Meetings

Yes, completely fine.

It's best to disregard replies from other states as CA has a very detailed Open Meeting Act. A quorum (usually a majority) of directors may not get together and discuss upcoming HOA/Board business EXCEPT at meetings that have been announced (noticed) to Owners in a way that most owners would be able to read the notice.

We ost ours on bulletin boards, and our property manager (PM) sends an blast to owners the required 4 days before an open meeting with the a agenda for the meeting. Executive sessions' agendas must be posted two days in advance and may only include a very few topics.

Visit Davis-stirling.com for more info specific to CA. You might start with "Open Meeting Act" an go from there about meetings in general.

Meanwhile, if your have a PM, s/h should a be ale to advise your Board about the legality of meetings of directors. good luck!

What about board members conducting a community walk-through? Three person board, two directors do the walk-through: that's a quorum discussing association business. If the open meeting laws apply to that as well, it would make these sorts of things totally unproductive.

Cathy,

I've read of boards being clear - to the point where the walkabout is formally noticed and that the board will be walking the community - seems like a great idea of casual meeting and greeting.

Call to order, read the minutes from last meeting, and walkabout!

AMEN and pass the biscuits.

Would i be able to call an executive session without management?

I actually don’t think so because it won’t be personal matters. Right now it will be mostly budget issues. Home owners just took over the board. How would the board be able to get together to discuss issues and be within the rules. Would we have to do this after the agenda is posted?
Thanks

Victor,

Communication between board members, outside of called meetings, is absolutely necessary to conduct business and keep your operations flowing smoothly. Don't conduct board business where money is spent or policies are created outside a board meeting.

Seeing your fellow board member in the neighborhood or meeting up to review something shouldn't require all the disclaimers and paranoia outlined in this forum. Use common sense and don't spend dues payers' money outside meetings where minutes are kept and audiences are invited.

Victor, please read the citation I gave you for Davis-stirling. com. Go in their Index to Executive session. Also read your own Bylaws, which also should say when the Board can meet in executive session. You may NOT meet in a closed meeting about the budget.

Don't you have a Property manager or HOA attorney to advise you??? Your questions are important but very basic.

Say, what size is your HOA? How many board members?

Kelly offers good advice, but CA is somewhat stricter than NC.

Uh, the manangement company works for the association, not the other way around. You and your colleagues should already know what's in the contract, so look at it again and see if there's language mandating the management company attend all meetings. I suspect there isn't anything to that effect, so hold your meeting without the property manager if that's what you want to do.

Regarding your question on what's considered action, it's basically a task that has to be done by someone. For example, the board meeting agenda includes a discussion on hiring a landscaping company to do the community's lawn care. Someone might make a motion to have the property manager send requests for proposals to various companies for the board to review at the next meeting. Someone else seconds the motion, the board votes to approve the motion. and the property manager is told what needs to be done - that's the action. However, if a board member took it upon themselves to hire a landscaping company without it being discussed and voted upon at a board meeting, that would be inappropriate. If you read assorted conversations on this website, you'll find some board presidents are notorious for doing this sort of thing. And I won't even get into possible conflicts of interest - that's an issue for another day.

I agree with Kerry that your questions are really basic, so it's time for you and your colleagues to invest in some education. There is a lot to learn and you shouldn't be expected to do all of it yourself. Looking through the Davis-Stirling is a good start, along with your documents. In fact, some of your questions are probably addressed in there, so if you're not reading them, that's where you should start. In fact, I suggest holding off on the budget meeting for a little while and hold a meeting where each of you summarize a section of your bylaws that address board duties and the budget so everyone knows what's expected of them.

I'm sure there are chapters of the Community Association Institute (CAI) around, so check out its website to see if there's one near you. If not, their education section is quite good and has all sorts of books and webinars you can purchase for training on many HOA issues like duties of board officers, rule enforcement, approving exterior change requests and reserves (something you'll need to discuss in this meeting if you're discussing the budget). You can get a group membership and then everyone can start educating themselves and each other on fundamentals.

VictorN2, I would ignore my post above, given California laws.

However, if board members couldn't ever get together and talk, that would even mean that they couldn't even all come to a neighborhood party or something, so surely there is a line somewhere that separates when board members can come together and talk and when they can't.