Florida HOA Annual Meeting Attendance

Assume the HOA is a condo: governed by FS718

Correction: Assume the guest (not member) is invited by the board.

Assume the guest is there to quietly take notes / observe and that there is nothing in th bylaws indicating that a guest can not come.

The question seeks to find any verbiage in Florida statutes (not HOA rules) that somehow limits who can attend HOA meetings and HOA annual meetings.

Uh ... if docs say owners may attend, it means owners may attend.

The entire purpose of that component of the docs is to specify who can attend - so, to me it means only owners may attend.

The Board may invite guest speakers, legal representation, etc.

The simple answer is "No", the statutes do not limit who can attend board and/or members meetings.

I think at a board meeting, the directors can choose to allow an outsider to attend by a majority vote of the directors. At a members meeting, I think the members can choose whether or not to allow an outsider to attend also by majority vote of the members.

The reverse is also true. If the board as a whole votes to not allow an outsider to attend a board meeting then the person may not attend, and if the membership as a whole votes not to allow an outsider at their meeting then that outsider may not attend.

Essentially, those whose meeting it is get to decide for themselves who may attend.

Robert's Rules says,
"Every deliberative assembly has the right to decide who may be present during its session; and when the assembly, either by a rule or by a vote, decides that a certain person shall not remain in the room, it is the duty of the chairman to enforce the rule of order, using whatever force is necessary to eject the party."

That's extreme, but if a meeting is conducted according to Robert's Rules then there's nothing in any statute that I've seen that contradicts that. And one member of the deliberative assembly (i.e. one board member at a board meeting, or one homeowner at a members meeting) does not speak for the assembly.

RR wouldn't overrule anything since it's low-man on the totem pole when it comes to the hierarchy of documents. But "members may attend" doesn't say a thing about non-members. If it said, "only members may attend" then that would be different.

I agree with GeorgeS.

But I'm very curious why the director wants someone at the meeting to quietly "take notes." Is there no one taking meeting minutes? A property mgr. or sec'y, or? What will this stranger do with these "notes?"

Are you that director, Gatorback?

If someone is there for the sole purpose of taking notes, I can see where people might get a bit frazzled if it's never been done before.

If that person has some negative history with some members, red flag goes up a bit higher.

If one particular board member is spearheading note-taker participation and there's been a bit of discontent in the neighborhood, up a bit higher than that.

While I've never seen rules against it anywhere, I think it's more important to be able to explain - why now - and if appropriate, why this person.

I hate to jump into this, but ... I've managed communities (in FL) that did allow non-owners to attend board meetings and I've managed those that didn't (that's a decision for the board to make). Since, the OP's question directly addresses the association's "annual meeting" that meeting by definition is a MEMBERS meeting and regardless of whether or not non-owners (non-members) can attend board meetings, they certainly should NOT be attending a members meeting.