How do you get Board members to read the documents.

Not exactly. There is a FL statute that requires members of the Board to indicate that they have read their governing documents. That does not really mean that they actually read them or, if they did read them, that they understood them. It's a feel good law.

See:

FL 720.3033 or FL 718.112 for the actual statute.

I had a rule... I always brought a copy of the rules to the meetings. The rules were available right there and accessible. Why not? We never gave out a violation notice without quoting from them anyways. If someone had a question, we could simply stop and point it out in the documents or wait until another meeting after they were read/understood. If the answer was complicated.

HOA rules are PUBLIC documents except for the by-laws/ACC documents. So there is no reason not to have a copy or if need be provide a copy (at cost if need be for copying costs).

Reading and understanding are two entirely different things. The second is surprisingly rare.

You will be fortunate if you only need to deal with people who don't read; those who are intent on NOT understanding are even more difficult to deal with.

You get the leadership you deserve. If the association members vote for board candidates who have not demonstrated the motivation to already become familiar with the governing documents, then there is not much you can do about it after the fact.

When I took over my HOA, it was a mess. No one really read the rules or understood them. I have to admit I did not know about them when I moved in myself. It was a learning curve for me too... However, I found the best practice is to have the rules available and learn to reference them during meetings. It's NOT every meeting as it gets mundane but when questions arise bring them out.

If you just make a good practice at writing out violations and quoting the exact reference in the document of the violation, that goes a long way for learning. People in violation will want to defend themselves and read up. The person writing the letter, learns how to interpret and learn the rules.

I found that only providing answers to members with the phrase "Let me check the rules first and get back with you" should be adequate in learning and teaching. It gives you the board a moment to review and form an opinion on what the rules means before randomly speaking outloud.

Once you make it a good practice, then everyone will eventually read up and educate themselves. Just have to learn how to practice or even have special sessions to discuss. I would even suggest doing a short get together and go over a different section. That way you all will know the rules, translate it, and/or decide to update your documents.