Election Record Date

Under SCA Bylaws §3.10(e), the record date is the date used to decide who is entitled to notice and to vote. For elections, the bylaws state that the record date is sixty (60) days before the date of the meeting of members, or sixty (60) days before any other lawful action.

For elections held by written (digital) ballot without an in-person members’ meeting, the election itself (the date ballots close and are counted) is treated as that “lawful action,” and the record date is sixty (60) days before the election date.

Setting the Date for the 2025 Election

For the 2025 Board election, the election date for the written (digital) ballot is December 12, 2025; ballots open December 5, 2025. Under Bylaws §3.10(e), the record date for this election is therefore October 13, 2025 (sixty days before December 12, 2025).

Close of Nominations

The 2025 Nominating Committee (NomCom) set the close of nomination at 11:59 p.m. PT on October 13, 2025, and the Board approved this date.

Bylaws §4.04 provides that any person qualified to be a Director may be nominated as provided in that section, and that:

“A nomination for the Board may not be made after the date set for the close of nomination.”

Bylaws §4.04(a) also provides that:

“The Chairman of the Board shall appoint a committee to select qualified candidates…at least sixty (60) days before the date of any election of Directors. The nomination committee shall make its report at least forty-five (45) days before the date of the election, or at such other time as the Board may set…”

For the 2025 election, the Board used the flexibility in §4.04(a) (“or at such other time as the Board may set”) and set the NomCom report date to be thirty (30) days before the date of the election, on November 12, 2025. On November 5, 2025, the Board notified the membership and community of this report date via e-blast and posted the e-blast on the public-facing website.

Public Notice of the October 13, 2025, Record Date and Close of Nominations

For the 2025 election, the record date and nomination cutoff of October 13, 2025 (“October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT”) are published at least eight times across SCA’s public channels before the November 5, 205 follow-up e-blast, as follows:

Election Page

A message from the Nominating Committee:

“October 13th is the last day to join the SCA to nominate candidates and to be a voting member in the upcoming Board of Directors election.”

Email scanominations@gmail.com if you are interested in serving on the Board. Prospective candidates will receive a candidate questionnaire from the nominating committee, and a member of the committee will contact each candidate for a brief interview.

Record Date of Membership

“…the October 13th date provided by the Nominating Committee…join as voting members and to be nominated for a board position.”

Calendar Page

“Save-the-Date” entry for the 2025 election.

“October 13th, 2025, Deadline for Nominations, Deadline to join the SCA to Vote in this Election.”

E-blasts – email notices (5 sends explicitly reinforcing the October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT cut-off)-all published on the website in Calendar and Events.

Across the election email campaign, the October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT record date and nomination cut-off are explicitly referenced or reinforced before the close of nominations in at least five distinct e-blast sends, all of which link back to the Elections page:

• September 11, 2025 – Call for Nominations reminder #1
  • First reminder that the nomination window closes on October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT, with a link to the Elections page where the record date and cut-off are stated.
• September 12, 2025 – Morning send – Reminder #2
  • Explains how to submit a nomination and directs members to the Elections page, which specifies that nominations and eligibility are determined as of October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
• September 12, 2025 – Later send – Reminder #2 re-send
  • Follow-up to reach any missed recipients, again pointing to the Elections page with the October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT record date and nomination cut-off.
• September 25, 2025 – Final September reminder
  • A final pre-October reminder that nominations will close on October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT, and that membership must be in place by that date to be eligible to vote or stand as a candidate.
• October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT – Record Date notice and Close of Nominations
  • Confirms that the voter list is being frozen as of 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT, and that both nominations and voting eligibility for the December 12, 2025, election are determined as of that record date.
• November 5, 2025 -Post close of Nominations
  • “Close of Nominations: October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. (“A nomination… may not be made after the date set for close of nomination” (§4.04)).”

All election e-blasts are memorialized on the SCA website and available via the Calendar and Events page for public reference.

Summerland Post Office

A printed notice has been posted at the Summerland Post Office since September 16, 2025. The QR code to the SCA website Election Page repeatedly publishes that October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. is the cut-off date for both nominations and voting eligibility.

Summary of counts

Website: (live from September 11, 2025, onward).

• Elections page: 2 placements.

• Calendar
  • Save-the-Date: 1 placement.
  • Archived e-blasts: 5 placements

• E-blasts:
  • 5 sends explicitly reinforcing the October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT record date and nomination cut-off (September 11; September 12 morning; September 12 later; September 25; October 13), plus the November 5 follow-up referencing the close of nominations.

• Physical posting:
  • Post Office notice: 1 placement (from September 16, 2025, onward).

In total, before November 5, 2025, the October 13, 2025, record date and nomination cut-off appear at least eight times across SCA’s public communications—two website locations, one Post Office posting, and five e-blast sends—with a November 5 e-blast providing a post-cutoff confirmation. All of this is consistent with Bylaws §3.10 (record date) and §4.04(d) (“A nomination … may not be made after the date set for close of nomination.”).

Separately, the close of nominations is set under §4.04 (the “date set for close of nomination”). It is not automatically the record date, but in 2025, the Board approved that the Nominating Committee chose to use the same date—October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT—for both the record date and the nomination cut-off, which is consistent with the bylaws.

No Floor Nominations or Write-In Candidates in a Digital Election

No floor nominations in a written (digital) election.

Under the SCA bylaws, there are two different ways directors can be elected:

1. at a meeting of members; or
2. by written ballot without a meeting.

Section 4.04(c) allows “floor” nominations only if there is an in-person members’ meeting to elect directors:

“If there is a meeting of members to elect Directors, any member present at the meeting in person may place names of qualified members in nomination.” Summerland Citizens' Association

For the 2025 Board election, Directors are not being elected at a members’ meeting; they are being elected by written (digital) ballot under Bylaws §3.11. In this context, §4.04(c) (which allows additional nominations “from the floor” at a meeting of members) does not apply to this election. There is no floor, no live microphone, and no agenda item for real-time nominations at the time ballots are cast or counted. All nominations must be made before the date set for the close of nominations. Under §4.04, “A nomination for the Board may not be made after the date set for the close of nomination.”

California Corporations Code §5513(f) expressly supports this structure in written-ballot elections:

“When directors are to be elected by written ballot and the articles or bylaws prescribe a nomination procedure, the procedure may provide for a date for the close of nominations prior to the printing and distributing of the written ballots.” Justia

For 2025, the close of nomination was set at October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT, and that date was repeatedly published as both the nomination cut-off and the record date. A third-party or self-nomination submitted on October 14, 2025, or later falls after the date set for close of nomination and therefore cannot be accepted for the 2025 ballot under Bylaws §4.04 and Corporations Code §5513(f).

No write-in candidates on the 2025 ballot

The SCA bylaws do not create a right to write-in candidates. For written-ballot elections, the bylaws instead contemplate that the names of the candidates are set through the nomination process before ballots go out. Section 3.11(d) provides that, in an election of directors by written ballot,

“any form of written ballot in which the Directors to be voted on are named therein as candidates and which is marked by a member ‘withhold’…shall not be voted either for or against the election of a Director.” Summerland Citizens' Association

This language assumes a fixed slate of named candidates on the ballot and gives members the option to vote for those named candidates or to withhold authority to vote for them. It does not provide lines or spaces for write-ins, nor does it create any bylaw right to add new candidates after the close of nominations.

California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law requires that members have “reasonable nomination and election procedures” (Corporations Code §5520(a)), but it does not require write-in candidates. Justia When directors are elected by written ballot and a nomination procedure is prescribed, Corporations Code §5513(f) allows that procedure to set a close-of-nominations date before printing and distributing ballots, which is inconsistent with later write-ins being added to that ballot. Justia

Accordingly, for the 2025 digital election:
– Nominations had to be received on or before October 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
– There are no floor nominations, because there is no in-person members’ meeting.
– The written (digital) ballot lists only those candidates who were properly nominated by the deadline and verified as eligible.
– The ballot format does not include write-in candidates, and neither the bylaws nor California nonprofit law requires write-in lines for this type of written-ballot election.