Pat Majewski
August 23, 2022
It is that time of year again when the Nominating Committee begins to look for candidates interested in running for the Board. We will have 4 positions to fill, three for 3 years and one for 1 year. There has been one candidate’s briefing on Saturday, August 6th. Four potential candidates came and received a lot of good information about the responsibilities of being on the Board of Directors. There will be another briefing on August 24 at 7pm. Candidate biographies will be due in the office by 5 pm, Wednesday, Sept 7th. A candidate’s forum will take place on Saturday, September 24 at 10 am. This is the community’s opportunity to ask questions of the candidates. The forum will be streamed live, recorded and presented on YouTube afterwards.
The Board of Directors of LHCC, Inc. are the elected representatives for the members, the property owners. The Board is responsible for the ultimate decisions made by the Association and acts to benefit the membership as a whole. Coming up with ideas to better the community, working on those projects and seeing them come to fruition is very rewarding!
Board candidates are encouraged to attend board meetings in advance to observe Board dynamics. Attending or joining committees is also good experience prior to running for the Board. All the committees and what they accomplish are listed on the website, lakeholidaycc.org, The Lake Holiday governing documents and state law pertaining to property owners’ associations are important reading for you to better understand board authority. This includes Deeds of Dedication, Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, PRPs (Policies, Rules, and Procedures), Resolutions (especially the Code of Conduct) and Goldberg’s Rules of Order for meetings. The state law is called the Property Owners’ Association Act. All of these documents can be found on our website, lakeholidaycc.org.
Board directors need to be engaged regarding the issues facing the Association and participate and understand them as well as possible. If they have subject matter expertise, they should especially be involved in that issue. Each director has the fiduciary responsibilities to perform their duties in a careful manner exercising reasonable diligence and carried out in good faith, transparently, for the best interests of the association as a whole. Each director also participates in the budget process and must understand the finances of the association in order to be good stewards of the membership’s assessment income.
Marina Update: Triad Engineering came out on August 16 to perform geotechnical testing of our soil conditions. It will be two weeks before we have the actual report of their findings. They used a track auger to drill two holes approximately 6” in diameter. The first hole, just north of the boat ramp, went down fairly easily 17’ before it was stopped by harder rock. The second hole, just south of the ramp, went down 13’ before it was stopped. All of the samples which they brought up represented fractured shale soil. This is good news for anchors only need to go down 8-10’.
We met with an engineering firm on Wednesday, the 24th, to discuss the possibility of providing us with either a full design if required for type of anchor and placement or a quality control evaluation of a contractor’s design and re-check when complete. Their proposal is pending.
On Thursday, the 25th, Waterfront Contracting and Hazelett Marine arrives to install a test helical (screw-type) anchor to give them a better sense of how they will do in our soil. They should also be providing us with a proposal and cost estimates for installation of this anchoring system.
We are still unsure at this point which solution is the best value. The goal is to have a solution and be able to implement the anchoring system this fall.
Additional Presidential Notes
As Lake Holiday Country Club Inc. enters into the annual board director election process, it’s important to keep in mind that directors accept a certain responsibility and duty to participate meaningfully on association matters when a decision is made to run for the Board. Board directors should not allow personal grievances to get in the way of doing our best for the Association and the members who trusted us with their support and votes. In many ways, serving on the Board is similar to having a job. Being a board director requires your time and commitment. Thus, if you accept the position, you should be prepared to devote a portion of your schedule to the Association. That means juggling board member duties with your other responsibilities. Prioritizing your service to the POA is the very essence of fulfilling a director’s fiduciary responsibility. Boards should strive to work collaboratively and become a cohesive team, with all directors playing an active and positive role in helping the Association move forward with its mission. Each director brings unique skills and expertise to the Board that can be helpful in making time-critical decisions
For the record, I need to address misstatements made at a prior board meeting. It was stated the former president was invited to use the lake patrol boat to give rides to members during the 50th anniversary celebration and this was inappropriate since our insurance policy did not cover anyone else operating the boat. The Activities Committee asked the former president to give boat rides. The Association uses the lake patrol boat to perform E. coli testing weekly during the season. Volunteers have always operated the boat and obtained the water samples for these tests. The former president is one of those volunteers. All of the volunteers are covered on our insurance policy for the lake patrol boat, so there was nothing inappropriate about the former president operating the patrol boat.
Another misstatement was edits to the Board minutes from a previous meeting must be made at the following Board meeting and that minutes cannot be edited prior to the meeting through Board emails. Goldberg’s Rules of Order was cited as the basis for this statement. The only reference in Goldberg’s Rules regarding minutes is under Section C. Approval of Previous Minutes: “The minutes of previous meetings are not official minutes of the board unless and until the board votes to accept them. Any board member may suggest changes to the minutes before the board adopts them. The suggested changes should be set forth in the minutes for the record, and then the board should adopt or reject such changes.” The Rules of Order were published in 1997 before the internet was widely available for use by businesses. It only applies to in-person meetings. The secretary sends out the draft minutes by email. That is typically when directors propose suggested edits. The directors have a second opportunity to propose edits after they receive their board book which is available 5 days prior to the board meeting. To propose edits during a board meeting interrupts the flow and continuity when important business decisions need to be made. It is appropriate for edits to be provided through board emails.
