I've been informed that there's at least one Parliamentarian in Circle C - I don't know if she'd be willing to preside over CCHOA meetings though. (having said which, the authority to tell various CC characters that it's time for them to shut up might be quite nice).

Anyway, a copy of Robert's Rules costs just $12.25 from Amazon, so it's not beyond the budget of most to obtain a copy. Then you've just got to spend the time reading it a few times until you've really got the gist of what it's saying.

Then you're ready to make an informed descision about if you want to use those rules or not.

Which is a shame really, 'cos we already voted on that this evening.

Jon.

It's Universal

RRofO is universal.

You don't have to know the whole book inside and out to be a resident and to get an opportunity to speak at a members meeting.

Our ''Pod People'' neighbors, who have been on a control trip, will soon be the minority....sooner or later. All HOA's go through this developer to homeowner phase. And, it's usually painful. But, it is the natural order of the HOA.

Thank You Bill Gammon, for standing up to the Bullies. I say in a year or two, we get Rigsbee Court legally changed to Gammon Court.

We do need the rules !

If we can't hold a civil meeting with order and leadership, then we will never have a democratic process. We have to establish rules that allow everyone access and the ability to call for changes.

Every CCHOA meeting needs to follow clearly defined rules. Until we have something better, Robert's Rules of Order will be the format. I don't care if we adopt the streamlined version, just as long as conduct meeting like the Feb 3rd Special Meeting.

Ken Rigsbee could not be more wrong about our HOA board. It was never designed to be dominated by a rat pack! The Majority rules in America. We only put up with Martial Law (or what he likes to call a ''Representative Republic'') when there is a bonified emergency, and that time has past.



The first step was taken last night, to run our meetings using rules that were simple and clearly understood. The fact that an unbiased parliamentarian was able to lead that meeting and accomplish an election and consider debate for 9 by-laws, is proof enough, that the rule work.

We don't have to adopt the full set of rules, either. There are dozesns of simplified versions of Roberts Rules of Order, for HOAs in particular. The basic principles of Roberts Rules of Order give a method to speak and be heard.

It effectively silences the bullies and loud mouth jerks who have spoiled past meetings, and frankly, that includes our past HOA attorney, Patricia Arnold. Did anyone miss her last night ? I beleive that she and Jim O'Rielly set the tone that resulted in the chaos we witnessed at the March 26, 2003 meeting.

No more bullies. Little people have a right to be heard and Roberts Rules of order makes that possible.

I'll be happy to promote and support any similar version of rules, if they meet the same goal. Namely, they have to give the power back to the membership.

This is OUR Home Owners Association.

We pay a $400 per year tax to belong.

This isn't a country club, it's a public non profit organization. The HOA works for US, not the other way around.

Rules work.

Rules keep he bullies in line.
Rules allow the meek to be heard.
Rules level the playing field.

Rules won the night and they won on the ballot. What's an extra 10 minutes, when the result is progress instead of chaos ? Rules don't exclude anyone. You don't have to be lawyer to follow Robert's Rules of Order and nothing prohibits the parliamentarian from explaining the process and the rules, as needed.

We need to learn the rules, and our board of directors would do well to take some lessons.

Then they can start learning about the Texas Open Meetings Act.

It's the rules !