Whiteplains UNICOM #3: Organization – Board and Officers

There has been some confusion about the roles of the Board of Directors and the Association Officers. This UNICOM is intended to help to clarify any misunderstandings.

The Whiteplains Plantation Association (that’s the full proper legal name) is organized much like a large corporation. It has a Board of Directors (no less than three members and no more than five) that is elected by the shareholders (i.e., all property owners, both hangars and residences) to a two year term. It also has a set of operating officers that is chosen by the Board. In December of last year, you elected, in alphabetical order, Michael Cone, Micah Froese, Lloyd Krueger, Ken Plesser and Terry Yon. The Board elected Ken Plesser as its Chairman.

The first order of business for the Board was to elect the operating officers. Four officers are required; others are optional. The officers need not be members of the Board; in fact, they need not even be property owners. In recent years, however, the Board has chosen to appoint the officers from among themselves in order to eliminate any potential confusion about who is in charge. The Board selected Ken Plesser as President, Micah Froese as Vice-president, Michael Cone as Secretary, and Terry Yon as Treasurer.

Unfortunately, in April, due to aspects of his personal life that required special attention, Michael Cone found it necessary to resign his positions. This left two different vacancies: a seat on the Board, and the officer function of Secretary. At a meeting last month, the Board decided to appoint Joanne Kiesler as Secretary and to leave the Board position vacant. This means that we would carry on with four Board members for the remainder of the year.

Why leave a vacancy? Our By-laws require that we elect at least two new Directors each year but, historically, this has not been the habit… instead, we have elected a full slate of five each year. In order to do things ‘by the book’ in 2007, we would need to solicit two resignations from among sitting Board members (all of whom have just been elected to two-year terms). So, rather than create a new (unelected) incumbent, we chose to leave the seat empty until the next election.

In the next Unicom, we’ll talk about volunteer positions.

Ken Plesser, President
Whiteplains Plantation Association