The Meeting. Cluck Cluck!

On Saturday, July 28th, 2012 Pawnee Hills Community came together, 71 attendees (including proxies) met the requirements of quorum.  A formal HOA meeting was held.  A new resident, Dennis Brown and a long time resident and previous secretary of the board Ginger Wood were present on the ballot for the new Board Members.  Of the five positions available there were five candidates including the current board.  It really wasn't a vote, these volunteers would have become the board vote or no vote.  Regardless, it is nice to have two new members on the board.

But what about the Chickens?  Although we did not have the required 112 yes votes required to change the covenant, we had a lot of pro-change attendees and good discussion.  A few were outspoken against the change even going so far as to say the covenants were "perfect" as they are and don't need to change, and if we start allowing chickens when will it end?  It will open the door for llamas, goats, alpacas etc,.  There were negative comments indicating that if the community wanted it, it would have passed and it was obvious only a small group wants the chickens.  We did a straw pole vote and out of the folks present at the meeting (including proxies) 55 were in favor of chickens and 19 were not.  Clearly those in favor are NOT the minority.

Why didn't the change pass?  The requirement to have a change pass is very very difficult.  Out of 167 homes, 112 yes votes are necessary.  That is a really big challenge.  People are busy, some people don't pay attention and some just don't understand.  There was quite a bit of discussion on how we can reach everyone in the community in order to do all that we can.  It was decided that a Chicken Committee would be formed (outside of the board) to raise the money required to put together a mailing of ballots to each resident so everyone would have the opportunity to vote on the issue.  The Ballots will resemble a political ballot marked as such on the outer envelope and have a "return by" date. Calls will be made the residents as well once the ballots have been sent.  Any resident may donate to the committee and by the closing of the meeting $84 had been collected. Eight volunteers including myself comprise the Committee which plan to have their first meeting in the near future to get organized and get this going.

Am I disappointed?  Yes and No.  It would have been a dream to have it pass on the first attempt.  I am not disappointed by the amount of positive support and logical people.  This is not a petition to overrule the HOA or bring in Zoo animals.  We simply want to raise a few chickens, have fresh eggs and some cute pets.