Please Return Your Proxy Forms

If you own a home in St. Charles Place, you should have seen notice of our annual meeting in your mailbox. It's hard to miss, even in the sea of Winn-Dixie flyers and other junk mail, because it came in a large white envelope with St. Charles Place HOA as the return address.

Please open that right now if you have not. Inside is the proxy form for the meeting. This is the form you can use to designate someone to vote in your place (as your proxy) in the annual election for the board. But the form plays a more important role: it also serves as your consent for the meeting to happen in your absence.

We need 30% of homeowners either to attend the meeting in person or to return the proxy form for us to reach a quorum, which is the number of voters we need to make the meeting official. We need the quorum to elect the board of directors for the next year.

If we can't elect a board, our HOA could go into receivership, which basically means that we'd pay lawyers a boatload of money to do what five of our fellow homeowners currently do for free. So, PLEASE, fill out and return your proxy form today. It could save you a lot of money.

Do it even if you plan to attend the meeting. If you show up, they throw out your proxy and you count, so you don't forfeit any rights by returning the proxy. If something comes up last minute and you can't make the meeting, we have the proxy to count.

You can send it through the regular mail (return envelope provided). You can fax it back. You can also scan and email your completed form in.  The return addresses and fax number are all right on the form.  If you have any questions, or can't find your form, email board@stcharlesplace.us, and we can email you another copy.

Oh, and the meeting itself is next Tuesday, October 28 at the usual meeting place, the River of Life Christian Center on Krycul Ave. That's about 1 mile from our community.

Pool Problems

Our property manager informed the board that someone broke the gate at the pool and tampered with with the pool equipment, which partially drained the pool.

This will cost money to fix. Money that we all pay because someone vandalized our property. If you see something suspicious anywhere in the community, you won't only do your civic duty by reporting it to police, you might also save your wallet a favor.

The HOA has invested in a new security system at the pool, which soon will help us identify people who break in and/or do damage in the pool area. Even then, nothing works as well as people caring enough about where they live to keep their eyes open and report what they see.

If you ever see something that looks wrong and wonder why no on has addressed the problem, email board@stcharlesplace.us and ask. It could be that no one on the board or the property manager has noticed the problem.