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Siskiyou County Government urges you to read this before you buy land or move
here:
Code of the West
MSVPOA
Governing Documents
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Every year two or three of the Mt. Shasta Vista subdivision directors are up
for reelection. Some years there are no new nominees at all, so that their is no
choice of candidates. I cannot remember a time when more than three or four
hundred of our more than 1200 property owners voted. Mostly, this is because
about 90 percent of us do not live here, do not know the directors or even what
they are doing here. But that is another blog...
The subdivision needs more people who understand the role of directors. MSVPOA is a non-profit corporation (AKA association) for mutual benefit and
as such has what is, in effect, a contract with its members. The details of this
contract are spelled out in the Articles of
Incorporation,
Bylaws and the Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions, also known as CC&R's.
Directors are charged with carrying out specific tasks that our outlined in
these documents, and with adhering to certain guidelines detailed therein. Here
is where we often see a problem when people who do not understand their roles
are elected to the office.
I am not an attorney and do not claim to know the laws that pertain to
running a property owners association. I have, however, founded and lead for ten
years a successful non-profit corporation for public benefit, which means that I
wrote the corporate documents for that organization under the guidance of an
attorney who continued to guide us throughout the existence of that
organization. Also, I have read the above mentioned corporate documents of our
association. So here is my not-entirely uninformed opinion of what our directors
should or should not do:
Should do:
- Read the corporate documents before you even run for office.
- Understand that the role of director is defined by the documents, not by
the person serving in that position.
- Research all issues before proposing, voting or acting on them,
especially those that involve spending association money.
- Put your personal agenda away.
- Make minutes available to all members at no cost to them, via web sites,
bulletin boards or newsletters.
- Keep only factual minutes.
- Minutes should include any motion, who made the motion, who seconded it
and how all directors voted.
- Minutes should only include what happens at the meeting, but may include
correspondence or other corporate business which is received before the
meeting and reviewed at the meeting.
- Minutes should include all reports that are presented at the meeting,
not simply say that such and such a committee or person reported on
something.
- Consult the corporate attorney when there is a legal question.
Should not do:
- Assign yourself duties and powers that are not specifically outlined in
the corporate documents.
- Create committees or activities for purposes that are not specifically
outlined in the corporate documents.
- Use your position to advertise your business or that of your spouse or
other interested party.
- Use your position for revenge or control over a neighbor or other
member of the association.
- Use your position for personal gain of any kind, other than the
satisfaction that comes from knowing you are serving your community.
- Conduct corporate business behind the scenes or between meetings unless
so directed in an open meeting. Personnel issues are the only business that
are properly kept from the membership at large.
- Include hearsay in the minutes. If you don't hear it first hand at the
meeting, from the person who is reported to have said something, then it is
not a fact, it is a rumor.
- Interpret the law.
- Spend association money printing lengthy articles adescribing county
codes. Specifically, why does the VistaScope include pages and pages of
information available from county departments when a simple referral to the
appropriate departments, their contact information and web address would not
only suffice but undoubtedly lead to more accurate answers to property owner
questions?
click here to read "It's all about the
roads"
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