Moving meetings along

You're the president, so you need to preside. Usually, the discussion occurs BEFORE the motion and then the president (you) call for a motion. If that's made and seconded, call for a vote.

This doesn't mean yammer all night and there's nothing wrong with putting a limit on the time devoted to an agenda item, especially if you have a lot of them. You can go around the table and give each board member a chance to say something - everyone else needs to keep quiet until everyone else has spoken. If someone starts to repeat him/herself, you need to say (politely but firmly) "thank you, but you've already mentioned X - do you have anything NEW to add? If not, we are moving forward with a motion because we have other agenda items that must be addressed tonight." Then do it.

If those board members vote no because they didn't get their way, let them. If you get a majority vote, fine. If not, deal with that at the next meeting.

It's great more residents are participating with virtual meetings, but virtual or not, they need to understand this is a BUSINESS meeting and the board has an agenda that must be followed in order to get through everything so everyone can go back to watching ESPN or whatever they were doing. In my community we have a resident forum before the official business starts. Depending on the number of participants, you can set a time limit on everyone - once you speak, be quiet until everyone has a say. Set a time limit on the forum (10 minutes is plenty) - if you didn't get everyone, encourage them to write the board with their question or concern and you can read it during the next meeting.

Better yet, to ensure you get through the agenda, you may need to request statements in writing for a while.
No anonymous statements - statements will be read aloud with the name of the person who submitted it. You may be able to group some together and then say something like "X number of residents wrote to express concern about Y" Summarize the points that were made and then the board can decide during the meeting how to address it.

The resident forum isn't the place where the board makes decisions on the fly - it's ok to refer the matter to the property manager for follow up with the residents (he/she could then provide a summer of what happened at the next meeting.} Some issues could also be referred to an advisory committee for further review or a board member or two could be designated to investigate the matter and report at the next meeting. If the issue is already an agenda item, say that and move on.

Once the forum is over, the business portion begins - you thank everyone for coming, the business portion has started and from this point on, no questions or comments will be permitted from viewers. I've been on a number of webinars and virtual meetings for my job, so you can put people on mute so they don't interrupt. GoToMeeting also has a chat portion where people can yap about the proceedings - you don't have to address them until the next meeting. There's even a portal for questions where people can post and you can follow up with the resident and/or during the next meeting.

You may want to talk to your colleagues about ensuring decorum during meetings, come up with a plan and then announce the expectations to everyone before the meeting begins. I'd also post that on the community website, if you have one, so people know what to expect when they participate. Some folks will squawk at first, but once you demonstrate you mean business, they'll calm down.

How many HOA's actually are required to follow ROR or any parliamentary procedure for a board meeting. I know member meetings have that stipulation.

During thee business portion of our board meetings, our GM mutes owners so they cannot interrupt.

First, sorry for the double post.
Second, thank you all for your replies.
These are very good suggestions. I think if we follow them many of our issues will be resolved.