SWHOA - This is really weird

They passed out the minutes of the 2012 annual meeting on Dec 19th meeting. Reading it this afternoon, I am surprise I find that my name was proposed for the third director position in the 2012 annual meeting which was led on Nov 29, 2012). At the time of this meeting, I was new to the community (moved in Oct 2012) and I did not know a soul in the meeting. And no one in the meeting knew me either, except Ms. Cotti.

I am certain that no one proposed my name for the nomination. I dont remember call for nominations from the floor or anyone nominating me or Ronald Rubin as claimed in the minutes. Anyone remember it? Now, I wonder how Mr. Rubin got elected.

Why would SWHOA falsely include my name in the minutes?
Is it an error or deliberate action? Is anyone proof reading the documents they are putting out?
Are they so obsessed with me that they use my name anywhere and everywhere?

 

My intention here is to bring the issues relating to Southern Walk HOA to the attention of Southern Walk homeowners. In this instance, SWHOA board falsified the annual minutes of the meeting. The only question is, whether it was done intentionally or unintentionally. I fail to understand how anyone's name (especially the name of new resident like me) can get into the minutes by mistake.

Thanks for Broadlands Forums, many Southern Walk residents now are informed about some of the workings of SWHOA. Much appreciated.

Prior experience taught me not to expect any response from SWHOA and I do communicate with SWHOA board directly.

 

I'm not a resident of SW so I can't speak to the HOA, but "falsify" and "deliberate action" are pretty strong accusations? Maybe someone thought... well I have no idea what they thought, and the point is, you don't either. So perhaps you should reach out to whomever put together the minutes or the newsletter (or have a close friend/neighbor do it) and see where the mistake was made, before you use such strong words.

Not a sermon, just a thought.

 

PowerPlay,

I know those are strong words and I dont use them lightly. And I havent categorically accused them of falsifying at this time, just wondering out loud.

You would understand what we are facing if you were a SW resident and attended the meetings. Here is a little story....

Last week, SWHOA was supposed to have its annual meeting on December 19th and the elections. We were talk that they received only 39 proxies out of the 111 need for the quorum. The discussion of low participation came up. I remembered last year, SWHOA has send a postage paid return addressed envelope for return the proxies. This year, postage paid return envelope was missing.

I asked President of SWHOA the low participation was because the return envelope was not included as it was last year. President Cotti immediately denied that ever SWHOA sent the return envelope and went on to add that she has recently looked at the 9 years of records and SWHOA never included the postage paid return addressed envelope with the proxies.

That statement kept bothering me, so yesterday afternoon I decided to dig into the box of unfiled documents. Found the Postage Paid Return Address envelope. On it in half inch letters were the words "Proxy Enclosed" and it was addressed SWHOA office and postage paid.

There are other statements from the same meeting I an cite....

If these things are happening one in a blue moon due to an oversight or error, no one would have a problem, which is not the case here.

 

Has anyone been successful in speaking to a FirstService Customer Care Rep (Management Agent for Southern Walk at Broadlands HOA)? I have tried repeatedly, placed on hold for approx 15-20 minutes, then hang up. Hope we are not dealing with another "winner" here.

 

As the meeting minutes are a legal document, I would expect the Board to ensure that they're accurate before they're approved.

 

Intentional or not, it's pretty strange to see your name in there if you didn't run or was even nominated.

 

Very next sentence said,
The only question is, whether it was done intentionally or unintentionally.

You are arguing semantics. May be my grammer was incorrect. Big deal!

 

Good point. Looks like its a misdemeanor.
Good that the meeting did not have the required quorum, otherwise minutes would have been adopted.
SWHOA can correct the minutes before the next meeting, if they choose to.

 

Steve,

Diversion for some fun.....

Suppose I said, "I watched the football game with Steve last night".
How would you characterize the statement?

1. False
2. Lie
3. Misrepresent
4. all of the above

In the same way, I know for a fact that the claim of me being nominated for the board last year is not true. So, can I call that statement in the minutes of meeting false, untrue, misrepresentation, lie, etc. All these words are related by similar meaning.

 

Steve, here is another example for fun.

Mistake vs (what ever you want to call it)

In the same meeting, discussion went onto the subject of candidate names not printed on the proxy ballot. I asked why the board declined to send me the nomination forms in time for my name to be printed on proxy ballot. Quoted the provision in which requires the candidates must submit the nomination at least 25 days before the date of the election. One the directors immediately corrects me that candidate must file the nominations 2-5 days before the election.

Discussion moves on to another subject, while I was trying to bring up the bylaws on my smart phone. Few minutes later, I bring the subject back to the nomination and read the sentence from the bylaws which clearly stated that nominations must be filed (25) twenty-five days the date of elections.

If the first statement of this director of 2-5 days was a mistake he/she would have asked for time to verifirication. Instead, this person now accused me of reading from Broadlands HOA bylaws.

Clearly, that's not a mistake. What is it? Each one of us is capable of characterizing it, but it is polite not to do so openly.

There are about 10-12 witnesses to this conversation in addition to SWHOA office members and staff.

 

I get it.
I didnt intend to accuse them of "falsification" as I do not have proof of it. I think I already stated it that in the original post of mine. Wrong choice of words.

I could not fathom how anyone could make such a big mistake. One explanation is, the minutes were written/edited recently and the person who is responsible truly remembers me being nominated. Each one of us have our own "truths", which are essentially our experiences/beliefs.

A guy waking in the woods at night, sees a huge snake in his path. He gets scared and runs back and counts his blessings for getting out of it alive. Next morning, another guy walking the same path sees a thick rope lying in the path. The fact that the first guy mistaken the rope for a snake does not negate his experience and his "truth".

 

STOP!

 

COGS....I fear you are going a tad bit too far here with accusations, etc. My suggestions are to take it up with the board AT the annual meetings.