stove in her living room, and put a long black stove pipe out the front for ventilation.
She was made to remove the stove pipe, and replace the bricks back to as close as possible to the original look.
That did not work either, bacause the homes are over thirty years old.
We are 167 Townhomes in a private community, and this mental thinking leads to my saying the board is very dysfunctional. The prevalling attitude is if you are a member of the board (you will definetely get your way, more then if you are not)
It was only because, at the time we had a very knowledgable property manager that some of the things the board members would have approved for this "fellow board member" a stop was put on her acivities. However! that manager is no longer with us, and things are beginning to happen again.
Favoratism will prevail:::::::::::::

James, you are talking out of both sides of your mouth.

This person clearly was going to behave the way she did regardless of whether she was on the board, but being that some of her shenanigans were denied, I still don't see any "perks."

Do you have any idea what "perks" are?

And what the word "most" means?

I mean, you said "Most are on the board. . . . for the perks. . ."

All you described was one pushy woman trying to get her way. Which, again, I'm quite sure she would have tried to do without being on the board.

Seriously, I trust that there are bad board members out there. I've run into a few, but not any that have done any serious or permanent damage. Most that are bad are just jerks and would be whether they were board members or soccer coaches or Wal-mart greeters.

But I'm still waiting to find out what "perks" board members get.

We don't get paid.

We get slammed for every rotten thing that happens, even snow and ice.

We give hours of work to improve the community, only to have people complain that we don't make homeowners take their empty garbage cans in fast enough.

Then the garbage can people sneer at us for asking them to follow the governing documents regarding garbage cans.

We get accused of mishandling funds. . . . because we can't afford snow removal. Never mind that we can't budget for it because the very people complaining either won't pay on time or are in collections.

I just had a lady call me today ranting that she never receives any notices and is convinced we are purposely keeping information from her. We never get any of her notices back as undeliverable, yet for some reason she claims she never gets any information. However, she happened to call me on the NEW phone number that went out in the last mailing. Opps.

I want some perks.

Just tell me what they are.

Michele/MaryA1-----MaryA1 you say:
James,
I don't know how you can say board members recieve perks, then in the next breath state all the ARC changes made by a board member that were denied.
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Not meant to slam either of you, but my personal view of board members are this:

To want to be a member of the board of a community you have to fit one of four catagories.
1) Have no life of your own.
2) Want to be kept up on the gossip within the community.
3) It's a power thing.
4) Someone is actually interested in maintaing their property values, and volunteer to their best for the community.

A couple of years ago I was seriously concerned with the deteriotion of some homes within our community.
I purchased our home in the community, because it has an HOA... I agreed to follow the rules of the Association, and expected the board to engorce the rules which I agreed to follow. Ours was not enforcing anything. I decided to get on the board, became the arc chairman, and with the help of a great management company rep, we achieved "far more" positive things for the community, then had been undertaken for over ten years.
Having achieved the things that brought stability back to the community, I resigned from the board, because I have a life.
While attending a board meeting two years ago, the homeowner in question about the serious arc violations stood up, and said she wanted to serve on the board, because she would like to change the color of her house. (Townhomes all being the same color, but she wanted to change hers. My first thought was, why would anyone buy a house if they did not like the color. She had just moved into our community. She was elected to serve however, because no other homeowners were interested.)
Last year I decided to try, and stop the nonsense, and was elected back onto the board.
The arc request that were denied has nothing to do with the "perk" given to her for the door change which was denied another homeowner.
The vote was taken on line, and making the mistake of thinking the other members would use common sense, and not vote to approve it, myself and three others not voting, it was passed. This also became a quideline change to our rules/regulations which by law, has to be at least discussed by the whole community. Thus the term dysfunctional I used in describing the current board. (of which I am still a part)

Since the two of you have a combination of over 9,000 posts, on the forum, I have to commend you for what appears to be a genuine concern for issues involving HOA's, but wonder why anyone would want to be on the board for over twelve years. All that strees, and strain???????????????????.

I think you deserve some "perks"
Sorry for the long rant:
Jim

My and my husband's home was a major purchase and a major investment for us. We have put a lot of improvements into it over those 12 years, including cutting edge eco-friendly alterations, such as solar panels and a metal roof, just to name a couple.

This neighborhood was a moderately upscale development built in an area that is traditionally considered "blue collar," generally meaning, in our neck of the woods, "I can do whateverthehellIwant with my property, including parking a semi-truck or hang a engine block from a tree."

Several of us on the board did not intend to stay so closely involved for so long, it just worked out that way.

Those of us who cycle back on, we have found a way to divvy up the work so that it's not necessarily a "burden" to any one of us.

However, that doesn't stop miscreants from trying to derail the CC&Rs by periodically attempting to do things like this:







You see, the original approved fence fell over during a storm. The owners didn't want to mess with replacing it, so they installed a sort of cattle wire fence, cut off the posts, left the wooden "gate," and there you go.

Stopping this sort of thing is well worth the frustration and "stress" of dealing with the HOA for 12 years.

It's called protecting my investment.

Is it sometimes a full-time job? Can be. But as long as I can do it, and do it fairly and protect other people's investment as well, I'm a happy camper.