Annual Membership Meeting Minutesn in FL

Meeting notes are a bit more complicated than one thinks. Yes, typically the Secretary is responsible for making the meeting notes. Ironic enough the President is NOT allow to take notes because they are NOT allowed to act as "Secretary". So the Vice-President/Treasurer or other officer position could.

It's up the board to approve those meeting minutes usually at the NEXT meeting. If any issues arise, then it may be another meeting to officially approve the meeting notes. Which IMO should not be released until official. Some people demand notes shortly after the meeting. They would not be official notes and should be stamped as such.

Meeting notes can be important to things like lawsuits and/or approval of some changes. A lawyer once told me that changes to the by-laws (NOT CC&R's) can be noted in the meeting notes. Not sure how true that is. However, they would be considered part of the official records of the HOA.

Yes, remember these people are VOLUNTEER. They are up to making mistakes. If you can do a better job, volunteer to do it.

Was anyone present at the meeting for which the minutes are missing? Was there any business at that meeting?

Those present could have put together minutes simply by looking at the prior meeting agenda.

Yes, yes, rules need to be followed but we’re not talking about treaty negotiations this is an annual meeting, which for most HOAs, most of the time, is a review of the budget, maybe an election, and a reminder to pick up dog poop.

In the time it took to tell you that there were no minutes and no one was at fault, one of them could have grabbed a scrap of paper and written who go elected and whether the the budget got approved.

I get the impression that this group won't be able to get anything done. Might be time to rotate them out.

I agree with everything you said. It's SOMEONE'S fault. Another example where those who don't want to play the "blame game" are usually the ones to blame.

Also I'd like to point out that at a meeting of the membership there is no "audience". It's not a board meeting. The officers may give their annual reports to the membership (or in the Secretary's case, the minutes of the last meeting) but it's YOUR meeting, the members, and the members all get to fully participate. At the very least a full explanation of why there were no minutes from the previous meeting should have been given, not matter who may have been embarrassed by the actual details. Then it should have been discussed how to ensure such a thing never happens again.

You also might consider language that gives the Board the authority to waive late fees. Waiving them may be desirable in certain circumstances. As an inducement for paying delinquent assessments or fines, for example. Or perhaps after severe weather, storms, or flooding result in people paying late. Or maybe in a month where there's a State of Emergency in effect. Example: at the end of August we were under the gun from the possible approach of Hurricane Dorian. The Governor declared a State of Emergency on Aug. 29. If that hurricane had significantly affected us we were contemplating waiving late fees for September. It didn't and we didn't, but we would have. Not everyone has electronic payments out of their bank accounts set up. And it would have been for September only. Any pre-existing late fees due on an account would have been carried over. It wouldn't have been a blanket amnesty.

My apologies for my post above at 10/02/2019 5:11 PM

That reply was for another thread re. late fees and I have no idea how it ended up here in a completely different thread. The forum software on this site sucks, to be blunt.