With absentee ballots due to TWC by a 12:00 noon deadline, and in-person voting available at an RCC Lake Anne June 21, 2023 Special Meeting from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., a growing number of voting HCA Members again declined to approve drastically revised HCA Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, this time v4. The final numbers:
All v4 votes counted: 47 or 52.22% of 90 possible, vs. 32 for v3
Absentee v4 votes: 41 or 87.23% of all votes
In-person v4 votes: 6 or 12.77% of all votes
Votes FOR v4 approval: 19 or 40.43% of all votes, vs. 21 for v3
Votes AGAINST v4 approval: 28 or 59.57% of all votes, vs. 12 for v3
The HCA official website incorrectly reports only 20 v4 Against votes. However, HCA Counsel who managed the vote count at the meeting reported 28 total Against votes. In-person Against votes were definitely known to be at least two. Emailed or USPS-mailed Against votes were definitely known to be at least 24, and apparently totaled 26 based on actual results.
One absentee ballot was submitted with a box-marking defect that was not cured and therefore not counted before voting closed at 7:30 p.m. In addition, two Members, ostensibly one voting For and one voting Against the v4 documents, arrived after the 7:30 p.m. Special Meeting end voting deadline and were unable to cast their ballots. The additional but late Against vote would have totaled only two votes short of a completely insurmountable 31/90 = 34.44% disapproval vote.
As expected, the number of v4 Against votes increased from the v3 Against votes because the Board continued to insist on approval of major changes increasing Board power and convenience to which many Members do NOT agree, including non-homeowner Director eligibility, unilateral rule change power that circumvents the long-standing Member-inclusive Special Resolution 2 process still in effect, and more.
What next? HCA Counsel says the HCA Board tells them what they WANT counsel to do. The HCA Board says Counsel tells them what the Board SHOULD do. After all the finger-pointing is done, to increase support the Board must remove persisting offending major changes rather than criticize opposing Members, acknowledge valid Member efforts to preserve viable and long-standing Hickory Cluster governing documents, and act on valid Member concerns about persisting issues. Former HCA President Michael Poss and concerned Block 1 Member Carol Laird will again, as they have in previous months, provide related feedback to the Board as requested in another attempt to move forward with remaining unresolved issues.