February 6, 2009

In a recent Tip of the Week I wrote about the problem HOAs face when they can't recruit enough volunteers to serve on the board, and as a result they can't convene a quorum to conduct HOA business.

Today's tip is about a similar problem many homeowners associations encounter: They struggle to get enough homeowners to attend a meeting for a vote. We recently discussed this problem with several experts, who gave us 5 practical techniques you can try in your association.

Two of the experts we spoke with gave advice on how to most effectively use proxies to solve the problem.

"Apathy is rampant among my clients," said Michael Hunter, a partner at Horack Talley in Charlotte, N.C. "So I recommend that my clients send out proxies along with the notice of meeting. Then I suggest that directors get on the phone and start calling owners in the weeks before the meeting. They tell owners that if they're not planning to attend to please send in their proxy so that the association has a quorum. I've seen associations get well over a quorum by soliciting proxies."

You can also ask owners to send in a proxy even if they plan to be at the meeting. Jaime J. Raskulinecz, a certified property manager and CEO of Rainbow Property Management in Verona, N.J., told us "If people are planning to come to the meeting, we ask them to send in a proxy anyway in case anything happens and they can't attend. We tell them that if they show up, we're happy to give the proxy back. Then, if we don't get enough proxies in the mail before the meeting, board members start to knock on doors to get proxies because we don't want to cancel the meeting."

You can read the other 4 techniques in our just-posted article.

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President