Communication

I drafted some ideas for improving communication between homeowners and the HOA, and within the HOA Board. I would be interested in comments from readers of this post.

One challenge I am up against is the California Davis-Stirling law prohibiting Board members from assembling to discuss or hear any Board business except in announced general meetings open to all members. Assembly includes being in a virtual meeting place such as email, blogs, etc. We all understand the motivation for this law, but it does lead to some ridiculous problems. For example, a majority of Board members can not tune into a community form where members discuss their issues and problems. So one path towards better communications is shut off.

Anyway, here is my first draft of idea .... some may be inconsistent with Davis Stirling.

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7 Ways to make the our HOA responsive to needs of the member homeowners, better informed, more cost effectively, and do a great job providing the services and guarantees mentioned in the CC&Rs

1. The phone numbers and email addresses of the property management agent and all the Board members are announced in the monthly mailing. Members are encouraged to send their comments and concerns to these contacts.

2. Members address the Board in person at the open forum at the beginning of each monthly Board meeting. Members are also invited to email their comments to the management agent who will be present on their behalf.

3. Each member input is assigned to the property manager or one of the Board members for follow up. Items remain on the Board's business agenda until resolved and closed with a unanimous vote of the Board.

4. A meeting packet of all the material to be presented at the monthly is distributed to all member prior to the meeting. The packet includes a the property manger report which summarizing all communications with and actions taken on behalf of the HOA over the past month, and management costs year-to-date versus budget. The packet also includes the list of current action items and status.

5. All communications by and with the property manager are copied to all members of the Board.

6. All HOA documents will be posted for easy search and retrieval over the Internet by members. (Excluding some confidential material.)

7. The HOA encourages Internet forum(s), newsletters, and social events to engage the members in discussions and exchanges of idea.

The management agent works for the Board not the members.
Therefore, how can the MA objectively present an issue on the behalf of a member?


I understand what you are trying to do. However, decisions of the Board are made my majority vote.

Why keep an item on the agenda just because everyone can't agree on the same solution?


This should be done anyway.

The only issue I have is you are trying to identify what specific reports are included. Instead make it general by identifying what is in a Board package:

Agenda
Previous minutes
any written reports provided at the meeting

Keep it simple


Why does the rest of the board need a copy of my request for my account balance or a request of what time xyz is open (much less a copy of the answer to my request).

Again, a good intent but it seems overboard.


Great idea.
There are costs involved in setting up and maintaining a web site.
There is time commitment and possible costs to digitize the documents.

I wish our board was as responsive.

1. You might check your CC&R. Our CC&R requires that the secretary's contact info be prominently posted. By monthly mailing, I'm guessing you mean a newsletter? I think the comments might be centralized as in going to the secretary. Or if you have committees. The secretary and president set the agenda, I think.

2. The board is supposed make an operating rules as to how people can speak at meetings. In the Davis-Stirling Act, members are supposed to be able to speak before or to the board. To make this new rule, you'd actually have to write it down, send it around 30 days before you vote on it. Under the Brown Act (which the Davis-Stirling Act was modeled on, I've been to meetings where there was an open forum for items not on the agenda and then time for comments before the vote on a specific item on the agenda. (I attended a college school board meeting as well as a city council committee meeting). Usually, there is a specific time limit (3-5 minutes and time is stopped if a board member interrupts to ask a question).

This makes the conversation more organized. So open forum for non-agenda items. Comments before/during agenda items.

3. I'm guessing you mean to divide things up by who has jurisdiction.

4. I'm not sure how many units you have, but you might consider setting up a private blog. This will save time and money. You can restrict who has access (no viewers outside of the members).

5. This is important. I know someone else commented that this was excessive, but should there be litigation, you want to be sure that all board directors were aware of the problem. That establishes legal liability. Similarly, it should be clear who voted for what in the meeting minutes for should there be an action that is illegal, then the liability would be with those who voted for the action.

6. This can be done on a blog or website.

7. That sounds great. Be sure that there is equal access. Including in the newsletters. This is required by the Davis-Stirling Act.

"One challenge I am up against is the California Davis-Stirling law prohibiting Board members from assembling to discuss or hear any Board business except in announced general meetings open to all members. Assembly includes being in a virtual meeting place such as email, blogs, etc. We all understand the motivation for this law, but it does lead to some ridiculous problems. For example, a majority of Board members can not tune into a community form where members discuss their issues and problems. So one path towards better communications is shut off. "

I may be a little lost, but wouldn't such a forum be considered a general meeting, if it were properly announced and was open to all members? Plus, you can add insulation by making the board's activity limited to listening and note taking, absolutely no actions, motions, etc. involved.

Or am I off base?

LOL ... there will always be some who look for ways to circumvent the laws. However, on the other side potentially CA takes it too far as I was looking at other state statutes a couple of weeks ago (can't remember for sure but might have been TX) where they state similar statute but does not apply for certain items such as local community functions, HOA conferences, etc. and where no HOA business is conducted via determinations or voting. Did they potentially take this stance because of statutes in CA and the issues regarding board meeting and decisions without owners present, but still have ability of board members to all be in one place as same time?

In California unfortunately a number of HOA's had board meetings and made decisions behind the backs of the owners which in turn had lawmakers stipulate such a statute. I guess the question now is does it go too far? Should CA back off slightly as other states have stipulated regarding similar situations?

Hi Ron, can you tell us a little more about your Association? Number of units? Detached or attached, or? Number of directors? What kinds of common area amenities? On-site prop. mgr. or offsite? Is the PM full time or part time?

Number of units: about 100
Townhouses of 2/3 attached units
Number of directors 5
Common area amenities - none, but lots of open space landscaping. The Association carries an usually (for CA) earthquake insurance polity which is a nice amenity (at least most think so).
Prop mgr - offsite, part time.

RonA1, under your number 1, some guidelines would suggest that all comments be forwarded to the secretary, who would compile them for future reference in addition to copying the individual comments to the applicable board member(s) depending on how they were addressed. The secretary should acknowledge receipt of individual comments back to each sender.