Does your board conduct business in public?

Does your board conduct business in public? That is, are motions made and discussed at public board meetings or only in executive session. I assume that routine or time sensitive votes are conducted by e-mail, and that personnel or individual owner issues are conducted in executive session. But what about the rest of the business?

Do you approve of your board's practice? What are the pros and cons of public vs private?

Thank,

Annette O

Yes, my HOA makes and votes on motions during the home owner portion of the meeting. using "public" is not really public because mentions are open to only members. My HOA welcomes renters to attend, but they can't participate. Any grievances would have to be addressed with their owner member.

In most states board meetings that Homeowns can attend are called "open" meetings. Some states like CA, FL & NV require board meetings to be "open to Owners (Members). What does MS require? What do your governing documents, perhaps your bylaws, say about this topic?

And though states vary, there are very few agenda items that may be discussed in "cloud" board meetings, AKA executive sessions.

Please note, Annette, that what John of SC describes is legal in his state. To correct my typo above, these "closed" email discussions and decision-making activities, e.g., voting, debate, etc. are Illegal in many states.

In CA, if a quorum of the board is gathered together, that is defined as a board meeting and an open forum must be included. So, CJC's "workshops," when owners must remain mute are not permitted in CA and many other states.

In addition many states' statutes require an open forum during open board meetings, when owners can offer their opinions on agenda items. Most open board meetings seem to have these at the bed ginning of the meeting.

AZ even requires that owners (members) can discuss every agenda item during the board's meetings.

In the past couple of year, the board in my HOA found excuses to move a lot of items to Executive Session by calling the topics "confidential." This is one reason i didn't seek reelection after 12 years of service. This heightened secrecy after many years of openness is NOT setting well with Owners.
Directors who support this behind-closed-doors stuff, claim it moves open meeting along faster, so is more "efficient." It also keeps those pesky owners from asking so many question -- like how are we going to pay for that $1m expenditure. These "reasons" aren't acceptable in CA or in most open meeting states.

I fully support open meetings and the "more" open the better when it's about HOA business and (not individual owner disciplines, payment plans, alleged violations, attorney/client privilege, personnel matters).

Again, Annette, you need to b go with MS statutes and your own governing docs. How Melissa did it in alabama years ago may not apply to your HOA.

for instance, in CA and many states, only agenda items that were on a posted board meeting notice 4 days in advance of a meeting are permitted to be discussed, debated and voted on in an open board meeting. This way, owners know if they even want to attend.

If an owner at the meeting wants something discussed that's not on the published agenda, the board could agree to discuss it at the next month's meeting. There are, of course, exceptions for emergencies.

Annette,

Always conduct votes in open setting. If you are discussing individuals in your community on collections or private account matters, discuss the issue in closed session, but vote on the motion openly. Same goes for vendor disputes in many cases. Spare people embarrassment but the dues payers should know of official board actions.

Ohio does not require open board meetings, and it does allow "actions in writing" (email) provided that the board is unanimous. In my community, we use email only for urgent items that shouldn't wait until the next board meeting, or items that would be discussed in executive sessions These items appear in a report at the next meeting and are adding to the meeting minutes.

Say, Cathy, though OH doesn't require open board meetings, do you sometime hold them anyway? I subsume one meetings aren't forbidden?

Organizational meetings are board meetings and in CA and in FL they should be open to owners a with all rules of open meeting applying.