Getting Signatures - Legitimate?

Why does the Board think that "getting signatures" is a legitimate method of selecting a Voting Member?

Who came up with that scheme?

How many years ago did that start?

A board member emailed me last February, 

"Over the years, it became increasingly difficult to recruit homeowners willing to act as Neighborhood Voting Members, let alone attend an annual meeting to elect such positions. I can not [sic] give you an exact date, but a previous board decided to allow VMs to be "elected" through collecting signatures which serve, in essence, as a written vote." 

Collecting signatures is not being elected, even if you put it in quotation marks. That looks nice, but the By-Laws don't allow it. Since the By-Laws don't allow it, the Board cannot allow it. 

Whoever drafted the By-Laws anticipated the problem. A quorum for a Neighborhood Meeting can be met by homeowners attending in-person or by proxy.

That's what got us a quorum in Barony Place. About eleven homeowners attended, and there were 21 proxies. Sure, it took some legwork and phone caxlls between the first and second meeting. But it happened!

If a previous board did decide that attempt to create an alternate scheme, then it's in the Minutes of that meeting. The Secretary or the Property Manager should be able to produce those Minutes. However, no Board can arbitrarily decide to do something that is not allowed in the By-Laws, so the decision is not effective. And no time need be wasted trying to find it.

Past President Justin Martin might know. Any board member could ask him. If you know him, ask him.

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