Your Apple Mountain Lake Property Owners Association Board would like to change the language in Section 20 within Apple Mountain Lake the Deed of Covenants. The current sections states:
“Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the Corporation from changing, modifying, or supplementing these Covenants from time to time, as deemed appropriate. Any changes, modifications or supplementations shall not become effective until approved by a majority vote of the general membership”
The change would read:
“Nothing herein shall prevent the Corporation from changing, modifying, or supplementing these Covenants from time to time, as deemed appropriate. Any changes, modifications, or supplementations shall not become effective until approved by sixty percent (60%) of the members present at any semi-annual meeting or special meeting of the members of the Corporation.”
We would also add this under a new paragraph 22:
“Any reference to “Corporation” shall mean Apple Mountain Lake Property Owners Association, a Virginia corporation.”
This change will allow your Board to propose changes to the Deed of Covenants, Bylaws, Rules and Regulations and present them to the membership at one of the semi-annual meetings to be voted on. A majority vote of 60% of the members attending the semi-annual meeting would be required to ratify any changes to the Deed of Covenants.
With the current wording, any change including the changes your board is proposing, would require 343 votes be cast. This is extremely hard to achieve. To help accomplish this, your board has taken these actions:
Proposed the change and presented it, in writing, 90 days before the meeting to allow plenty of time to vote via the internet or proxy.
Contracted with Simply Voting to allow you to vote online (E-Vote).
Sent emails to those we have email contacts for, to help increase votes via E-Voting.
Improved the current proxy form to make it easier to vote via proxy.
Included a self-addressed stamped envelope to allow you to send in your proxy.
Plan to contact neighbors in person to encourage voting.
This high barrier to making any changes is the exact reason for the proposed amendment. Your board believes that changes to these documents should be made by the membership, however, a reasonable quorum of a semi-annual meeting is likely more achievable than trying to contact over one half of all the lot owners.
To conduct business at a semi-annual meeting, 5% of the membership (34 owners) must be present in person or via proxy. In the past this has proven very hard to accomplish, however it is a reasonable standard to meet.
Your board has been making steady and positive progress. Each year we improve and make the community a little bit better with your help. This effort will lay the groundwork to enable your board to update all of your governing documents to make our neighborhood run better.
These are some of the things we would like to take on after this change is made:
Changing when the semi-annual meeting must take place to never hold a meeting on Easter again.
Allow the consolidation of lots, promoting green space and preventing over building.
Change the construction fees to reflect inflation and to be in sync with what other HOAs and POAs charge.
Changing the lot clearing fees to reflect inflation and to be in sync with what other HOAs and POAs charge.
Fix conflicts between the Rules and Regulations and the Deed of Covenants which will allow the rule to be enforced.
These items are just the beginning of what we can attain. Most of these documents have not been updated in 15 years. They are overdue for some maintenance. Please take the time to go online and E-Vote, or fill out your proxy and simply return it via the enclosed envelope.
Q&A
Q: Why E-Voting?
A: We wanted to provide an easy and secure way for you to cast your vote.
Q: Is E-Voting an legal way to count such a vote?
A: Yes. As set forth in the Virginia Property Owners’ Association Act in Article 55-515.3.D where in “Voting, consent to and approval of any matter under any declaration or bylaw provision or any provision of this chapter may be accomplished by electronic transmission or other equivalent technological means provided that a record is created as evidence thereof and maintained as long as such record would be required to be maintained in nonelectronic form.”
Q: How is my E-Vote counted?
A: The votes are tallied by the voting company and then brought to the meeting and cast in on your behalf according to the way you voted.
Q: If I voted online and now I want to change my vote can I?
A: Yes up until 24 hours before the meeting.
Q: How many people need to be at a Semi-Annual Meeting to meet quorum?
A: A minimum of 5% of 686 lots, which is 35.
Q: Do proxies count to meet quorum at a semi-annual meeting?
A: Yes
Q: Do E-Votes count to meet quorum at a semi-annual meeting?
A: Yes
