SUNSHINE LAW

Is your HOA a non-profit corporation? A HOA is a corporation and the owners the shareholders. That means the owners are allowed and are to be informed about their HOA operations. (Even big corporations like Microsoft give out a "Prospectus" to their shareholders detailing the good/bad that the company has been involved in once a year). HOA's are to keep their members informed openly as well.
This is NOT to say you can't have "closed door" board meetings. Usually those meetings are for emergencies or private matters. They have to be called amongst the board members in an appropriate timely and acceptable manner. (Email, letter, phone call etc..). General members can be exempt from these type meetings.
However, board meetings should be OPEN to ALL homeOWNERs/members. It may be time consuming and a "pain" but it should be open. There are rules of meetings either already in the documentation or you can read up here on meeting practices. (Robert's rules etc...)
I will say the EXCEPTION to all of this is the COLLECTION REPORTS. Those should NEVER be OPEN to all members. JUST board members and the DIRECT member. It is NOT proper to reveal the status of what specific people owe. Always refer to the property address or lot # but NEVER EVER the owner's name. That is the ONLY personal area that shouldn't be open to all general members. It can open up a whole can of worms and cause serious issues.
Your meetings IMO should be open. Remember, the money the HOA is spending is EVERYONES money. It's NOT just yours. The HOA is ONLY funded by it's owners FOR it's owners. So don't you think they should all have a say in how it is spent or know?

Laverne:

In our state we are required to have open meetings. I know some states are as strict that you have to be careful what you email back and forth because that could be considered a meeting. Bottom line is every board meeting should be open to homeowners, otherwise it gives the impression of impropriety. A few exceptions are personnel matters, ligitation, etc, that are executive sessions of a board meeting and are closed.

LaverneB - State statute also supersedes and Florida Statute 720 does require all meetings to be open notice of which must be posted 48 hours in advance.

Paul:

You are correct, your board president typically sets the tone for meetings. A lot of associations have a designated area in their agenda to hear homeowner concerns and each person has a set amount of time to speak. We are more liberal with ours and allow comments on each item the board is discussing. It hasn't caused us much of an issue yet.