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A reminder to cast your ballot

Sierra los Pinos
Property Owners Association

950 Forest Rd. 10, Jemez Springs, NM 87025

Date: June 3, 2020

To: All SLPPOA Members

Re: A reminder to cast your ballot by Saturday, June 13, 2020, between 2:00 and 4:00 PM

Dear Member:

By this time, you should have already received the revised ballot for the proposed amendments to the bylaws. These revisions were suggested by the membership at the general meeting conducted virtually on Saturday, April 18, 2020. If for some reason you’ve not yet received a revised ballot in the mail, send an email to president1@slppoa.org and one will be sent to you via return email.

If you have received and currently possess the ballot which was mailed to all members on May 28, 2020, then please be so kind as to complete and mail it in the return envelope that was provided with the SLPPOA address on its front. On the back of that envelope, there is a place to sign your name. Be sure to affix your signature where indicated or the ballot cannot be officially validated.

The hope was to have a hybrid vote made through an electronic election platform. Unfortunately, that will not happen for this ballot. The revisions were not made with sufficient lead time for the online election site to be able to process them for both a mail-in and an online voting option. An administrator at the site stated they could place a rush on this, but it would cost $1,000 to do that.

This letter is being sent to explain that as well as to reiterate details in the notice of May 13, 2020. Those details specify this special meeting is being called for a vote on proposed amendments to the bylaws and will be conducted on Saturday, June 13, 2020. The meeting will open at 2 PM on Zoom for a question and answer session. If you would care to participate in the Q&A then send an email stating so to president1@slppoa.org and you’ll be sent an invitation to that Zoom meeting.

At the conclusion of this Q&A session, board members will then proceed and position themselves at the SLP fire station, where any ballot which an eligible member hand-delivers will be received. Any member so arriving should wear a face mask and must adhere to the 6-ft. social distance rule.

To limit possible spread of COVID-19 through airborne droplets, no more talk on the amendments will be taking place at the SLP fire station at that time. By necessity, such vocal expression will have been limited to the Zoom meeting afforded for that purpose earlier. Any member who wants offer a written statement at the firehouse can do so. Each will be subsequently read into the record.

At 4 PM, board members present at the SLP firehouse will make a determination as to whether or not the required quorum of 2/3 the eligible members casting a ballot has been met. If so, then three volunteer non-board members must be present to properly handle and process the ballots. This will be done in compliance with the New Mexico Homeowner Associations (HOA) Act of 2019, specifically Section 4, Paragraph F, which states that a committee of volunteers “shall be selected or appointed at an open meeting, in a fair manner, by the chair of the board, or another person presiding at that portion of the meeting.” Selection of this committee of three non-member volunteers will therefore be made during the virtual open meeting conducted earlier over Zoom. This is in accord with the tenets of the HOA Act as well as Article I of the Association’s bylaws. At no time during this function shall there be more than a total of five persons inside the firehouse.

One final issue to address is what will be done with the forty or so unopened ballots which had been received prior to the general membership meeting of April 18, 2020. Those ballots shall be destroyed. This destruction will be performed by the volunteer committee at the SLP firehouse prior to handling and processing the ballots for the current vote. This ensures that none of those obsolete ballots become intermingled. A document shredder will be provided for their destruction.

In conclusion, revision of the initial ballot per recommendations from the membership, mailing it to all in a timely manner and then conducting open discussions over Zoom have each presented their own set of unique and challenging circumstances, having to be addressed during the current pandemic. On behalf of the SLPPOA Board, I want to express gratitude for your understanding and patience to accomplish these tasks to the best of our abilities during this very difficult time.

The ballot will effect needed changes to the bylaws. The power is now in your hands. Please vote!

Sincerely,

Paul S. Lisko, President
SLPPOA Board of Directors


A Reminder to Vote