HOA Meeting and Rules...

I have some questions regarding board meeting practices and general board topics. I am new to the board and we are in transition right now with our first meeting scheduled in a few weeks. I want to make sure I understand and follow proper procedures. Since I am the President, it’s my duty to set the tone and control this meeting. With that said, I have been reading up on Roberts Rules of Order. I have also been attending our town council meeting to get a feel of how these types of meeting are conducted.

In the past, our HOA has conducted meetings without advertising. I’m sure that was more of an over site and communication issue rather than trying to conduct business under cover. Anyway, most of these meetings were more of a get together and hash out issues, rather than following Roberts rules. I’m sure this is common in many HOA’s, where the meeting are casual and don’t follow a specific agenda. But that is not how I want to conduct future meetings. I want to follow parliamentary rules as close as possible in order to be consistent.

This brings up some questions I have that I thought I would ask all of you that have more experience in HOA practices.

1. I know HOA business shouldn’t be discussed outside of HOA meeting, but how are issues brought to the table? How do you address issues that are brought up by residents? Since there is no talking about HOA business outside of the meetings, what is the proper way to field resident complaints and concerns?

I attended a town council meeting the other night and they voted on several issues on their agenda that was never discussed or explained. So when were these topics talked about? Are there special meetings the board attends that are closed to the public (residents) in which issues are brought up and discussed. They got the agenda from somewhere, and already were aware of the topics and were ready to vote.

2. Special Meetings (continuation of the first question). When are there special meetings that are closed to the residents?

3. Is the President responsible for all committees and positions? Meaning, if there was an issue that I noticed, such as broken sign, as the President do I have control of that issue? If the ARC doesn’t notice the issue or gets a report of that broken sign, do I contact the ARC and discuss, call a meeting or just have the item repaired? I ask as we had a street light out the other day and I noticed it was getting repaired. I talked to the ARC (one person) and he told me he called to get it repaired. I asked about this to our acting president at the time and they knew nothing of this repair. So, where does the responsibility reside?

I’m sure I have more questions, but this is good for now.

Thanks

Mark:

Your HOA sounds a lot like mine was before I took over. I think your job as President it to provide direction and guidance for the board and residents and oversight.

1. Issues can be brought to the table any number of ways, as President you can put anything on the agenda to talk about. I ask my fellow board members if they have items they wish to talk about. Also if a resident has an issue they want brought up you can do that as well. I don't see any reason why you can't talk about HOA business outside of meetings, certain decisions and voting must be done in a meeting. However, there is no reason I can't say to a fellow board member or a resident, I don't like how our entrance sign looks, what do you think, should we discuss this at the next meeting? Fielding complaints depends on how your association is set-up and what the complaint is. If they are upset about a covenant violation, then you follow your protocol for handling that. It really depends on the nature of the complaint.

Often times items will be tabled from one meeting to the next. You may discuss in length a topic and table it for a vote to the next meeting. Depending on what state you live it most meetings must be open to the residents, except for special circumstances.

2. Your documents spell out how special meetings are called, they must be open except for a couple of instances. Someone call help out with that better than I can.

3. IMO the president is just the catalyst, the Board is actually responsible for those things. The example you gave of the street light the board should have approved the repair. For a sign repair the board should approve. There are certain things such as buying envelopes or stamps that are normal business that shouldn't require a vote, but should require two signatures to approve reimbursement.

It's very comforting to know this forum has very talented people with good insight.

Thanks so much.