How Stale is Voting Members' List?

Just how stale is the Voting Members' list on the HOA's website?

Some neighborhoods don't have any Alternates. Some neighborhoods don't even have Voting Members, although names are still show on the list and in The Summit Scoop. And many neighborhoods don't have legitimate voting members.

Late last year the HOA president appointed Jesse McClinton, of the Amaryllis Neighborhood, as the Chair of the Neighborhood Committee of the Board.

One of his responsibilities is to organize the Voting Members (Neighborhood Representatives). Presumably, this means helping the 28 neighborhoods to hold the Neighborhood Meetings that are required under the By-Laws. In those Meetings, each Neighborhood is to hold an annual Election of a three-member Neighborhood Committee, from which the Voting Member and two Alternates are selected. This is to happen every year. The Voting Member serves for one year only.

The Voting Member represents you, the homeowner. He (or she) represents ALL the homeowners in the Neighborhood, when it is time to elect Directors each November and to vote on items like sheds, above-ground pools, basketball stands, etc.

The Voting Members are the most important persons in the HOA, even more important than the Board Members, because they elect the Board Members - and they can remove them. Voting Members are more important organizationally than homeowners, because homeowners have no vote.

Jesse announced two meetings of Voting Members this year. Very few showed up at the first, and he canceled the second (April 20th).

It is very likely that the HOA has NO legitimate Voting Members, because the 28 neighborhoods may not have held a Neighborhood Meeting or a Neighborhood Election within the past year or two. Certainly, in the Barony Place Neighborhood (78 homes in Barony Place I and Barony Place II) there was no Neighborhood Meeting in 2021, 2020, 2019, or 2018. Thus, Barony Place has no legitimate Voting Member or Alternates.

Why wouldn't the Board see that annual Neighborhood Meetings and Elections happen? Becausse, without them, the same people stay in office and do not have effective oversight.

Harsh? Yes. And true. 

You don't have to wait for Jesse or the Board. You can call a Neighborhood Meeting, elect the Neighborhood Committee, and ask your own Voting Member to attend board meetings and represent your interests. The Barony Place Voting Member (as shown in The Scoop and on the website) did not attend one board meeting in 2020, 2021 or so far this year.

Create a neighborhood newsletter or a private Facebook group, such as the one for Lakes at Barony Place.

Require the Board to comply with the By-Laws. Hold the Board accountable.