Board Meeting Etiquette

You're already being nice allowing some time at the beginning (rather than the end, if that time's available) for member comments. IMO, turning your backs to the members for the duration of the meeting is both rude, and as mentioned, makes it hard or impossible for them to hear, which largely defeats the purpose (likely requirement) that your meetings be open to the members.

OTTOMH, I'd say you could solve this at least 2 ways. Either face the members and be strict about "the 15 minutes comments period is over, either sit quietly and just listen or leave." or get one or more microphones for your "round table" and pipe that to speakers facing the members.

Board members with their backs to their neighbors? Very rude! Moreover, in CA, anyway, Onwrs must be able to hear the board's deliberations. Also in CA the board must allow an "open forum" at every open board meeting. We have two -- at the beginning and at the end.Perhaps once a year wonks have persuaded the board to vote to reconsider a decision they made. an about half the time, the board has overturned its previous decision.

During the business portion of the meeting, Owners in attendance may not speak and directors should speak only to one another and not director their debates, t etc to Owners, i.e. grandstanding should be discouraged.

Our board plus the PM & her assistant sit in a sort of U-shaped configuration. Directors also have mics as our room is big and sometimes here are 30 Onwrs attending. On the back of the agenda are rules of decorum for Owners. I think I can send a copy pretty easily if you like, Tricia.

Why wouldn't owners come at the end of the meeting (or at a scheduled time towards the end, even if the board needs to meet in private for a bit more after the owner time is up)? I'm all for transparency, but having owners stay for board meetings of any entity is odd.

Unlike many states, Paul, I don't think NY requires board meeting of HOAs to be open to members (Owners). But many states, including CA, VA, FL, AZ and others, DO require that such board meetings be open to owners. Some states like CA require an open forum at these open meeting when owners may address the board. Board may set a time limit on One forum, but our does not.

In open meeting states, there are a scant few topics which boards may discuss in closed sessions/executive sessions. These can be held at any time that the board chooses in CA. We hold ours immediately preceding the open board meeting.

Some adjourn to executive session during the open meeting and then reconvene the open meeting after the executive session matters are dealt with. During executive session, Owners are not permitted to see and hear the proceedings so must live the room. This sounds very awkward to me but I know it happens on some boards.

I have no idea about AL law on this topic.

Thank you, Kerry

I concur with all comments here except PaulJ6's.

From Ohio statute 5311.083 (for condominiums): "(3) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration or the bylaws, all meetings of the unit owners association are open to the unit owners, and those present in person or by proxy when action is taken during a meeting of the unit owners association constitute a sufficient quorum." I cannot quite tell if this refers to board meetings.

If people cannot reasonably hear the discussion, then it's not an open meeting. Worse, it does feel like the appearance is that the Board does not want the members to hear everything.

City Councils often sit in a semi-circle, facing a large audience. Citizen comments are typically allowed at the beginning, with the Councillors hearing, but not responding to, all remarks. I like Melissa's suggestion of a large rectangular table, with the directors on three sides and the audience in chairs facing the fourth side. Microphones may be needed for well-attended meetings.

I can't tell from the citation if board meetings must be open to owners either, Augustin. It seems to be referring to meetings of the members (Owners) since proxies aren't permitted for directors.

I'd thought I'd seen here long ago that OH Association board meetings must be open to owners,. As I recall, OH follows some sort of organization or agency guidelines with 4-5 letter acronym that applies to several states. Where's Janet when we need her?

Meantime, what do your own bylaws say abut this topic, Tricia? I'm a little curious about this statement: "When our residents complain to us about a specific topic not being addressed, we almost always suggest they attend Meetings to understand more about how we do business..."

Do these owners see particular agenda items on an agenda before the meeting and then feel the topic wasn't discussed by the board? In other words, why do they expect a certain topic to be addressed? I f something IS on a agenda, the board must address it. If the board shows no interest, the minutes can say something like: "After some discussion, the Board decided to take no action on this item."

This way, those who do not or cannot (25% of our owners are absentee) attend can read the minutes and know that the topic was addressed. If owners feel some sort of board action should have occurred, they can wrote to the PM or board with an argument seeking to put it on a different agenda. To be persuasive, the request should contain some kind of new information that was neglected for the previous attempt.