BOD/Member Minutes not accurate

I am wondering why much of what is discussed and presented at Board meetings or Member minutes is not presented or published in the minutes. I don't expect a verbatim transcript but I would think that comments/questions and discussions would at least rate synopsis in the minutes. Two recent examples include a discussion that dealt with a state road widening project, about 1 year out. The state is looking to purchase land to widen the road adjacent to our HOA. An initial figure of $40K to purchase the property was discussed. The project is currently in the purchase and right of way phase. NO MENTION WAS MADE IN THE PUBLISHED MINUTES. Another example is a meeting held recently where the management company indicated that we, the HOA should essentially ignore the county code requirements to build a new $20K building. The management company said, in an open meeting, that everyone does it and it's not a big deal. This statement shocked me. Again, when the minutes were published about a week later there was not a word mentioned about the management companies suggestion to the HOA. NOTHING IN THE MINUTES.

When I sent a note to the HOA BOD I was told that since there was no quorum that the discussion/presentations need not be included. Yet other items discussed were included in the published minutes.

Is this a big deal or is the BOD cherry picking what all members see in the published minutes.My attempts to discuss the issue with the Secretary went unanswered. Any suggestions?
DennisG

Douglas' citation refers to Robert's Rules of Order and many, many board use it as a guide even if not formally approved by the Board.

We, too don't put discussions in the minutes, only motions & votes.

In your case, Dennis, concerning the road, etc., imo, the minutes of the relevant municipal entities are what you want to refer to. If the Board votes on anything related to this topic, of course, that must be in your minutes.

We've always made quorum so I'm not up to speed on what the minutes should say. I seem to recall only that a duly notice n meeting was held, but dour to the absence of a quorum, no business was conducted (motions & votes). what WAS in this minutes,

Here’s a good article on effective minute taking for HOA board meetings - http://www.hoalawblog.com/2012/08/the_art_of_taking_minutes_at_y_1.html

You will note minutes are supposed to record the actions and decision made during the meeting and not a word for word record of who said what. In this case, I would have mentioned the land purchase was discussed and what the board was currently doing - it may be enough to say something like the state has offered $40K for the land and the board is continuing negotiating the final price. As for the management company’s suggestion to disregard the county code requirements, you didn’t say if the board voted to do just that, so if they were simply discussing the new building and not voting on contractors, start dates, etc. you could simply say the board continued its discussion on plans to build a new building and reviewed bids by 3 potential contractors, or discussed possible start dates, with the hope the work can begin by X date.

Now, having said that, your property manager’s suggestion is breathtaking in its stupidity – one has county codes for a reason and it can cost you plenty if you ignore them for whatever reason. The board should have a serious conversation with the property manager about this type of thing and if this has happened before, it may be talk to speak to the manager’s supervisor or consider asking for a new one.

OK. Thanks for the comments. I've been told that only actions, votes, etc should be included in the minutes. Our CCR and By Laws does refer to Roberts Rules as a guideline for meetings, etc. We have NOT had a quorum in the member meetings for many years. Only 10-12 people show up out of 190 members. We need 25% to conduct any business.

I've been there when lots of important issues and plans are discussed by the BOD and have always been surprised when very little is entered into minutes. Weeks and months later some of these discussion items take shape and are done. Then people turn around and ask how or why did it happen? It seems we need to motivate people to attend but I've been here for 15 years, the HOA is 16 years old, and attendance has only met the quorum threshold about 3-4 times as I recall. The last was an election in 2015.

Thank you for your input. I guess I don't have a leg to stand on in trying to get our minutes to reflect what happened. Out of curiosity do you just adjourn a member meeting if you have less then a quorum? The minutes reflect the meeting opened, no quorum and meeting adjourned?

Appreciate the feedback.
DennisG

Thanks Kerry. I'd guess that almost all(about 85-90%) of the members are also on the Nextdoor website. Contact can be made that way as the HOA site has no way to provide messages, etc. A bulletin board is also at the entrance/exit that announces meetings and events.

Some discussion points are posted in the minutes as I noted earlier while other comments aren't there. I mentioned 2 examples from recent member meetings previously. We normally have 4 member meetings a year not counting elections which is early-mid December. The BOD also has monthly meetings.

I will continue to try and encourage them to provide a little more of the discussion part as I think some is important.

The fact that there is so little participation at meeting is very discouraging. I do appreciate your comments.
DennisG

DennisG7,

You indicate that some discussion makes its way into the minutes, but other discussion does not. It could be that the Board is cherry picking, or they could be putting in there what they recall or feel is important, or the secretary could be accidentally or intentionally including or excluding items. It's tough to know for certain.

Most others have advised already that the only thing that needs to be in the minutes are actual decisions (motions & votes) made at the meeting. If some, but not all, discussion makes its way in there too, then it is what it is . . . maybe consider yourself lucky that some discussion is in there.

In my experience, members that want information will make an effort to attend the meetings and hear information first-hand. If you feel strongly that all members should have more access to information (even if they don't attend meetings), then you can certainly be the one to provide that info to them. You can create an unofficial newsletter, send unofficial messages on/from Nextdoor (I'm not familiar with the capabilities though), create unofficial audio/video recordings (if GA wiretapping and other laws permit), etc. Then you can publish any or all of that to the membership as unofficial HOA-related info for their consideration (again, if docs and laws permit).

There are numerous other threads on here regarding the pros and cons of doing this sort of stuff. I'm not advising you to do any of it, just something to consider. You can continue asking, encouraging, or suggesting to the Board, or you can do things yourself. Depends on how much effort you want to put in. Further, you might seek a seat on the board yourself and work internally with the Board on improving/increasing communication with the members.