Technical solutions to running condo meetings remotely

Hello,

My condo association of 43 vacation units will likely be at least running annual meetings remotely and allowing remote voting. I visualize that the Board will be physically present along with a few other unit owners and that most owners will participate remotely. I am looking for a technical solution that will allow the remote participants to see and hear the Board members, see and hear the other remote participants, and see and hear unit owners who are physically present. I know I'll be using Zoom or a less expensive equivalent. I will need a quality webcam which will show all 5 Board members plus our building manager and our secretary.

Some Boards must have already figured out the hardware and software to get this done effectively and at reasonable cost. My question to you all is what resources are out there to help me sort this out? I hope I'm not entirely on my own. I don't want to hire a consultant due to the cost and I am somewhat technical.

Thanks in advance!

Thank you for your reply. I have held one meeting using Zoom. The problem was that only one person in the room could have his or her audio on due to the interference it causes between the devices.

You can try using other apps like zoom and go-to meeting also seperating the cameras or computers as far as possible.

Larry, you could be me. My HOA down here at the other end of I-95 is facing a similar issue.

We're looking at a situation where we'd like to have anywhere between 1 and 4 board members in a room (we have a large 50' x 50' clubhouse room where meetings are usually held), with homeowners having the ability to connect via Zoom to see and hear (and speak at) the meeting. Normally the PA System speakers in the ceiling serve to amplify what's being said by the board members who share a number of wireless microphones that feed into a pre-amp mixer and then out to the PA amplifier.

We've had off-site board members in the past who participate remotely at board meetings, but only one remote board member has ever needed to be accommodated. The clubhouse is wired with DSL and has a wireless router as well. There's a PC running Windows 10. Most recently we used Skype to enable a Director in NJ to remotely "be" at the board meetings. That director always reported that he often had a hard time hearing what was going on, and sometimes couldn't make out what was being said at all. Being that the statute calls for remote participants to be able to hear clearly and to be clearly understood when they speak from their remote location, the setup we had worked, sort of, but was far from ideal. So we obviously need something better if we hope to allow multiple people to connect up with a virtual meeting using Zoom, or something like it.

Besides a camera (we have a webcam) I think we need an audio cable to connect the Line Out audio from the PC to a spare "balanced" input on the pre-amp. Not expensive, but somebody's got to find or make one. Then we're looking at another audio cable to connect the mixer output to the Line In audio on the PC. The mixer/pre-amp has 2 output channels and we'd feed one of those over to the PC and the other to the PA system amp as we do now to power the ceiling speakers.

We think that setup would work but the devil is always in the details. The DSL line and the router are in one corner of the clubhouse. The PC is in another corner (currently using WiFi but we'd want a wired Ethernet connection to the router for this application). Then there are the wireless microphone receivers and amplifiers which are in yet a different corner of the clubhouse in a utility closet. Moving things around so that the wired bits are all in close proximity to each other will take some doing.

The biggest problem here is a board that is actively anti-technology. When provided with a $30 annual cost for an anti-virus program for the PC, several of them wondered, "What do we need that for?", despite the fact that that's where our on-site archive of HOA Official Records is stored (we have backup elsewhere). When that was explained to them their response was, "What do we need that computer for?" and the debate swung around to whether or not to get rid of the PC in the clubhouse.

So even if we had everything arranged and properly hooked up, there's a question of whether the board would make use of the setup. I have a technical background and could do everything I've mentioned. The biggest obstacle in the way of me doing it, however, is I'd have no assurances that hours and hours of work would ever be put to good use. I don't want to waste my time. The project would also require some sort of a budget. Probably less than $200 all-in, but the board has not had a meeting since April to discuss or vote on anything at all. And the biggest thing, again, is I don't want to waste my time and without some assurance that that wouldn't be the case, I've declined to "help" anymore.

I hope you have better luck.

Funny! I think we do have similar situations! My Board is also very non-technical but are probably more willing than yours to spend a little money.

The room in which we meet has no equipment in it but we do have access to wireless internet from adjacent owners who are allowing us to use their routers. The solution I'm seeking is a good quality webcam or camera both with very good audio that is wide angle and high definition. I am hoping for a discuss recommendation from someone. I'd also like a low cost alternative to Zoom. Possibly, Google Meet is a free solution.

By the way, I live in the Northeast and hate hot and humid weather. However, this past January we went to Siesta Key for two weeks and loved being on the beach so much that we started looking at condos on the ocean there. Then, the pandemic ruined our search. We now just hope we can return to rent again in January.

Thanks!

We lived on Long Island for 30 years before moving down here. Last Labor Day as Hurricane Dorian parked itself over the Bahamas we bugged out from E. Central FL to the Sarasota area because that was the closest hotel we could find that allowed a cat We stayed on a place right on SR 72, Clark Rd, that led right to Siesta Key a couple of miles away. We liked it very much. Didn't want to go home. After 4 nights we did head home and were very happy to learn that the storm didn't do any damage at all near us. They had maybe 40 mph winds for a day or so, and that was it. And because there was a hurricane they waived the pet fee.

Of course, our homeowners insurance premium went up 25% this year. That's life in Florida.

Thanks. Regarding Zoom meetings, I was reading this blog post from a local firm's website and it's very true for my HOA. Virtual meetings are great, but...

"No matter how modern people want to be, Florida laws don’t allow these elderly owners to be left out. They have the right to know what’s going on in the association, where their money goes and what the board is planning for the future."

I can't argue with that. But what it seems to be saying is that even if there's 1 elderly person without access to a computer, ipad, or smartphone, such that they cannot remotely connect to a Zoom meeting, then you've got to have alternative arrangements for that 1 person to be able to "attend" the meeting. I'm not sure how we're going to do that. We have way more than a dozen older people in this community in that exact situation.

Last night I discovered that the Zoom universe (they've got way more than a single meeting app for sale) has an optional add-on service that allows those with only plain old telephones to dial into a meeting using special pre-assigned phone numbers. Both toll and toll-free options seem to incur significant costs above and beyond the basic Zoom application. Per-minute surcharges apply per caller. If you've only got one homeowner calling in to a meeting from out-of-state then the charges aren't too bad. But if you've got 15 who sit inside because they're afraid of COVID-19 then it adds up fast.

Hi, That's a good story. It seems every HOA or condo association's situation is different. All our owners have internet access. I'm just looking for a cost effective way using hardware (camera with audio) and software (Zoom or similar app) to make our Board meetings accessible to our members.

My association is doing the annual meeting the same as always. Outside, but a little more space between people this year. No proxies in Arizona but we get most ballots back about a week before the meeting, even from the people that plan on attending. A quorum has never been a problem.