Most-Important HOA Overseers - MIA

Who are the most-important elected persons in The Summit's HOA?

Are they the officers of the Board? No.

Are they the directors of the HOA? No.

The most-important elected persons are the Voting Members!

For a homeowner to be elected as a Voting Member, he must first be duly-elected to the local Neighborhood Committee by his fellow homeowners.

This is where The Summit's HOA system is broken.

For years the 28 Neighborhoods of the HOA have failed to hold Annual Neighborhood Meetings. This was true of Barony Place for the first six years I lived here (2018-2024). The Voting Member "hat" just got passed around between friends.

Finally, on May 4, 2024, Barony Place held a bonafide Neighborhood Meeting with a quorum of homeowners present in-person and by proxy. A three-member Neighborhood Committee was elected, and Tracy Manderino became the Neighborhood Representative/Voting Member for the following 12 months.

The HOA recognizes 23 other homeowners as "Voting Members", but they are not legitimate Voting Members. They were not "duly-elected" by homeowners in their respective neighborhoods. 

A number of them "got signatures", a scheme dreamed up by someone several years ago who decided it was "too hard" for neighborhoods to hold meetings. It's not that hard; you just follow the By-Laws.

Others just continued to act like "Voting Members", even though they weren't "duly-elected" every year. Some of them do a great job, fulfilling duties of a Voting Member. But they are not legitimate Voting Members.

At least one took over after her husband passed away about ten years ago. 

Homeowners do not vote for Directors. The Voting Member is your voice, your vote. This is why it is so important to have a legitimate Voting Member.

The Voting Members represent you. They should monitor how the Board of Directors is doing. They elect Directors. They can remove Directors.

If a Director is doing a terrible job, they can remove him (or her). It happened in the past.

Frankly, it should happen again. The HOA is not a little, after-school club. It is a South Carolina non-profit corporation with a $1.5 Million budget and with $1.5 Million cash in banks. 

Are Voting Members failing in their roles? Not really, because they aren't any (except one). One legitimate Voting Member has absolutely no power over the illegitimate Board of Directors.

If there were 28 legitimate Voting Members, they could force the Board to comply with the By-Laws. If members of the Board did not, they could call a Special Meeting of Voting Members and get rid of the bad apples.

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