Meeting minutes

Good evening all,

I have a rather quick question. I was hoping you all could clarify a few things for me.

Our annual election was held last night. I was re-elected!
We are allowed to use proxies, if the homeowner (in good standings) doesn’t make an appearance and are eligible to vote. As many of you are aware our subdivision (like many) has a difficult time establishing quorum.

We also have a management company whom we will pay for them to be present, to sign people in, count ballots and proxies. The property manager will general stay the entire evening and he will bring his assistant with him, so we pay her also.

I guess the meeting was too busy for her to take minutes, so the president asked my wife to take them. She did and very well I might add, but now they are being submitted under the assistance name as if she took them. I personally don’t feel that it is right for them to do such a thing! Were do you draw the line? God for bid, if those minutes were ever needed in court. I guess then the MC would take soul responsibility of what was written, is that why?!

I guess my question would be, can minutes only be submitted by the Management or board members? If a non board member takes the minutes, does the board have to sign off on them as if they had taken the notes themselves?

I know this sounds kind of petty, but it just not acceptable to me.

I don’t recall ever reading a previously written post on this particular topic, if any of you recall otherwise feel free to let me know

Thanks as always
Chuck W.

CharlesW1: I believe anyone can take minutes of a meeting. I, personally have taken minutes many times (not as a Board member) and have signed off on the minutes as: Respectfully Submitted, name & address & date submitted.

I agree with you on your caution about the 'assistant' wanting to sign off on the minutes even though she did not actually record them. I feel this unprofessional of your prop.mgr. & his assistant to even request it.

I also question why the Prop. Mgr. found it necessary to have his 'assistant' at the meeting, requested that she be paid as well, and then she did not even assume taking the minutes but wants to sign the copy as though she did.

Minutes are usually recorded, prepared and submitted to the Board and held until the next meeting when they are to be approved or revised as the case may be. When I take minutes I always prepare a 'draft' copy for the Board's review before I present them with a final copy.

Charles, the person taking the minutes should always sign the minutes. We take minutes at meeting and sign Recorded By: _________ . I would request this be corrected at the next meeting before voting to approve the minutes.

Jadeone is 100% correct. The meetings minutes should be taken by the secretary of the association. They should then be posted or made available once approved by the BOD and signed. An individual may take their own notes if they choose but they can't be used as "Official". It may be possible for the board to assign someone to be the official note taker and back-up taker. Whoever does that, can then turn the notes over to the board and have the board approve the minutes. That may be an option here for you just so you can have copies of BOD minutes.

I just wanted to mention that when I was President, my secretary (along with 5 other BOD members) had moved out of the HOA by year's end. So there was No one who was qualified to take "official" meeting minutes. As per our Rules, the President can't act as "Secretary" which meant that I could NOT take the meeting notes which ironically were MY notes! I did keep a set of "unofficial" notes that anyone could ask for but they weren't able to be kept as an official HOA record. So as a President be careful on using your own notes. A non BOD officer may be able to take the notes instead.

GloriaM,

I certainly appreciate your immediate response. I too feEl what you have confirmed. I personally feel it’s just morally wrong. Credit should be given when/where credit is due. Perhaps I’m more concerned because it was my wife’s name (integrity). She too is representing me at the meetings, with her words and actions. Therefore I feel that her representation of the meeting should be her views and opinion if those minutes were to be approved (which they have been) by the board.

It may sound petty, but morally (to reiterate) it’s just WRONG.

Thanks as always
Chuck W.

Jadedone4

I too have noticed that the governing documents tend to vary from state to state, city to city as well as in other subdivision and/or communities.

Our by-laws only have three elected positions. President (can not hold two or more positions), Vice President and Treasure (both can hold more than one position). Either the Treasure or the Vice President are assigned the responsibilities of the Secretary if the documents does say there is a fourth position (as ours does) I guess that is how PM and I, interpret them to say

We are not required to have a secretary, although we have all felt the need for the position,(especially the board) but didn’t want to have an even number (voting purposes) I suggested that the secretary not have the power to vote at a board meeting, but that was shot down by the PM. He said that our governing document doesn’t say we can have four positions nor does it say that we can have a non voting board member. At times it is a good thing (cause of voting purposes), but it does tend to be a little overwhelming for our current treasure to voice his opinions when having to focus on taking minutes. That is just ridiculous, IMO!

As I posted earlier, the PM or the Secretary never suggested to sign the meeting minutes, the President of our HOA did however. The president was under the assumption that it wouldn’t be a problem. I guess she knows now.

Thanks for your post. Your advice is always direct and to the point

Chuck W.

CharlesW1 - Depending on how your docs are written, an officer may not necessarily have to be a Board member. The position of Secretary is one of an officer. The only votes at a board meeting would be one each for each board member. Not sure why you would suggest that the secretary not have the power to vote at a board meeting, it kind of goes without saying.

JoeW1

I guess I’m not following you exactly. Your post is severally confusing. HUH?!

I’m fully aware of what our governing documents say about the responsibility of the three elected positions (I have reviewed them several times) and they state that there is only a President, Vice-President and Treasure, NO SECRETARY.

Our Treasure took on this duty as it specifically appointed the Treasure for these responsibilities on top of his requirement as the treasure.

To reiterate, we do not have an elected position for Secretary, but if we had they, (The secretary) would have the ability to vote, because of just that they were voted in by the community and our by-laws would state such as well.

Please feel free to clarify your post for me. You generally have very good advice and are very information.

Thank you
Chuck W.

JoeW1,

HMMMM learn something new every day. You are correct I hadn’t a clue of that. I did however know that the positions we selected (within 10 days-by-laws) among those (highest number of votes) that won the election.

So you’re basically saying that all eligible members volunteering to be on the board are directors until they are elected then they become officers (Pres, V-pres, treasure and Secretary.

I would appreciate if you would clarify these questions for me then.
If we had four volunteered members running for office, only three were elected could that forth person be on the board as an officer and not a board member? Ultimately they would have no voting power, correct?

Second scenario, could the board assign a member of the community as (minute taker) the secretary, without a vote from the community? to basically take notes at the meeting, where confidential board information is discussed.

Thanks for the clarification it is much appreciated
Chuck W.

CharlesW1 - Basically all eligible members volunteering to be on the Board are elected by the owners as directors, or in the event of a vacancy some associations permit the Board to appoint a person to be a director. Each director is then elected by their fellow Board members to fill the officerships. How the Board accomplishes officer appointment is generally at their discretion.

Depending on your community's governing documents, an officer might be anyone residing in the community. However, the Pres. and VP should be Board members. Some associations may also require the Treasurer to be a Board member. A non-Board member has no voting power as a Board member.

Generally speaking anyone the Board appoints can take the minutes. In the event the assigned person is not in attendance at the meeting to take the minutes are you going to get a vote of the community to approve the proposed alternate minute taker? Highly unlikely.

Hope this clarifies the matter for you. Understand, there are generally no absolutes of protocol from association to association nationwide. Please review your gov. docs and tell us all what the outline as to all this.

Keep us posted,
JoeW1