Acceptable meeting locations

HOA is looking to have one of their annual open meetings where are property owners are invited. The location that was published could be considered a highly controversial location - at one of the major political party HQs in the county. There is no common area in community i.e. clubhouse. So these meetings need to be held in a location outside the community location. Prior to this, it was at the developer's property which is no longer available. Some requests were made to find an alternate, neutral location to provide a less hostile, non-political environment. Its our view that meetings like this should be in an apolitical environment to create an atmosphere of openness and inclusion. One of the community members went and looked for a suitable location and offered a variety of options and alternatives. Such as the local library that has meeting rooms available. The HOA president responded to these requests of change of venue with a paraphrased response of 'suck it up'. Thoughts?

I agree.

On the one hand, I agree it is undesirable to hold a meeting at a building with a specific political party affiliation. On the other hand, it can be hard to find meeting locations. Chances are it is volunteers giving a few hours and more to the effort.

If I were on this board, and knowing whatever effort the community member made would require more work (payment; signing of papers for liability reasons; et cetera), I think I would vote with the President to go forward with the meeting being held at one of the major political party HQs. If community members do not like it, then not only can they suck it up, they should step up and run for the board at the coming annual election. If elected, they will understand that the petty stuff burns directors out. For the most part, I think it's incredibly, disgustingly unethical to criticize a volunteer HOA/COA board if one is not willing to do the work one's self. Any critic who responds, "oh my work will not allow serving on the board," is actually saying, "I am too cheap to give up my energy and so arguably income to volunteer on a board." This is not a "reason." It's a lame excuse to continue whining. They should either put up or shut up afaic.

Will the association have to pay to use the facilities? That would be the one thing that would stop me, since in the current political climate it would be viewed by some as supporting the owner of the facility. Not saying that I agree or disagree with that view, only that it will come up and I wouldn't want to deal with the resulting fallout.

Many of the churches and libraries in my area make their meeting rooms available. You still have to pay or make a "thank you" donation to the owners, but the organizations themselves are less controversial.

If free, go for the most convenient regardless.

"Thank you for your input and offer. The Board will consider it." If there is a motion, by email or at a board meeting, the Board votes on it. If time is short, the vote can be done by email in many states, in which case most or all states further require the vote to be unanimous in approving this action without a meeting).

I agree with Barbara and John - it's one meeting and unless the place had some really nasty symbols hung up, such as a swastika, go ahead and meet here, unless one of the alternatives has features that are even better, such as more parking or even Wi-Fi you could use to broadcast the meeting on something like zoom for the homeowners who couldn't make it.

After this, you may talk to the managers of one of the alternative sites about meeting there regularly so you don't have to go through this again.

If some members are clutching their pearls over it and you've already mentioned to the board that it offends some people and provided alternate options and they still say suck it up, I guess you can get a straw? You could try as a group of several folks to reach out to the board to change the venue, rather than just one. You can get a poll of the number of people who are offended by the location and provide it as additional support for your stance. But you might still have to suck it up, at least this time.

The good news is you can't catch a political stance by simply being in the building. Politics are not religion so comparing it to having it at a pork processing facility is fallacious reasoning at best. I guess some people view their politics like a religion these days. You don't have to drink the Kool-Aid even if you show up at the meeting.

Is it being held there in an effort to put some people at odds?
Was it just the first place they checked?
Did someone on the board have an "in" for a quick, hey can we have it here kind of thing?
Were they trying to reduce the attendees and thought, HA, I'll show them!

I'm genuinely curious.

You can bet our #1 choice is the free church building but it might offend an Atheist, I guess we will cross that bridge if we get there.

Where they drinking Bloody Mary's? (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)