How to Know If Your NH has a Legitimate VM

How can you tell, quickly and easily, whether your neighborhood has a legitimate Voting Member?

First, look up your neighborhood on the HOA's website (RESIDENTS, VOTING MEMBERS) or in The Summer Scoop.

Do you see three names there? On the website is the first name underscored? Is there an email address for the underscored name?  The underscore indicates who is the Voting Member and reveals the email address, if you hover your mouse over the name. The other two are Alternates.

Very likely, if there is only one name or two, your neighborhood did not have a Neighborhood Meeting within the past 12 months, as required in the By-Laws. 

There is one way, and one way only, to become a Voting Member. That way is described in the By-Laws.

The Boards of the HOA have, over the past 5-10 years, recognized other homeowners as "Voting Members" who were not duly-elected within their neighborhoods. There is a good reason that the word "shall" appears in the By-Laws. That means it's not optional. Art. V, §3 (Pages 10-11) is where to look. Ex.,
  • Neighborhood Committees shall consist of three (3) members
  •  members of each Neighborhood Committee shall be elected by the vote
  • Committee members shall be elected for a term of one (1) year
  • Each Neighborhood Committee shall elect a chairman from among its members who shall at its meetings and who shall be responsible for transmitting any and all communications to the Board of Directors and shall be the Voting Member from that Neighborhood. 
  • Each Neighborhood Committee shall elect a chairman ...
  • (chairman ...  shall be responsible for transmitting any and all communications to the Board of Directors 
  • (chairman) ... shall be the Voting Member from that Neighborhood. 
What is so hard for the Board of Directors to understand???

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