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Our board Secretary has taken a 2 year leave of absence to work in another state. A volunteer stepped forward to take minutes while he is gone. In the meantime he has placed his unit up for sale. Should he be allowed to vote on board matters. His fill in is voting. Should they both be allowed to vote.
Join the Conversation Comments (2)The volunteer joined the board and now votes. We'd like to treat it as a resignation. There is nothing in the by-laws about this situation. This gentleman is another board member whose unit is up for sale and doesn't want to see a dues increase. We have the lowest dues in the area and will still have the lowest even after a dues increase. Thank you for your responses.
Since there's nothing in your by-laws, I would ask your LOA Board member if he'd be willing to write a letter of resignation considering he's not around, so he is unaware of the issues facing the Board while he's away. That would solve your problem.
If he's not willing to tender his resignation, then you would likely need to amend your by-laws to cover this situation.
Our co-op did so several years ago when we amended our by-laws to state that a Board member is deemed to have resigned from the Board if one of two things happens:
1) The Board member misses 3 consecutive Board meetings
OR
2) The Board member misses 50% of the board meetings in a 12 month period without a valid excuse (going to work out of state would not be considered a valid excuse in my opinion).
The important thing at this moment is that you're only having one vote come from the 2 people involved (LOA guy and the volunteer who is filling in).
A 2 year leave of absence is ridiculous! When the individual comes back in 2 years they can once again run for the board. This just sounds like hanky panky to me. Also why no take a vote to find out how the shareholders feel about this? I think the whole ordeal is very underhanded.......
While I agree that staying on the board during a 2 year leave of absence is not good for the board or the co-op corporation, it doesn't sound like there is anything underhanded going on. The person on leave may have honestly thought they could keep up with all the board's and co-op's needs and requirements while being remote, in practice it is almost impossible to do. I agree they should make a clean break and resign, let the normal board member replacement process take place, and then run for the board again when they return.
I agree with MK, also you can not appoint a person to fill in your seat. You need to tell this person his seat will be up for elections when you have one. Being on the board is volunteers who are voted to serve your coop/condo.
never have I heard of a leave of absents. Best of Luck
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Is the volunteer another Board member or someone not on the Board?
They both cannot be allowed to vote. Does your co-op treat a leave of absence as still being on the Board or as a resignation? Never have come across this scenario so I don't have a definitive opinion.
The Board has to decide if a leave of absence means he has resigned from the Board.
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