Newsletter article or just a letter?

Sheilah,

Use the newsletter, personal letter, website, flying banner, radio and whatever it takes to motivate the members in order to seek candidates.

Do both and make sure you bring it up at the morning meeting.

By the way, have you knocked on doors and asked vs. waiting for volunteers? Sometimes, it's the personal touch that brings people forward.

Why are you folks talking receivership because there are vacancies.

I could see it if you had NO board, but you do have members. Each member should bring the name of an interested person to the next meeting.

You are functioning, just limping along hopefully temporarily, but you are not dead.

It's premature to talk about receivership.

According to Maryland Law, failure to have a quorum can trigger asking for the appointment of a receiver. Here's the law:
11B–111.5.
(A) IF A HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION FAILS TO FILL VACANCIES ON THE
GOVERNING BODY SUFFICIENT TO CONSTITUTE A QUORUM IN ACCORDANCE
WITH THE BYLAWS, THREE OR MORE OWNERS OF LOTS MAY PETITION THE
CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY WHERE THE CONDOMINIUM IS LOCATED TO
APPOINT A RECEIVER TO MANAGE THE AFFAIRS OF THE HOMEOWNERS
ASSOCIATION.
Jeanne

Mary, we used to have 9 members on the board, but when we ratified the bylaws (at least the homeowners were willing to do THAT), we reduced the number to 7 because we were having trouble maintaining the board at 9 (I think it had shrunk for 5 or 6 at one point).

Board members serve until they resign or get voted out – as far as I know no one’s ever been voted out. People usually resign, someone volunteers to serve, the Board appoints them to serve out the term and then that person’s voted back in (unless they end up resigning)

I’d love to go ahead and appoint four people, but given the massive apathy in this community (which has brought us to this point), these folks are more likely to ignore us altogether or tell us to go somewhere and what to do when we get there. Many of them are already ineligible because of the delinquencies and the rest live out of state and only care about the rent checks clearing the bank.

As some of you have guessed, my primary purpose in writing the article is to serve people a huge dose of reality and push them into action. Human nature being what it is, maybe people will volunteer to avoid a massive hit in the pocketbook

You’re correct that 3 people could probably get the job done, but there are several reasons why the current three could be reduced to 2 or 1. Our soon to be president has had a bout with cancer and although it’s currently under control (thank goodness), one never knows when it or something else may flare up. I myself have had two jobs (one seasonal) and if the part time starts up again next year, there will be two months or so when I won’t be able to attend (can’t afford to turn down the work). The third board member also has demands on his time because of his children – this is just one reason why we need more people to carry the load.