If a Motion is not Seconded at a HOA Board Meeting,

Yes. All motions and their outcome should be in the minutes. X made a motion to yyyy. As there was no second, the motion died.

Now, that's if your Board requires seconds. I believe Robert''s Rules of Order for small boards suggests swords aren't required for small bard.

I feel a HOA should put all motions, whether seconded or not, into Minutes. In part, this may offer some legal protection to directors who are trying to do the right thing. E.g. suppose a certain HOA's governing documents and state law require the HOA to have liability insurance. Yet the HOA has never had liability insurance. A director motions to obtain bids for this insurance. The motion dies for lack of a second. Two months later, there is a terrible slip and fall due to a sidewalk uplifted by tree roots, all on common element land. Medical costs alone are over $75,000. The owner's Medicare sues the HOA. There is no insurance. The one director who motioned to obtain insurance should be at least partly excused from litigation.

Also, directors should be permitted to use their non-seconded motions in campaigns. Whence documentation is important.

Follow-up question...can a resident make a motion at a board meeting?

At a recent HOA board meeting, the chair of the lawn committee made a motion and the motion was seconded by another member of the audience.

Discussion was had by the board and a vote ensued. The subject was about a chair of a committee who resigned and submitted a resignation letter. The motion was to include the letter in the monthly packet that is delivered to all residents.

The board voted against including it in the monthly packet.

After the fact, the board decided that the motion from the chair was illegal and choose not to include it in the minutes.

How should the board have handled this?

TIA

"This is a Board of Directors meeting and as such only Directors may make motions, second motions, and vote on motions. We will take your suggestion under advisement."

Where is this monthly packet described and authorized? In your Bylaws, perhaps? Regardless, it becomes an official record of the association and any owner has the right to see it upon written request.

Committees are usually advisory in nature. The chair of the committee can't make a motion at a meeting that is not his/hers.

The committee chair can only make a recommendation during his/her report to the board. A board member then makes the motion.

Jim

My understanding is that only BOD Members can make a Motion at a BOD Meeting.