Election nominations

[Guest jake]

HOA had two board members (President and vice President) notified association they would not seek reelection. Nominations were made we had enough candidates to fill openings. We can vote by proxy and the vast majority of our members do. 3 months later at annual meeting election time the two board members said they had changed their mind and had someone nominate them and then they used the proxies to vote themselves back into office. Our bad many of use had assumed we would have new board members and felt blindsided. in 30+ years no board has ever done this before. Our bylaws direct us to use most current Roberts for meetings and conduct business. Bylaws are specific on voting but silent on nomination. Floor nominations work best for us. We could use committee but we still come back to floor nominations on election day, How can we use Roberts rule and not have this happen again? Can we make group rules, or standing rules?

[Gary Novosielski]

There's not much you can do; it appears no rules were broken.  I'm not sure what rules you could write that would not be subject to unintended consequences.

This is one of the downsides of using proxies.  Things can change at the last minute that make you wish in hindsight that you had attended. 

"Eighty percent of life is showing up." --Woody Allen