Moderator at HOA Meetings

We are trying a new approach to HOA meetings which we usually do about 3 times a year including Annual meeting (Board meetings are not open). Wonder what you think of it.

We recruited a volunteer non-Board member to act as "moderator." For any open discussion portion of our agenda, he holds the floor and grants authority to speak. The nice thing about it is that he has no skin in the game. Because he's not on the Board, he has nothing to defend. And his only objective is to ensure that no one hogs the floor and everyone has a chance to speak if they want to.

We gave him authority to tell Board members if he thinks they are getting a bit long winded. The one time he did, it didn't actually work, but it did get a good chuckle from the crowd.

We tried using our moderator once so far. 2 people spoke up who had never spoken before. I think we're going to run with it.

If it works, good for you. I can not say what works and does not for anyones HOA as they are all different. Our meetings have always been open and follows the articles of incorporation guidelines on what has to be covered. We always went through collection reports but without mentioning names just lot numbers. That was about the only exclusive board only discussion. Everything else like expenditures and projects were openly discussed and interactive. We did not have a high attendance. I have done meeting at the swimming pool before... It is HOT here in Alabama...

Yes, they might be called meetings of the members, except that we invite all residents which includes people who aren't members. A better label would probably be town hall session.

We aren't concerned about formalities because no decisions are actually made. But discussions that could influence later (privately made) Board decisions do take place.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around what would happen to us if PA suddenly adopted open meeting laws. Not sure if we would be worse off or better off.

Thanks for the clarification, NpS &Richard. That's my understanding too.

There used to be PA poster & director whose board did choose to hold open meetings. Haven't heard from him in a while.

I know that NY, PA and also Iowa, I think do not require open meetings. don't know about all of the other states.

Agreed. In fact, one of the conditions that we put on our moderator is that if he is going to be in that role, he has to relinquish his right to express his personal opinions. He's there to make it flow - not make his point, win an argument, or share the breadth of his knowledge. He said that he actually found it liberating and had fun doing it.