Perrylee and I enjoyed a light meal and some interesting conversation with two members of our Board of Trustees and 6 other Hideaway Valley owners/members at what was announced as a Board of Trustees meeting in Spanish Fork Tuesday evening. It seems that a majority of the Board suddenly developed conflicts and could not attend after one of our member couples requested that an item be placed on the agenda for an upcoming meeting of the members which was to be scheduled for Nov. 21. One of those three had indicated earlier in the day that he would attend but called the Secretary 20 minutes before the meeting was to start to tell him that he would not be at the meeting.
The agenda for the meeting was to prepare a notice of a Meeting of the Members including an agenda which was to include at least Voting on the proposed Collections Resolution which had been approved by the Board. Since this was to be a Meeting of the Members, it seemed appropriate that issues presented by members should be included on that agenda.
There is something wrong with this picture. We do not know whether the three absent board members really had conflicts or if they did not want to address the agenda item requested, or if they did not want to schedule the meeting of the members at which the Collections Resolution was to be voted on or if they just do not want members to be involved with the decisions being made on their behalf by this board majority.
I inquired about the status of the financial audit of the Association's revenues and expenditures for 2008-09 which was budgeted for and neither Board Member at this discussion knew anything about it. Many of us are concerned about the way our funds are being used and want the audit to verify for us that all is in order.
Further we have been told that a financial report has been available at each Trustees Meeting and one need only ask for it. We have also been told by some members that they have asked for financial reports but have yet to see one from this Board. The two Board Members at our discussion said they have not seen one either.
In response to my question I learned that the collections process in the resolution we still must vote on has already begun. I hope those owners who have already received notices of delinquency in accord with the Resolution will not be confused when they finally get a meeting notice to come and vote on the approval of the process which has already begun.
There is no indication when the next Trustees meeting will be. All the regular third Wednesday meetings have been cancelled and we were told that the Board approved a process of scheduling Board Meetings with a 5 day posted notice. I guess any three Board Members can schedule a meeting. There was no indication how this will work in practice. In any event there should be no collection actions until the members have an opportunity to vote on that Resolution and the meeting to vote on it cannot be scheduled until the Board has a Trustees meeting to set it up. By not showing up tonight the majority of 3 decided to postpone the Members Meeting.
With all this going on it is my position that this Board is disfunctional and that we need new Trustees who will conduct business in accord with our governing documents. We will have the opportunity to elect two new trustees in April or we could submit a petition to hold an election earlier to recall some of them earlier. The two positions up next year will be the seats held by Roy Walker and Clifford Johnson. If anyone has an opinion about how we should proceed, please post it on this blog.
I have served on Hideaway Valley's Board of Trustees twice. The first time was for two terms and the second was for a short term of two years. The second time was to replace a Board whose members made some major decisions and initiated legal action without consulting with the membership. We were able to turn this around and stop the large expenditures for attorney fees.
I have no interest in being a candidate again but am willing to "coach" anyone who is willing to volunteer as a Trustee and would assist in the conduct of meetings to facilitate appropriate participation of our members in our decision making processes.
Terry Holzworth
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
4 comments:
Any one is allowed to make comments. You can use your real name and lot or an assumed name. Please be respectful of everyone, especially our trustees who donate a lot of work for us. Even if you believe they are not acting in our best interests or following our documents, stick to the facts--no name calling or innuendos and unfounded accusations. We want to set a good example for our trustees.
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Thanks to Terry and all those who made it to Springville and to Amber’s Restaurant. There was a good turnout although Tom L. and I were the only board members who showed up. I was hoping to actually conduct HVPOA business outside of Sanpete County and minus the lengthy explanations of why things could not or did not happen.
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed how long the meetings go and how very little is accomplished? The last motion I sponsored (to provide our secretary with the HVPOA laptop and printer) took 1.5 hours to pass. By the way, every bit of HVPOA data was wiped clean from the system.
Ever watch Federal Government proceedings on C-Span? The HVPOA Board functions very much the same way. One guy will get up and go on and on about something and never really say anything. Motions in Hideaway seem to meet with filibuster type speeches (all from the same person). I wonder if this just happens or if this is part of the pre-meeting plan?
I think having meetings north of Sanpete is a good idea. Bad for those who have a drink or two (dinner for one; beer for four), they would not be able to attend without a designated driver(s). If we rotated every other meeting out of Sanpete county then perhaps the strangle hold of “he who shall not be named” (for all you Harry Potter fans) could be diminished somewhat.
Clifford Johnson
Trustee
I was certainly disappointed that three board members did not show. It seems that a few of them are having trouble making regular meetings as evidenced by all the cancellations and no-shows. Our documents do call for regular board meetings--We're having a hard enough time getting members noticed. When meetings are regular, we can make arrangements--when they are not, we have to guess--or hope the member to member site can send us an email. What about the members that don't have their email with us and don't live here?
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly not fair to the members to have our trustees call meetings at their whim and not notice members--I know its hard. Jim has a new truck and is trucking and Rick has had recent health issues as well as being a hard worker who can't always make the meetings--Although we value their input, it may be time to step down if things are too hectic for you and let others take over for awhile. We can get you to run for the board again when your lives settle down.
Anyway, that's my thought. Step aside for now--life happens and it's OK. Doesn't mean you don't care about Hideaway--just means you can serve later when it's easier.
What is the matter with you guys? sounds like a boycott to me. I didn't bother to go to the yahoo meeting. Thank god!
ReplyDeleteAre you going to have member meeting? I thought we voted to have them every quarter?
The comment made by the Anonymous writer which called our HVPOA Board Meeting a "yahoo meeting." Is a sad commentary on the State of the Association.
ReplyDeleteOur members often turn a deaf ear to the workings of the Association. Comments like: "It will bring your family nothing but troble to participate." "Just pay your assessments and let them do what they want." "It's the good old boys club, so let the good old boys handle things." "What does it matter anyway." "As long as it doesn't hurt me."
Is this how we would run our own businesses or family budgets. I think not. The HVPOA is OUR BUSINESS! We are compelled (required) to be holders in its affairs by our land ownership. We should know what is going on. Let our voices be heard.
It is our Trustee's job to keep us informed. Their actions should be open, transparent, documented, and free to inspect.
Don't let anyone fool you. It matters how your money is spent. Look honestly at your roads. Don't you want to know where the money is going? Where the money will go next? Shouldn't we have a projected road maintainence and improvement schedule with projected costs, open bids, itemized estimates of what it will cost for each phase, actual cost after completion to see if we went over or under budget. And shouldn't this information be easily accessable to all members through monthly and quarterly reports. Don't you think this just makes good business sense. Our roads are the main reason we have an Association.
You would never put up with a "trust in me" attitude from your building contractor or even your plumber. But that is what this Board is expecting us to do. They don't want us to ask the hard questions. They don't want us to question their actions. "Trust in Me" is the song they sing.
Our present Board is NOT transparent. We need them change their policy of providing information on a "need to know only" basis; to a policy of transparentancy. Providing financial reports openly to the membership on the website.
Association membership participation is like voting, If you don't vote (participate) you can't complain about bad governance (Board Leadership). Get involved, ask questions, get answers. And we will all be better off for your participation.
Lets change the preception of Hideaway Valley. It is truely a wonderful valley, with wonderful people. Lets be proud of our choice to purchase here.