Online Survey/Voting One of The best Ways to Communicate Today
Today with the Internet so prolific and email easy to use we have an amazing opportunity to enhance this communication and get guidance on many issues from the community's majority opinion.
Online Surveys
Electionbuddy.com, our election/survey managing software, offers what they call polling and we call surveying, same thing. Surveys processed through electionbuddy can be sent to all members who have given us a valid working email. Because they're devoted to homeowners associations they should not end up in your junk mail.
A Huge Potential
So what is the potential of these surveys? Board activity that directly effects our homeowners and is not typical day-to-day running of the Association would come up as needed for full community survey and the results of the majority would strongly influence the board decisions based on outcome.
Are surveys legally binding?
Let Majority Rule the Covenants and Bylaws
The other great potential of the online-survey is to collect direction during something as important as the long-overdue revision of our covenants and bylaws.
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✶ Survey Results ✶
After a 7 day running of Sugarhill Survey #1 that presented 91 eligible property owners a survey of 2 items and an information question– 68 (75% survey ballots) were cast. 23 did not vote and of those, 4 were undeliverable (likely changed email address) making 19 that either refused to vote or overlooked the invitation in their inbox. There may have been some that went to the spam box. We hope not. If you didn't get the invitation or the reminders let us know. We were under the false impression these changes needed a super majority to change or amend the controlling documents but after extensive research we now know this complicated processis not near the problem we thought.
RESULTS OF October, 2019 SURVEY
Sugarhill has 94 eligible properties*. 25% of the community did not open the survey invitation. Surveys are not legally binding voting systems.
QUESTION
YES VOTES
NO VOTES
Simple 51% Majority of Owners (48 or more*)
Limit Short Term Rentals in Sugarhill
53
15
WINS - 53 ~57% of Owners*
Standing Seam Metal Roofs
55
13
WINS - 55 ~59% of Owners*
This Board is dedicated to the rule of the majority. We believe if 51% of the community wants something to change or happen we will work hard to respect that majority. In this survey 57% - 60% majority want change. The survey has shown that the complicated process is well in hand with good majority direction on both questions.
So our next step in this process will be to go for a full legal covenant amendment election. The first amendment election will be for the standing seam roofs. All you who didn't consent to vote electronically will get a paper ballot mailed and everyone will get a special meeting notice mailed at the same time. The paper ballot will have the 16 character electionBuddy "access key" printed in the top right corner of the paper ballot. You can bring that completed ballot to the special meeting where the appointed election referee will guide you through the process of entering your ballot into the kiosk in private or do it himself at your request. That will automatically add your ballot to the electionbuddy tally with the previously voted eVoters.
With 70% of the community consenting to vote electronically there will be a savings in the process with 70% of the community getting a simple cost effective postcard to notify the special meeting rather than the full ballot, return envelope, and the secret envelope all inside the mail-out envelope that the remaining 30% will receive, ugh.
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1st electionbuddy Survey Completed
Thanks to the 70% association member who consented to vote electronically we have now replaced surveymonkey.com with electionbuddy.com. Besides the big difference of being able to conduct voting elections and other association items that require legally binding voting, we will be able to conduct no-consent-required surveys. Surveys that can be sent to all members that we have email for regardless of formal consent and will not be plagued with spam to junk email problems as was the case with surveymonkey.com.
With that in mind we would like you to review two issues being presented in our first survey with the new system, they are:
A request has been made regarding the color selections we would recommend for Standing Seam Metal Roofs. Final selection would be made only after a community survey indicating majority approval of colors that we are recommending and possibly many more.
While these surveys, when done by email invitation, are completely accurate they are not recognized by Florida statutes as legal e-voting. We couldn't use these for voting in Board candidates for example. The polling/surveying use of electionbuddy is a separate option. An important purpose for surveys is to spur active conversation in the community and help the Board in decision making that reflects the majority of the community.
We believe that potential Board candidates should be given the opportunity to sign a certificate of agreement showing that they are willing to honor the majority rule by survey vote system. We would hope at some point after this majority rule system has proven its self that if a candidate for the Board refused to sign a certificate of agreement to honor the majority community rule that it would be difficult for that person to be voted in by the community.
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Who Want's to Catch Flies?
So this is a very old expression. Dates back to the 1500s. It's literal meaning refers to how flies will get stuck in honey and stay away from you (a good thing).
The human relationship meaning refers to how you treat people. Treat them with sweetness (kindness, compassion, consideration) and you don't have as many problems (flies bothering you). Treat them nasty (vinegar) and your problems will never go away.
