ACCU, Inc. continues to navigate the waters in the recovery from the Covid-19. In an announcement yesterday Governor Polis updated his ‘Safer at Home’ order. His executive order continues to limit the size of social gatherings. Leading into the budget and annual meeting season; this is going to affect how we are used to conducting the business for your community association. While many communities are conflicted as to what is best, some communities mandating the management company performs meetings in person, and others requiring the opposite and have adopted a teleconference model moving into the 2021 year.

With the extended Safer at Home model in place, it appears that we will need to adapt to how we are doing annual meetings. ACCU, Inc. met with Chase Carmel of Optimal Outsource to discuss the double-blind mail-in ballot they have available to HOA’s and community associations. Traditionally speaking, the HOA would receive notice of the annual meeting, which would include the location of where the meeting would be, in that packet of information there is usually a proxy. The owner or proxy representative would show up and receive a ballot for voting. Many times during the annual meeting, there may be some nominations from the floor. In this new social distancing format, this process is much more difficult.

It is important the management company at the direction of the Board of Directors send a candidate interest form out to the community. Those interested should fill out the bio sheet and submit it back to the management company. The management company then sends out the candidate sheets to the HOA, so the association members can make an informed voting decision.

The ballots distributed from the management company through Optimal Outsource should have additional room for write-in ballots, for members who nominate themselves in the meeting. Each member should have an opportunity to talk about why they are running for the board, their intentions for the community, and their qualifications.

The votes will come in via mail, and they SHOULD NOT BE OPENED. The association should appoint a ballot committee to count the ballots. The property manager and committee should schedule a time to open and count the ballots.

With the Governor on the verge of a second shut down, we request we all do our part in trying to keep business open. The more we can social distance the better chance we have at keeping our operations open.

ACCU, Inc. will continue to be closed to the public with an appointments only model moving forward.

We hope you are staying safe and healthy. If you have any questions about the 2020 annual meetings please reach out to us at [email protected]

James W. Phifer