Open Board Meetings in NY

Hopefully some of you can steer me in the right direction on this one as I cannot find an answer for the life of me. I recently took over as President of my association after the previous President who had served for most of the last 20 years decided to resign.

We don't have regular meetings as some of you have, but I figured it would be a good idea to call a board meeting to discuss what projects we would be doing in the springtime and which we would have to put off for another year. I figured now is a good time as construction work essentially ceases in the winter where I am due to very harsh winter's in the Adirondacks. Sooo... since our CCR's are silent on the open meeting issue I figured the prudent thing to would be to at least post a notice of a meeting and post the time and place and that it would be open as my thinking is that the meetings should be open. Does anyone know if there is in fact an open meeting law in New York? It seems things were done very lax in the past and I'm more of a "cover all bases" type of person. My thoughts were if we were having an executive session where no voting took place or if it was an emergency then closed is fine; however we are planning on voting on projects/bids at this meeting. Also, a slight concern is that we don't have a clubhouse and the meeting will be in a home (mine). We are small enough where even if all owners showed up [HA!!] we wouldn't have an issue of space. Seems in the past all meetings were generally in the summer and held on the grass in a common area but it's cold this time of year and none of us want to freeze of course.

Any input you all might have would be appreciated.

Nope, nothing along those lines. There is the annual meeting of members which even with that from what I know it was tough to get a quorum. It seems things were simply done on an as-needed basis and there was quite a bit of informality. Me personally, as a day job I run a small business so I like a bit more structure in that regard.

Michael:

Seems I remember you posting here some time ago about being asked to meet with the Board President and at that time he suggested you would take over as President not having ever served on your Board before.

You decided this was an offer you could not turn down. I suggested perhaps you agree to serve with some sort of breakin period with the former President to sort of get your feet wet.

My question now, where is the former President? Where are the rest of the Board members? How many are there? Why did none of them step up to serve as President.

In NY to the best of my knowledge there is no requirement to have open meetings. You can if you wish but you are not required to do so.

I would guess this would be a decision to be made by the Board, not one member (yourself) but that would depend if there are in fact other Board members who participate in the process.

Sounds to me open or closed your turnout would be about the same.

As to the suggestion the NYS AG is the source of information regarding condos and HOAs in NY the AG's office has a limited role on most properties which covers only the period for which the property is under sponser control. Once the property has been turned over the AG's office has little if any involvement.

In NY the following link will direct you to the real property law under the condo act detailing the state requirements. This would seem not to include any required meetings open or closed.

http://www.tenant.net/Other_Laws/RPL/rpl09b.html

I would have hoped someone who served on the Board or who is familiar with how your property operates would have stayed on to show you the ropes.

Is the former President still above ground? If so why could he not help you or did he just dump this postition in your lap and walk away? Certainly not in your best interest or the property's.

Michael, In Florida we have chapter 720 describing homeowners associations. Under section 720.307 states all meetings are to be open to the membership and shall be given 14 days notice which shall be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted to the members. Our ccr's state members shall get 10 days notice of all meetings. Most of the time we only get 3 days notice. Only one time did we get 10 days notice by a sign at the entrance to our subdivision. All board meetings are open to the membership but only the board has voting rights for ordinary course of business. Members can ask questions and/or give an opinion but do not have any voting power only the board has this right. FYI JerrellC Florida