Barony Place I/Barony Place II

Does The Summit's HOA have a functioning Nominating Committee? I say it doesn't. But it should! What does it do? It prepares a slate of candidates for election to the Board of Directors in November of each year. What else does it do? When there is a vacancy on the Board (there were two vacancies in November 2023 and two vacancies in May 2025), it should make recommendations to the Board for filling the vacancies. In November of each year, the Board holds an Organizational Meeting to elect officers of the Board. At that time the President is to appoint a chairman of the Nominating Committee. (PRM, Art. III, §H(1) - (Page 22)) The Chairman selects the members of the Committee. The Board is to approve all the members of the Committee, including the Chairman.  Did the Property Manager remind the Board President of this responsibility? Shouldn't it be on the checklist for the Organizational Meeting? Since December, no Chairman of the Nominating Committee has been listed in The S...

When I lived in northern Illinois (not Chicago) in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I attended City Council meetings in a small town (< 25,000), where the Mayor knew and followed parliamentary procedures. In 2018 I began attending Richland 2 School Board meetings. Some of the board chairmen knew, and some of them tried to follow, parliamentary procedures. They had Executive Sessions at almost every board meeting, and they mostly, but not always, followed the rules. Now we come to The Summit's HOA. They don't know, and they don't follow, parliamentary procedures. This is one of the reasons that monthly board meetings are so chaotic. Robert's Rules of Order (RONR) is mentioned in the By-Laws (Art. VI, §2).  "Section 2. Parliamentary Rules. Except as may be modified by Board resolution, Robert’s Rules of Order. [ sic ] (current edition) shall govern the conduct of Association proceedings when not in conflict with South Carolina law, the Articles of Incorporation, t...

State Sen. Overture Walker (SC Sen. Dist. 22) was at the June 3rd BOD meeting of The Summit's HOA to discuss a bill that will give HOAs the authority to declare non-fireworks zones. Unfortunately, that board meeting was moved to the small HOA office at the last minute and closed to homeowners. The Minutes included this sentence, "For The Summit to become a prohibited firework zone each homeowner would need to agree and submit the agreement to RCSD."  Does that sentence make sense to anyone? I oppose such a law and will so inform Sen. Walker. If you wish to express your opinion to Sen. Walker, use the webform at  https://www.scstatehouse.gov/email.php?T=M&C=1889772501

Be sure to read the President's Report on Page 1 of the July 2025 Summit Scoop. It reads, in part,  "We are also in the process of addressing an emergency breach in the dam.  We are expending a great deal of funds to address this emergency and satisfy DEHEC’s oversight.  This is becoming a costly project that will impact our finances.  "It has been determined that, based on our current expenditure and the future financial pending obligations, it will be necessary to raise our regime fees by $25.00 each six month period,  for a total of $50 annually." By the way, somebody should tell Danny that it's DHEC , not DEHEC. And does Danny mean an increase of $25.00 every six-month period? So, $50.00 in 2026, and $50.00 in 2027, and $50.00 in 2028, etc.? He's not clear, is he? Danny Trapp must have forgotten that the Finance Committee requested a $50.00 increase in the 2025 Assessment in October 2024. That was rejected in a pre-board meeting, causing the Finance Commi...

The July Summit Scoop has been published. On Page 2 the names of two new directors are listed and the officer positions they are now holding. The new directors are listed as William Hill and Noel Weatherbee. The new Secretary is listed as Noel Weatherbee, and the new Treasurer is listed as William Hill. In view of the serious parliamentary procedural errors made in the July 1st Board Meeting, Hill and Weatherbee may or may be the new directors, If they aren't, then they cannot be the new officers. They were chosen in what was actually a pre-board workshop, not an Executive Session. Regardless of what that meeting before the Regular Session is called, there should not have been decisions made outside of the Regular Meeting as to who would be appointed and who would be elected. The appointments of new Directors should have been made in the open, Regular Board Meeting. The election of the Secretary and of the Treasurer should have been conducted in the open, Regular Board Meeting. The...

The HOA still has five directors (really only four) and no Secretary and no Treasurer. What went wrong at last night's Board meeting? Based on information received from several people who were there, the Board met in "executive session" before the Regular Meeting started. That's a misnomer, because it wasn't an executive session! If it was called as an "Executive Session", then the rules ( Robert's Rules of Order §9:24) for entering Executive Session were not followed. The correct procedure is to start the Regular Meeting, hear and vote on a Motion to enter Executive Session for a stated purpose, recess and meet in a private setting, and then leave Executive Session and return to the Regular Meeting. No appointments are to be made and no elections are to be held in Executive Session! I didn't personally observe what happened when the Regular Meeting started. I did learn that there was no discussion of Patricia Pollin's ineligibility to be on...