coronavirus and general membership meeting

The question about what to do about annual meetings during this pandemic has come up a lo there. All options are bad: Delaying the meeting violates a covenant. An online meeting often violates a covenant. Having an in-person meeting is insane (just ask the Miami Marlins' General Manager) and may be unlawful in some cities. I believe the consensus is that this is uncharted territory, and boards should do the best they can to satisfy all legal requirements. To me, this means allowing absentee voting and online Zoom attendance, conforming with the calendar requirements of the covenants.

Well said. Many of us are up in the air.

We have done several board meetings online and they went great. It may be a little challenging with a large group but it can be done. I suggest having a practice meeting to iron out any wrinkles. With some, anyone with a regular telephone can participate. We used Zoom with no problems and I've attended one meeting using another platform which also went well.

I don't know Pennsylvania law but it's hard to imagine a law or covenant prohibiting an online meeting. It's probably common for the rules to be silent on the subject.

The virus was just getting bad when we had our annual meeting so we decided to cancel everything but the election. We vote entirely by ballot so we did not need a to be quorum physically present. We encouraged everyone to vote absentee or just drop off their ballot and leave.

I'm wondering about PA, too, Augustine.

CA permits absentee & mail-in voting. Secret ballots. Owners do attend the annual meeting to socialize & learn the results of the voting tabulation, but it's rare that anyone votes AT the meeting.

Still, to tabulate the ballots, which must be viewed by any owner who wishes in CA, the 3 inspectors of election (our CA HOA) would have to sit far apart.

Otherwise, the remainder of the meeting could be Zoom, which we've used with fair success for the past 3 monthly board meetings. About 30 Owners (200+ condos) attend, whom we keep muted unless they want to speak during our designated open forums.

Each state is different or even city on how many they allow to gather. I believe ours is down to 10 in conference rooms and it may be 50% capacity in other larger venues. We also all have to wear masks now. So you have to go by your state's rules when having meetings.