The 2018 Annual Meeting and Board of Directors Election Materials has been mailed! Voting online is a convenient way to participate. Your login and password will be on page one and it only takes a few minutes to complete! Besides the three open positions on the Board of Directors, homeowners are asked to vote on a proposed Bylaw Amendment. The proposed Bylaw Amendment relates to reducing the quorum of members required for Association membership meetings.
Stone Ridge’s current Bylaws in Article II, Meetings of Members, Section 2.5 provide that if the Stone Ridge Declarant (Van Metre) is present at a membership meeting, the Association’s quorum requirement for that meeting is 10 percent. Ten percent is a common standard for HOAs in Virginia, and, as a Van Metre representative has been present at all meetings since the inception of Stone Ridge, this standard has not been difficult to meet. However, this provision goes on to state that if the Declarant is not present, the quorum requirement will increase to 25 percent.
As many owners are aware, Van Metre is nearing completion of the Stone Ridge development and, at some point, in the near future, will no longer be present at Association meetings. At full build-out, Stone Ridge will consist of approximately 3,500 homes. Thus, a 25-percent quorum standard would require approximately 900 Stone Ridge owners to attend meetings (in person or by proxy) to achieve quorum. Even with electronic voting, this is an incredibly difficult requirement to meet and is not the “industry standard” for a community that is the size of Stone Ridge. To date, Stone Ridge has not come close to meeting such a high standard for participation.
The proposed Amendment deletes the increased 25 percent quorum standard when the Declarant is not present and “locks in” the quorum requirement at 10 percent, which is permissible under Virginia law and much more in line with industry standards. Without this Amendment, Stone Ridge will have significant difficulty achieving quorum, which will make governance of the Association very difficult in years to come. Vote “YES” as soon as election materials arrive!
