Where Do I Get My Information?


When I lived in northern Illinois (not Chicago) in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I attended City Council meetings in a small town (< 25,000), where the Mayor knew and followed parliamentary procedures.

In 2018 I began attending Richland 2 School Board meetings. Some of the board chairmen knew, and some of them tried to follow, parliamentary procedures. They had Executive Sessions at almost every board meeting, and they mostly, but not always, followed the rules.

Now we come to The Summit's HOA. They don't know, and they don't follow, parliamentary procedures. This is one of the reasons that monthly board meetings are so chaotic.

Robert's Rules of Order (RONR) is mentioned in the By-Laws (Art. VI, §2). 

"Section 2. Parliamentary Rules. Except as may be modified by Board resolution, Robert’s Rules of Order. [sic] (current edition) shall govern the conduct of Association proceedings when not in conflict with South Carolina law, the Articles of Incorporation, the Declaration, or these By-Laws."

I would be surprised if any Board member in the past six years knows anything about RONR, has read any parts of it, or owns a copy.

A legitimate Executive Session is one in which discussions are secretive; the Session is private, confidential, and for specific and sensitive topics.

No elections are to be held. No appointments are to be made. No deals are to be made on who will be elected or appointed. 

You don't leave Executive Session and then blurt out in public what happened in Executive Session.

Isn't that what happened last Tuesday night, July 1st? Wasn't the audience told who had been appointed to the Board and who would be the new Secretary and Treasurer?

Where was the agenda item for the public, monthly, Regular Board Meeting to discuss and make appointments (by voting!) to fill vacancies on the Board? Where was discussion and voting on who would be the new Secretary and the new Treasurer? Who voted for, and who voted against? Who were the candidates? How many candidates were there?

Who on the Board is supposed to know protocol and parliamentary procedures? The President of the Board! Who is supposed to follow the rules of conduct for meetings and keep order? The President of the Board. Who should do things correctly, so that there are no questions about whether appointments or elections are legitimate? The President of the Board. 

As a result of mishandling the procedures last Tuesday, the HOA still has two vacancies on the Board. The HOA still has no legitimate Secretary and no legitimate Treasurer - in violation of State law!

I used to make suggestions to the Boards that I hoped would be helpful. In compliance with the Injunction that prohibits me from communicating with the Board and attending meetings, I no longer do so.  I do not communicate with the Board or the office or go to meetings.

No board member communicates with me. I'm fairly sure the HOA's law firm (Turner Padget) would have instructed them not to communicate with me and to let their lawyers do the talking. And I'm sure he is happy to do so for $300-$400-$500/hour. When you are suing someone, you shouldn't go around your lawyer.

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