Why (Legit) Voting Members Are So Important

Why is it so important for Voting Members to be duly-elected; i.e., legitimate?

You, the homeowner, do not directly elect Directors to the Board of Directors. The Board is supposed to direct the proper operation of the Association. The Board elects the Officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer). 

Directors are elected by the Voting Members. Every Director is equal. Each has 1/7 power, authority. No single one Director is the "boss". Unless they allow that.

Voting Members are elected within their respective neighborhoods. At least, they are supposed to be. The operative word is "elected".

The Voting Member isn't elected by the homeowners. 

Every year homeowners in each neighborhood are supposed to meet and elect a three-member Neighborhood Committee. That Committee is elected to serve for one year. That (local) Neighborhood Committee then elects one of its three members to be the Voting Member.

That Voting Member can make decisions that affect you legally and financially.

This is why it is so important that Voting Members be properly elected; i.e., be duly-elected. 

The problem right now is that only one neighborhood (Barony Place) out of the 28 neighborhoods has a duly-elected, legitimate Voting Member. 

If I'm wrong about this, I'd like somebody to tell me. A homeowner can tell me; a Neighborhood Committee member can tell me; a Board member can tell me; an office employee can tell me; the HOA's attorney can tell me.

Just tell me the date when that neighborhood had its last Neighborhood Meeting; whether a quorum was present; whether a Neighborhood Committee was elected; who was elected as Voting Member. Was documentation filed with the office of the HOA?

No one must tell me any of that. Until someone does, I believe that Barony Place is the one and only neighborhood in the entire Association that has a legitimate Voting Member.

Without a sufficient number of legitimate Voting Members, there can be no Annual Meeting of Voting Members; no election of directors; no approval of changes to the CC&Rs or By-Laws; no increase in dues by more than 10%; no commencement of lawsuits (except under four conditions listed in Art. XIII, Section 10 of the CC&Rs).

"Getting signatures" is not a procedure allowed by the By-Laws. Just hanging onto the title for years is not a procedure allowed by the By-Laws. Inheriting the office is not a procedure allowed by the By-Laws. Rising from Alternate to Voting Member is not a proceedure allowed by the By-Laws.

If a legitimate Voting Member quits during the 12 months after being elected, the Neighborhood Committee (now two homeowners, not three) should meet and elect a successor Voting Member, and it should notify the office.

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