Who are the Legitimate Voting Members?

Every November the HOA is to convene an Annual Meeting of Voting Members. One important duty is the election of three or four directors, who will serve for two years.

Perhaps the founders of the HOA should have been more specific and stated legitimate Voting Members.

It is simple to determine whether a Voting Member is legitimate. The office should have documentation of the Annual Neighborhood Meeting for each of the 28 Neighborhoods of the HOA. That meeting should have been held within the previous 12 months (or so).

The on-site Property Manager should present this documentation to the Secretary of the HOA prior to the date of the Annual Meeting of Voting Members. My best guess is that this has not been done in past years.

When the Annual Meeting convenes, the very first step by the President and Secretary should be to verify that a quorum of legitimate Voting Members is present. That step should be reflected in the Minutes of the Annual Meeting. 

If that quorum of legitimate Voting Members is not present, then the Meeting cannot be convened and there cannot be an election of directors.

Since there are no Minutes of these important meetings, there are no records of such verification. 

If an audit were made of documentation on file in the HOA office of Neighborhood Meetings and elections of Neighborhood Committees and then of the Voting Member, what would the result be?

Who are not legitimate Voting Members?

- Those who "got signatures" on a form provided by the HOA office;
- Those who have remained long-time "Voting Members" without Annual Neighborhood Meetings;
- Those who "moved up", when the Voting Member" became a board member, moved, resigned, abandoned the position, got tired, or otherwise stopped serving.

There is one way, and one way only, to become a legitimate Voting Member. It is spelled out in the By-Laws at Art. V, §3 Neighborhood Committees. (Not to be confused with the HOA's Neighborhood Committee (PRM, Art. II, §B, ¶8)).

The HOA's Neighborhood Committee is a "Standing Committee", but it was arbitrarily disbanded by the HOA President shortly after he took office. This Committee is responsible for helping the 28 Neighborhoods to stay in compliance with the by-Laws regarding legitimate Voting Members.

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