Cathy

I guess we thought that both sides would present for and against. I understand that members have a 10 minute limit. I am understanding now, from this clarification that much of the "debate" has to occurred outside the meeting and prior to the meeting. There has been a lot of misinformation presented and we will need more than 10 minutes to get the facts out. I am wondering if this is typically, and how it is handled when there almost needs to be a meeting before the special meeting, to allow people more time to become informed on the specific topics up for debate.

It says that you do not have to include the specific motions. We want to do several motions for Bylaws. The call says "to discuss Bylaws and COI" do we have to redo the special meeting call notice to say "vote on topics related to Bylaws and COI?" How should the special meeting notice read if we will vote at the meeting. i thought it was understood that we could vote. Who gets to decide who the presenters are, going back to the agenda? Is it only the people signing the petition? Then others can debate but we don't have to give them "presenting" time for non-vote related topics...would that be correct?

Does the President of the Board have to chair at a Special Meeting? Also, who sets the agenda at a Special Meeting? Members have called a special meeting and we want to be able to set the agenda and run the meeting to conduct business at the meeting, will this be possible? If the Board presides over the meeting, they will fill the meeting up with so many things on the agenda that the members will not be able to discuss and vote on the specific topics that we wish to discuss at the Special Meeting. Any advice on logistics related to creating the agenda and following the agenda is appreciated.

Thank you, those considerations are very helpful in thinking about how to approach the Board in hopes of not repeating the behavior.

Thank you for the clarification.

I understand that Boards take action through voting. The question is, whether Board members act as individual members or if they act as a Board when providing verbal opinions/statements. Recently at a Board meeting, one Officer called a member a "Liar." No one on the Board objected to it. In another instance a different officer called a different member a "Liar" via email when the email was sent to about 20 people. Besides it be disrespectful, I am wondering if there is any obligation on the part of the other Board members to object to this behavior or what is the proper recourse of action...would it be an appeal? Is appeal even an option in this case, since do decision was made by vote? In other words, if they voted to do something, I think you could ask for an appeal of the decision. But if they allowed an Officer call someone a "Liar" when the statement was unsubstantiated, is there any recourse or appeal? Does the statement just belong to the person making the claim or does the Board as a whole take any responsibility for owning the statement for not raising a point of order for the personal attacks? Thank you in advance for helping to clarify a good/reasonable procedure or addressing this behavior.

Thank you!! Got it. Found some leads. I really appreciate all the assistance.

I've haven't found an easy way to search by state...we are in CT...but I will keep on looking. Thank you.

How can you get a Parliamentarian to attend an Annual Meeting? Are Parliamentarians required for ever meeting if you are supposed to be using RORN? What are good training options to for a community if people want to more acquainted with RORN?

In our bylaws, it states that the President appoints the committee chair and the committee members, subject to the Board's approval. Lately, our Board is doing a thing where it also determines a "charter for the committee" and thereby directing the committee to decide in certain way. They also limit who can be on the committee, which means that the committee always comes back with the answer that the Board wants to hear. What are committee charters and how can we stop them? The gist is that that it is not fair but how would one argue in favor of letting the committee investigate the problem with a fair representation from the community according to 50:18, if the Board is pre-inclined towards a specific outcome and if they are using committees to get their way.

Thank you, I was considering it and I think I will need to invest in that too. Thanks.

Thank you!

Where can I find the rules about meeting notice that would pertain to yearly Association meetings. Are there any? I have ordered a copy fo RONR but not yet received it by mail, and I cannot find it on-line. What constitutes giving proper notice? I know this info is typically found in the bylaws but essentially we are looking to update our bylaws so we are looking to know what would be the reasonable procedure that we should be aiming for, if we follow RORN. The law has requirements but they are broad and we are looking to narrow it to something more reasonable. Generally, I would expect the meeting to be places in advance on the calendar and then residents get 30-day advance notice by mail for the meeting. Does that sound reasonable, are there other things to consider? How would type of thing get written in the bylaws? Any guidance or input on this topic is helpful. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for the responses.

Thank you. Yes, I see that according to state statute one can file a suit for damages if the Board does not follow the bylaws. I'll keep that info as a very last resort. I appreciate this info and I appreciate the forum for the ability to ask these questions about RONR. If things go well, I hope to educate my entire HOA on RONR. This is so very helpful!

Ugh. COVD and winter means that it is hard to get people together to organize. There are new people moving in and much of our population in our HOA are also aging and, again, especially with COVD it is hard to justify upsetting them with all this info to cause a fuss when health is many's people primary concern at the moment. We haven't had an Association meeting since 2019 because of the excuse of COVD. Provisions in the proposed bylaws that they are likely to try to pass soon via this new secret email vote means that we can never vote out the Board...they stay until they resign. Elections for 3 of the 9 don't occur until July, by then it may be too late. //content.invisioncic.com/r127373/emoticons/default_sad.png Thank you so much for the responses. Most people don't know or understand RRNR. I see why it is so important to educate people on it. Thanks again.

To continue my previous question from my "email post" what recourse do I have if my Board does not care that they are not following the bylaws or RRNR. They are arguing that it is too cumbersome to follow them, that everyone uses email and that no one can really follow RRNR all the time. They are essentially sending our secret email vote: not everyone gets the email and then there is no public accounting of who voted yes or no. The only people seeing the vote are the same people who are sending out the vote. It is all very neat and tidy. Many people who do get the email, are not aware that there are both sides of the issue they get an email saying to please vote yes, that the Board recommends voting yes. Do I have any recourse if people don't care if both bylaws and RRNR is not being followed? I sound like a crazy person to them asking that they follow the rules.

Ugh. I have pointed that out and the Board says they don't care because we 'should have it in our bylaws, that everyone uses email nowadays and we are just behind the times.' Do I have any recourse? This vote might not be so important but the next vote they will send out is to change the bylaws. Essentially, they are sending out secret vote via email...not everyone even gets it, know one sees an accounting (except the people pushing the vote) of who voted what, and there is no debate on the topic so people do not know that there are two sides on the issue. My suggestion was to call a special meeting so people could debate before voting and I was essentially laughed at. Any recommendations on what to do if no one cares that we are breaking our own rules?

Recently my HOA Board has started doing email voting. This is not permitted in the bylaws but due to COVD people have made allowances. On a recent vote, there are many procedural issues that I see, including there was no debate allowed and no information was shared pro and con concerning the topic of the vote. ,The vote was simply emailed out to most residents and people were told to reply back. There was no meeting and therefore no quorum. We have 127 households. Some people, for instance, were not notified but, we had 90 votes and the result was about evenly split, but ultimately in favor (or passing) the vote My questions is, when they post the results that they are saying passed...1) can we request that they post the names of the households and specifically how they voted, yay or ney. It says that votes via mail cannot be secret ballot so I assume that email cannot be secret ballot either but some people do not want to share the names. 2) If they are sending out via to the entire community, does that trigger the need to require a 2/3 vote rather than their needing to be a majority of quorum, as stated in our bylaws (when we vote at a meeting.) Thank you.