Owner Call Ins for HOA Meetings

At times, some of the HOA board members cannot attend the meeting(s) so they call in and the HOA has a conference telephone. Now, some of the owners want to call in also to join in on the general participation of the meetings. I do not see any legal objections to this but have other HOAs witness this situation? What are the complications if any. The upcoming meeting will be a test. Who knows, maybe many peoplewill call in and if this be the case, the meeting could last for several hours. Any comments on this subject?

We discussed this but we would have to get different equipment to allow multiple users. In addition, just the shear logistics of getting everyone tied in would be a nightmare as you can be sure not everyone would be timely in their call in. Another issue would be, as you tried to move along with your meeting because of many owners not being familiar with the details, the meeting could drag on for hours.
Our position has been that we give owners more than the required notice, we post the agenda however allow owners who come to our board meetings the latitude of bringing up what ever they wish, if it's important to them, they will come personally.

Alex

Issue 1: I believe a member/owner is always welcome to attend any General (non-Executive) BOD meeting.

Issue 2: Is when and how they can speak up.

Issue 3: Is technically how do we do #1 and 2.

When most understand/accept they can not just speak up any time about any thing (Issue #2), their desire to do so usually wanes.