Condo Board Video Call Meetings

Yes, we do it regularly with a board member who lives elsewhere 7 months a year. FL law permits it as long as the remote participant can actually participate in the meeting, i.e. can hear and be heard clearly. This can be either voice-only (speaker phone, voice conference system) or voice and video (skype, facetime, etc.).

The above arrangement works reasonably well most of the time. When it doesn't it can be frustrating because of dropped calls and/or internet connections. That can really bog down a meeting when everyone has to stop in order to re-establish the connection. There are times when the picture freezes and you might not realize that you lost your connection 5 minutes ago. Then you have to go back and repeat yourself after reestablishing the link.

This only works for us because both the off-site director and one of the resident directors both use the same brand of computing device. The technology product they use is incompatible with any other vendor's products. We'll probably revert to simple speakerphone hookups if the day comes when nobody here has the ability to use Facetime anymore.

I have my doubts about sound quality and just how clear a connection you can actually have on speakerphone when multiple people are speaking in the direction of a tiny microphone 8 feet away. I think the ability to hear and understand what's going on is vastly overstated by those who claim it is "pretty good". But maybe that's just me.

Around a smallish table in a quiet setting I can appreciate that the ability to have a 2-way conversation via speakerphone is probably easy enough. In a large hall with long folding tables pushed together with a PA system and a room full of spectators..... I have my doubts.

Amy,

Many years ago I attended a staff meeting at work where my boss attended by long-distance. There was a lot of tension in our group at the time and many issues were resolved among us with our boss mostly just listening. It wasn't until our speaker phone started ringing that we discovered our boss' call had dropped and he had not heard a thing we said.

When I was on my HOA board we had one board member who often attended by cell phone. For those of us at the meeting it was not a problem but I suspect that she heard very little of the discussion. Among the problems with that arrangement was that we were meeting in the public library and no land-line was available, so one of the board members was supplying his phone (and air-time) to make the connection.

So I see equipment and dropped calls as issues that should be addressed.

Thank you for all the feedback. I found a video-chat called Soma, and using on my smartphone. It was developed with security in mind. Works great and easy to use. One new officer lives out of town, but will now be able to participate. And thank you Tim for stating that all meetings need to be open to all owners. That's important!
Amy

I have a fair amount of experience with Facebook, where one can set up a closed group that only members see. It is not open to the whole world and it is doubtful that anyone outside your HOA has any interest in it, anyway.

Unless the board directed that defamatory statements be posted, it would have no liability for what a member posts. In any event, truth is always a defense.