Minutes of BOD Organizational Meeting?

There were several procedural errors at the November 12, 2024 regular board meeting. But does the Board care?

When the meeting started at 6:30PM, there were two new faces at the board table. Ciara Bates and LaToya Adams had just been elected to the Board minutes earlier in the Annual Meeting of Voting Members.

It wasn't a bonafide meeting of Voting Members, because there couldn't have been a quorum of legitimate Voting Members, and it wasn't a valid election for the same reason.

Ciara and LaToya were seated and no one bothered to introduce them! Before the meeting started, Patricia Pollin, chair of the Nominating Committee, had made an announcement of the results of the election. But that was before the meeting started.

And later the Minutes of the meeting did not even record Ciara and LaToya as being present!!! And that omission wasn't corrected at the Dec. 3rd board meeting, before the Minutes were approved.

The next procedural error was the failure to elect officers. The 6:30PM Board meeting was the first board meeting after the Annual Meeting of Voting Members. It is also known as the Organizational Meeting.

The election of officers should have been the first order of business. 

It is believed that the Organizational Meeting was held three days later, on Friday, November 15, as a private, closed, secret meeting of the board. Why wouldn't they hold the election of officers in public, in compliance with the By-Laws (Art. III, §B, ¶8)?

Why wasn't the result of the election of officers promptly announced to the Membership? In fact, there wasn't any announcement! The Directors' block in the December Summit Scoop named the officers. 

Was the Chair of the Nominating Committee appointed at the Organizational Meeting? That requirement is found in the PRM (Art. III, §H Nominating Committee Procedures, ¶1)) 

"The nominating committee chairman is named by the SCA Board President at the board officer election meeting. The nominating committee members are selected by the chairman. All nominating committee members are approved by the BOD. Family members of candidates will not serve on the Nominating Committee."

I raised the issue of the officer elections at the November 2023 board meeting, and one director said the Organizational Meeting would be held several days later. 

For most of 2024 there was no chairman of the Nominating Committee, because no one was named when the BOD held it secret, private, closed 2023 Organizational Meeting after the date of the first meeting following the Voting Members' meeting and election.

Eventually the President, Danny Trapp, named a chairman of the Nominating Committee at the September 10, 2024 board meeting. There was no vote by the Board to approve that. The reality is that the HOA had no legitimate chair of the Nominating Committee.

Why should a Nominating Committee chair have been appointed in November 2023? Because a board vacancy occurred in May when Tommy Williams quit, and the Nominating Committee should have prepared names of homeowners to be considered for appointment by the board to succeed Williams.

But why sweat the small stuff; right?

This is why it is so important to have an experienced, well-trained, professional Property Manager of the HOA. That person would guide the HOA's officers in doing things right. The lay directors should not be expected to know every section of the Governing Documents.

If the Board used the monthly Agenda properly, these important items would not be overlooked. 

I've been told that the women in the office are doing the best they can. The Summit's HOA has settled for what CAMS has provided. The 2025 Budget allocated $185,000 for on-site management, which includes the handyman. Will it get its money's worth?