Making a Motion

NC - Our HOA Board of Directors (5 members) meetings are open to all HOA members. It is appropriate for HOA members, not on the Board, to make and second motions at this meeting or is that activity limited to HOA member meetings?

Only Board members may participate in motions and votes. However, the Board should provide an agenda which allows discussion by other HOA members prior to voting on an issue. We do this by having an open session for homeowner's input at the beginning (first 1/2 hour) of every Board meeting

I agree with Bruce, Roger & Tim.

CA law permits owners to speak at Open Forums, but the Board may set reasonable time limits, etc. Our Boards holds Open Forums before and after the business portion of the Board meetings. As recently as January, homeowners at the forum after the meeting complained so much about a Board decision that we made a motion & 2nd to reconsider it, and then voted different way.

Perhaps your Board would consider a second open forum. Our Board, in addition, sometimes invites homeowners' comment on particular agenda items during the meetings. But that's up to any individual board.

Larry probably will contribute here and I think that AZ requires that Homeowners be permitted to contribute on each agenda time. He'll correct me if I'm wrong!

Robert,

Since nobody has addressed it, the protocol about motions, and likely the basis for most of the answers, is Parliamentary procedure. One of the best known of (by name) parliamentary procedures is Roberts Rules of Order (RRO). Some States even require that RRO be followed. Most Associations use their own procedures based on their individual understanding of RRO. That understanding may or may not be an accurate understanding. However, it is the procedure that Board agreed to follow.

There are many websites available that help explain Roberts Rules of Order.

Hope this helps,

Tim

A very nice website is Robertsrules.forumflash.com where the intricacies of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR) are discussed in the form of Q & A. Sometimes these discussions are very well written and are also amusing.

It's important to remember that Robert's is where you might go as a last resort if your state laws or governing documents (usually the bylaws) don't answer certain questions that arise. Our expert on this forum is Bruce from CT, where I think he's stated that HOAs are required to use Robert's.

Thought I'd check the site you noted, Bruce, and find that it ends up at the site that I mentioned. I was surprised!