Most annual condominium association meetings are held during the months of January through April.  For those who live in a well-managed condominium, attending the annual meeting may not seem important.  On the other hand, if you are concerned with the way your association is governed or how your maintenance fees are spent, the annual meeting is your best chance all year to effect a positive change.  How?  By electing competent, independent-thinking directors who aren’t on a power trip and don’t have personal agendas.

I just attended my association’s annual meeting.  Below are some lessons learned that may help you at your next annual association meeting.

Get involved.  If you are unhappy with the direction your Board and association are headed, do everything in your power to bring about change.  It’s easy to say you’re too busy, but every owner is busy with work, raising children or other interests.  You cannot afford to sit idly by and hope other owners will miraculously correct the problem.

Build a coalition.  Find concerned owners in the building who have similar goals.  This may take several months, but the sooner you all realize you’re in this together, the sooner you can take steps to alter the Board’s conduct.  

Be patient.  In most cases, the change you desire will not happen overnight.  Depending on who is currently serving on the Board, it may take two years to elect the right team of directors.

Ensure the annual meeting is held.  To conduct the meeting in the first place, a quorum must be established.  Generally, that means over 50% of the owners must be present or have provided their proxy to the management company.  If the Association fails to establish a quorum, the annual meeting is canceled and rescheduled.  This is an expensive undertaking as notices must be mailed a second time to all owners.  Some associations require these notices be mailed via Certified Mail, further adding to the cost.  Who pays for this?  You do, through your maintenance fees.

Director nominations.  Your association may impanel a nominating committee.  Notifying that committee of your interest to run for a director position may work, but check your association’s rules to be sure.  Sending out a "brag sheet" along with the management company’s annual meeting notice may not be sufficient either.  The one sure way to get someone on the ballot is to nominate them from the floor prior to casting votes in the election.

Vote for those you know and trust.  A strategy to effect change is to collect proxies from absentee owners and like-minded local owners who trust your judgment.  The goal is to amass enough votes so you can elect directors you believe will do what’s best for the association.

Don’t be greedy.  Cumulative voting enables you to stack multiple votes on just one director.  The number of votes you control will dictate how to spread the total votes.  If you control a large percentage of the total votes, you may be able to elect more than one of your trusted candidates.  If you get too greedy, you may spread your votes too thin and fail to elect even one of your candidates.

You should also read Ten Reasons To Attend Association Board Meetings.

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