HOAs for Dummies?

Our association has 13 homeowners (17 properties total) and really like 3-4 who will usually come to meetings. We are amateurs just "winging it" by reading the governing documents and Florida statutes Chapter 720.

Do others with small communities like this have rather informal meetings or stick to a strict parliamentary procedure? Truth is, I'm looking for something that explains meetings, motions, and how to conduct it. What happens at the board level and what requires a member meeting outside of the annual meeting? I make agendas of items to discuss and vote on, but we really don't know what we are doing, to be honest. But I have a desire to learn. Another thing is learning how to write minutes properly. I'm using Google as my friend, but an online course would be nice.

Do video tutorials exist? I'd even pay money if it weren't expensive. I have the book "The Law of Florida Homeowners Associations" which is pretty good, but I'm looking for something different if that makes sense. I've even thought of trying to find other people's Association meetings near me and seeing if I could sit in as an observer. That must sound incredibly lame, but I've never had to deal with homeowners associations before moving to Florida.

Any suggestions?

Robert

Remember that Meeting Minutes are not blow for blow nor word for word what happened. The only thing they must contain are motions made and the resulting vote, nothing else.

That said it is always best to put some overall verbiage in them such as:

The BOD discussed redecorating the clubhouse but no decisions were made.

The BOD took under advisement reassigning some guest parking spots but no decisions were made.

Some fellow owners said there have been some water drainage issues on Smith St. The ARC was asked to investigate the situation and report back to the BOD.

KISS

Keep It Simple Stupid.

Meetings are usually conducted using Robert's Rules of Order and there are books are called Robert's Rule for Dummies. Robert's also has rules for small (fewer that 12 directors) boards where not even seconds to motions are required. I'd say the only strict thing is that there needs to be a motion and a vote.

JohnC gives a very nice review of minutes, which your HOA must write, approve and keep. It is the official record of your board's decisions. Since FL requires that your board post an agenda of the upcoming open meeting a few days in advance, the format of the minutes follows the format of the Agenda.

You should try to get the materials that the Board will discuss to directors a few days in advance of the meeting, bids, for instance. Perhaps this can be the responsibility of the board secretary once the president compiles an agenda. What officers do your Bylaws require, robert?

You asked: "what requires a member meeting outside of the annual meeting?" You will find the answer in your CC& Rs (covenants; declaration), which'll state the board's powers and cases when the members would vote, for example, raising annual dues more than xx% (which also may be governed by state law). So, Robert, you do need to read your own bylaws and CC&Rs.

Melissa is incorrect that there is no "right" and "wrong" way to run an HOA. FL has many statutes about HOAs and you must abide by them along with your own governing documents.

IN CA there's a website called Davis-stiring.com, which is compiled by a CA HOA attorney law firm. It has an excellent Main Index where you can look up anything that interests you, Minute, for instance. while a lot of it only applied to CA, there are many self pieces of advice that'd apply to HOAs anywhere in the US, Contract, for instance.

I think CAI should be viewed with a grain (or box?) of salt. One may want to consider the following:

From http://www.ccfj.net/CAI.html:
Contends that CAI is, "a trade organization mostly representing the interest of attorneys specializing in issues of mandated properties. Please don’t believe the fairy tale that they are representing homeowners’ interests. The dwindling membership numbers of the CAI, according to their own web pages, show clearly that many homeowners and even other service providers realize that their interests definitely don’t agree with that of these lawyers."

From http://www.thehoaprimer.org/cai.htm:
Notes that the founders of CAI stated around 1992 that, "CAI quickly became dominated by those in the business, principally managers and colleagues," and that "the Institute is headed even more surely towards a manager and colleague trade association."

From http://www.cairf.org/scholarships/hanke_bio.aspx, a biography of CAI's founder:
Byron Hanke (1912-2000) was a Harvard-trained urban planner and landscape architect who was the chief of the land planning division of FHA from 1945 to 1972. Hanke worked with the Urban Land Institute from 1962 through 1964 on a survey of homeowner associations; this culminated in the published work Homes Association Handbook, which was one of ULI’s best selling publications for over 10 years. Mr. Hanke was also the principal author of Planned-Unit Development with a Homes Association, which was published by the FHA in 1963.

After leaving FHA, Hanke opened his own consulting office. In 1973 he received a grant from the National Association of Home Builders for $30,000 to create the Community Associations Institute, and served as the chief consultant for the NAHB to design and create CAI. In addition to serving as CAI’s founder and contributing to CAI’s original organizational and governance structure, Hanke authored the first GAP Report on Architectural Review.

Hanke was very active with the Urban Land Institute. He was a member of ULI’s Residential Development Council from 1972 - 1978. From 1978 - 1982 he was a member of the Recreational Development Council, and from 1982 - 1988 he again served on the Residential Development Council and also served from 1983-85 as that Council’s representative on the ULI Research Council. From 1989 through 1995 Mr. Hanke served on the Community Development Council.

Despite's Augustin's remarks, CAI does have some useful pubs for Board members. The first thing I read before being elected to my first term on the board was something like a Board Member's Toolkit, by CAI.. It will help you organize your thinking and priorities.

Robert,

Most Associations use what ever process works best for them. This can change from Board to Board.
In addition to what has already been provided, I offer the following (hopefully it's not information overload):

FL Homeowners’ Association Act.

Florida Not For Profit Corporation Act applicable if your Association is incorporated as a nonprofit

Community Associations Network Florida page

The Board Member Tool Kit from CAI

Best Practices Reports from Foundation for Community Association Research (list and links to several reports)

Fairfax County (VA) Community Association Manual although this is based on VA laws (some of which are out of date) the general information is still excellent and is explained in plain language.

Subject: Reserve Studies/Funds 101 Thread on this forum with many good links (some earlier broken links are corrected later in the thread).

Hope this helps,

Tim

When you become an expert on HOA's and write a Book...
I will be the first one to buy it!