Number of required boad members

We just re-wrote our documents and reduced the number of required board members. It was among other changes but it's dictated on how to do it in your documents. We couldn't get 9 if we paid them. So we reduced down to like 5. You may also word it so that if you ever get more than that interested that there is a max number of 9. That may or may not include officer positions or whatever other positions one may assign in their HOA organization.

Marie,

It sounds like it is time to start amending some of your association's documents.

A nine-member board is totally unnecessary. (I know that from personal experience.) You most likely have two or three active board members, a couple more who speak up once in a great while, and four more who bring absolutely nothing to the table if they bother to show up. A board should have three to five members.

The answer to your question about whether it is legal to meet with only 5 board members will likely be found in your state corporation laws. In most places, five out of nine would constitute a quorum and the meeting would be legal.

A thirty-percent turnout for annual meetings is actually quite good. Again, look at your state corporate laws to see if there any quorum requirements. In my state bylaws may set a quorum as low as 10%.

Say, MarieL, I gave you the quorum requirements in Calif:

"Unless the bylaws state otherwise, a majority of directors is a quorum. (Corp. Code §7211(a)7.) A vacancy on the board does not change the number of directors needed to make a quorum--the board needs a majority of the number authorized in the bylaws, not a majority of actual directors. For example, if the bylaws call for a board of 5 directors, the quorum is 3. If 2 directors resign, the quorum requirement for the 3 remaining directors is still 3. If 3 out of 5 directors resign, the 2 remaining directors cannot conduct business because they do not constitute a quorum."

Read more: Quorum - board meetings http://www.davis-stirling.com/Quorumofboard/tabid/655/Default.aspx#ixzz2vhJaZtNM
from Davis-Stirling.com by Adams Kessler PLC.

Your own bylaws, MarieL, or IL corporations code might say something different.

Regarding General Membership meetings:

per Sec. 107.60 of IL Nonprofit Corp Act, applicable if your Association is incorporated as a nonprofit (most are):

Sec. 107.60. Quorum of members entitled to vote. Unless otherwise provided by the articles of incorporation or the bylaws, members holding one-tenth of the votes entitled to be cast on a matter, represented in person or by proxy, shall constitute a quorum for consideration of such matter at a meeting of members. If a quorum is present, the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes present and voted, either in person or by proxy, shall be the act of the members, unless the vote of a greater number or voting by classes is required by this Act, the articles of incorporation or the bylaws. The articles of incorporation or bylaws may require any number or percent greater or smaller than one-tenth up to and including a requirement of unanimity to constitute a quorum.

Per 765 ILCS 160/1-40 of the Common Interest Community Association Act

(b) Meetings. (1) Twenty percent of the membership shall constitute a quorum, unless the community instruments indicate a lesser amount.