committees and open meetings

JC3,
All meetings of an association, be it committee, workshop or any meeting in which a quorum of the Board of Directors is formed, is required to be open to all members. The only exception is where a meeting of the Board and an attorney, reguarding any pending or active litigation or any legal matter of the association, requireing the attorney, may be closed to the membership. ARC is no exception.

JC,

Meetings of any sort with homeowners or BOD members should be open. Check your doc's, then check the state doc's.

All of our meetings are scheduled at the beginning of the year. A calendar is posted each month with the time and day the meeting is to be held. If there is a cancellation because of not having a quorum or no need of a meeting, then next to the calendar the PM posts a notice.

All of our committees are volunteer members with a board person as a liaison. The board person only sits and listens with little input. When the committee proposes something the liaison takes it to the BOD. It may come down to a vote or just discussion. With the BOD members just acting as liaisons we do not run the risk of ruling the whole community. The committees have their own ideas and we as the BOD act on them or discuss them with the community at our monthly BOD meetings.

In SC the Attorney General Office advises to answer this question, you should hire an attorney.
There is nothing in the state documents that addresses this issue for HOA's. Any other documents that you think might apply, don't. The answer from the Governors office via States Attorney General is "Hire an Attorney, and "No", I will not send that decision in written form. Supposedly because that would then be legal advice and the AG is forbidden to give legal advice. I think I may sue the AG for giving me legal advice to see an attorney when I questioned the issue at the AG office, and he told me that the law states his office can not give me legal advice.
That should clear that up.

Nancy,
Could not agree more. The "sue" part in my post was said in jest, but don't feel bad, my smart daughter-in-law tells me I should shy away from from making jokes when I write because I have a tendency to confuse her when we write back and forth. She is smart....like you and Donna.

Anyhow, I understand and agree a lot of woes we have or of our own doing. speaking of a community now, especially the HOA. I have been trying to change this open meeting thing for years, in fact served on a committee to rewrite some of our documents and still never got in the position to insure that was included when the Lawyer made the changes. It is, as always, a complicated story here in our Condo, and probably in many associations.

It is more a question of influencing the Board than it is changing the documents. They are all absentee owners, but the one several of us got elected this year. The board made a worse possible misjudgement when a
board member quit and they appointed an owner that lives here off and on and is a Problem Child." But out group has patience and there will be some new blood next year that we will support and then we will have enough board power to make decisions. None of us are power freaks and the folks we will support will no doubt insist that all is going to be business and if that ticks anyone off in our group......too bad. But that won't happen and our group will individually serve to better the community. One of the first things that will be done through the board when possible is "Open Meeting and open doors and we will insist the manager change his M.O. and be more compatible and interested in what the owners want. He is just following Boards lead but that will be different also. Communicaation seems to mean different things to different people and I don't hold with the statement,"Well, I wrote or called or told them about this or that and they still won't do whatever." I am more a communiations (measure the results) kind of person.
Thanks for your input.

Jeannek3
I am responding to your post, because you stated you are from Maryland.
We have been meeting for the past four Thursday evenings at my home to upgrade our arc guidelines.
We posted on our web-site, and at the board meeting a request for any interested homeowner who would like to serve on this committee to contact the Management Company.
Those who responded went over the guidelines, made significant changes, and will present them to the homeowners at our upcoming board meeting.
The Board of Directors must review the results before the meeting, and I wondered how we were going to get past having a meeting, because as everyone on this post has agreed, all meetings must be open to everyone.
So how could the Board meet in pivate to go over the changes?
However! The Management Company, said we can get around all this by simply calling "A last meeting"
Meaning it will be the last meeting of the special committee, and it would only have to be open to those on that committee which were mostly board members. We have nine members on our Board.

Jim

I'm not sure I understand this but I can't see the problem. When the Committes work is done and they have their suggestions (and that is all they are), they can appoint a representative to contact the board and present their input. To me no meeting is required and if there is a technical question, call it a Committee meeting, because that is what it is. The board then decides how to handle the recomendations and puts in on the agenda for the next meeting. If it has to be an amendment the board has to handle that, if not, the changes are made by board order to the ARC document. Since the Board appointed the committee, the committee did it's thing, the board gets information and recommendations, the board completes the process by making the changes. When adopted the members can like or not like, but it will take take an act of the Regime to change them, once approved, and from where I sit the Board has this authority to adopt them, if no amendment is involved. I also think the ARC is presented with so many challanges and subtle differences, it is as much an art as a science.

RobertR1,

Because of the mammoth number of associations in Florida, we certainly have had much practice in getting our legislatures to address H.O.A.'s. They have had challenges and many bumps in the road but each year, more and more organizations help the state pass new statutes , hopefully making being in a H.O.A an easier pill to swallow.
As I do research and read some of the posts from states such as the Carolinas and find that they have just about nothing addressing HOA's, I am amazed. As you did, you referenced the Florida statutes and found us to be very well documented with laws and statutes. Good job on that.
I encourage all other association members to get involved in your states, to get some laws enacted for protection of all of those living within the H.O.A. structure of living.

Okay, I guess I was not clear in my first post: These meetings are to approve a request or not, NOT to make changes in the archetectural guidelines. Do they need to be OPEN meetings, with membership made aware and invited?
Thanks, and sorry for any confusion.

JC,

As is most times the case, forum members get off on may different subjects. One question leads to another... No, you do not have to make the community aware of these meetings. All meetings should be posted in a public places for all members to see but committee meetings are not like BOD meetings. Those who want to attend may.