Board members texting during board

Started by LeeC3 • 38 replies • 637 views

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LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

Has anyone experienced board members texting each other under the table during actual board meetings? At our last meeting four members were constantly texting each other instead of discussing topics openly. Would asking all cell phones be turned out of the question? We are an open meeting state. Appreciate any advice. Thanks.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By LeeC3 on 02/15/2022 11:03 AM
Has anyone experienced board members texting each other under the table during actual board meetings? At our last meeting four members were constantly texting each other instead of discussing topics openly. Would asking all cell phones be turned out of the question? We are an open meeting state. Appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Sadly, according to our attorney's, a Board president has little that they can do to stop people from behaving weirdly. I would ask at the beginning of the meeting to have conversations verbally rather than by text, but if people insist to text they can do so. Motions, seconds, and votes should be by voice rather than by text.

Texting under the table sounds relatively inncuous. Drinking during meetings is more problematic, but fortunately, you are not asking about that one.

BancsS
Posts: 269

Posted:

Doesn't sound very professional. Are these board members people you really want on your board? This is stuff Jr. High kids would do. Someone needs to call them out for that behavior. Open meetings mean OPEN not texting each other under the table. Really inappropriate!

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BancsS on 02/15/2022 11:16 AM
Are these board members people you really want on your board?

Whether appropriate or not, the Board President does not select the directors who are on the Board. Those are voted in by the homeowners.

BancsS
Posts: 269

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By HenryS7 on 02/15/2022 11:24 AM

Posted By BancsS on 02/15/2022 11:16 AM
Are these board members people you really want on your board?

Whether appropriate or not, the Board President does not select the directors who are on the Board. Those are voted in by the homeowners.

What makes you think I didn't know that? Oh because I come from a blue collar family and live in a less expensive house.

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

They discussing agenda items which in my opinion violates open meeting rule.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BancsS on 02/15/2022 11:33 AM

Posted By HenryS7 on 02/15/2022 11:24 AM

Posted By BancsS on 02/15/2022 11:16 AM
Are these board members people you really want on your board?

Whether appropriate or not, the Board President does not select the directors who are on the Board. Those are voted in by the homeowners.

What makes you think I didn't know that? Oh because I come from a blue collar family and live in a less expensive house.

Why do you live in a less expensive house? The blue collar workers that I work with make a lot more money than I do. I don't know what type of house they choose to live in but I do know they drive nicer vehicles than my own.

BancsS
Posts: 269

Posted:

"We have a particular group of homes that are less expensive, and it appears that many of the owners might be more of the blue collar (trades)..."
I was responding to one of your previous posts which I constrained myself from replying to. But not to further hijack this post, I will cease commenting about something you said except the poster mentioned nothing about the Board President in this post about texting during a board meeting.

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

Quote:

In Virginia, these birds are breaking the open meetings law AFAIC.

First order of business at each Board meeting in the future should be as follows.

President and Director Bartlet: All directors, please lay your cell phones right here in a pile.

Director McGarry: Wha...?!

Director Santos: No, baby. No comprendo.

Director Ziegler: Hell no.

Director Cregg: How much money will you give me to do this, big shot?

[I am now cleaning Diet Pepsi from my keyboard, having snorted it out upon reading BancsS's interesting report of injury on account of possible blue collar associations.]

BancsS
Posts: 269

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By AugustinD on 02/15/2022 12:15 PM

Posted By LeeC3 on 02/15/2022 11:03 AM

[I am now cleaning Diet Pepsi from my keyboard, having snorted it out upon reading BancsS's interesting report of injury on account of possible blue collar associations.]

I was being sarcastic about Henry's description of blue collar members who discuss HOA business at a local bar vs white collar workers discussing these topics at wine and cheese gatherings. I'm glad you enjoyed my sarcasm but sorry about your keyboard. I did something similar when Henry posted that. Seriously it's not what blue-collar people discuss at the local bar. What is discussed is not appropriate for this forum.

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BancsS on 02/15/2022 12:29 PM
I was being sarcastic about Henry's description of blue collar members who discuss HOA business at a local bar vs white collar workers discussing these topics at wine and cheese gatherings. I'm glad you enjoyed my sarcasm but sorry about your keyboard. I did something similar when Henry posted that. Seriously it's not what blue-collar people discuss at the local bar. What is discussed is not appropriate for this forum.

[wink]

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

An open board meeting must be just that--open for owners to see and HEAR the deliberative process.

Are you on the board, Lee? If not, is an open forum for owners required in VA and does your Board hold an open forum? If so, speak up and politely suggest to the Board that they abide by the spirit and meaning of your open meeting statutes (and Bylaws if in them).

Ideally, the president, as the presider of board meetings, would instruct the Board to communicate only verbally during the open meeting. If s/he is too timid, Lee, you may have to write a strong letter to the Board requesting that they communicate only verbally with one am mother during open board meetings.

We have had one or two text messages during board meetings, but they've been of the nature of: "you have spinach between your teeth."

ND (PA)
Posts: 792

Posted:

Quote:

A few questions for clarity:
- Are you a Board Member, an Officer, an owner in the "audience", or some other sort of meeting participant?
- How do you know they were texting (and not surfing the web, managing their stock portfolio, or any number of other things that can be done on a phone)?
- How do you know they were texting each other?
- How do you know what they were texting about?

It's tough to know if you are making a lot of assumptions about what was occurring or if you have factual evidence.

Regardless, I think it would be appropriate to point out that at the next meeting in whatever manner you are capable of (depending on your role in the meetings) that at the previous meeting it appeared to you that Board Members were overly-engaged with their electronic devices and not as involved as they perhaps should have been in the meeting's activities/discussion. And kindly request that Board Members refrain from using electronic devices during the course of the meeting. You could ask that Board Members turn off their devices; however, if someone asked me to do that, I would tell them to pound sand. Although I also would not be the type of person to allow myself to be overly distracted by my device nor act childish and use it to inappropriately communicate with others seated at the table next to me.

MichaelH34 (North Carolina)
Posts: 179

Posted:

In addition to what ND asked/said, I wonder if those texts would be discoverable in the event of a lawsuit.

If so, would be good to remind people of this and that they should limit what they text about during the meeting. In other words, don't deliberate or gossip via text during the meeting. It could end up being part of a public record.

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

I'm the president. Been on the board in many positions over the years. The board were only ones in room. No homeowners joined virtually. It was obvious they were texting each other about the agenda items. I'll take some of your suggestions to the next meeting. Thanks for your comments.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

So these directors were withholding their opinions, etc., from you and perhaps other directors?? How many were "obviously" texting? How many are on your Board?

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

Total of 7. Four in the texting group.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Do these board members have kids or loved ones they take care of? Considering how our life schedules have changed, could they be communicating to home issues? Do you need to adjust the meeting time? Could it be you may be droning on and on? Change the pace of the meeting. There have been times I've wanted to drown out my own voice in a meeting.

Otherwise I would suggest phone on silent as if your in a movie theater. Enjoy the show...

Former HOA President

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

Melissa, no.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

And you know they were texting each other, how?

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

It was obvious.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

As Board President, you cannot control the behavior of others. The Board members were elected to Board by homeowners, and while you preside over the meeting, you cannot tell people not to use phones during the meeting.

Rather, I would look to what you can control, which is the meeting tempo and pace. For our Board meetings, our meetings are fast paced and there is no time to text each other during the meeting. Our meetings look like this:

1) Topic is presented - about 5 minutes
2) President calls for discussion among Board members - 3 minutes, maybe 4-5 minutes tops
3) President either asks for a Board member to introduce a motion (if consensus appears likely) or if no consensus appears like, President tables the topic for the next meeting (takes about 1 minute)

Thus, we spend no more than about 10 minutes per subject. If a person tries to pick up a phone to send texts, they either miss the presentation, discussion, or motion. Thus, nobody gets on their phones during our meetings.

Keeping the meeting tempo up is key to running an efficient meeting. Also by calling for discussion, I ensure that every board member is able to speak up and express an opinion, so there would be no reason to text each other instead of speaking up during the discussion time that is part of each agenda item.

Thus, my recommendation would be to look to your meeting format and see if you can improve the efficiency. Perhaps you can attend a school board meeting or city council meeting to see how other more public meetings are run and get some ideas on how to run yours from that. I attended several to figure out how to run more efficient meetings, and our format works well for us.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

I disagree with Henry. I state law says the meeting is open, it is open to everyone including board members. Messaging is a discussion in secret, which isn't permitted. In my 14 years on the board here, there only were a couple of texts as noted above. in monthly board meetings. Perhaps 3 other times, a director would notify the rest of us just before the meeting that they were expecting a really urgent phone call or text and would have to leave the meeting for a few minutes.

Lee could put the topic on an agenda for the Board to vote on in an open minute to be duly recorded in the minutes. It seems clear that a majority on the Board wants to weaken the minority with its secrecy. But would they actually vote to be on record to be rude and unprofessional?

Motion: "Texting by directors may not occur during board meetings unless urgent."

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

Kerry, thank you. Seems we are on the same page.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

I have to play a little "devil advocate" here. Can't always feed the beast what they want to hear. Thinking of it, I've never had anyone actively texting in my meetings nor in my real world meetings unless there was a problem WITH the meeting itself. No one wants to accept it could be something we are doing or hear it. For me, if you have time to notice people texting in a meeting, then you have time to speak up about it to address the issue. Plus it should also clue you in that something is WRONG here.

Maybe record a meeting and listen to it back. Is there reason why anyone would choose texting each other while in the SAME room together? This isn't high school. If it is a closed meeting, then you all should be communicating face to face.

Overall my gut tells me that the meeting format may need to be changed. I would read your Articles of Incorporation or CC&R's on what is to be covered in a HOA meeting. Our documents covered what we were to cover in our meetings. It helped keep a format/outline to follow. That way we didn't get lost in the weeds discussing weeds.

Don't take this as a criticism. Take it as maybe a way to address the issue of why this would be happening. My gut says some of these text say "They are so clueless they don't even know we are texting each other" giggles...

Former HOA President

BancsS
Posts: 269

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KerryL1 on 02/15/2022 6:41 PM
I disagree with Henry. I state law says the meeting is open, it is open to everyone including board members. Messaging is a discussion in secret, which isn't permitted. In my 14 years on the board here, there only were a couple of texts as noted above. in monthly board meetings. Perhaps 3 other times, a director would notify the rest of us just before the meeting that they were expecting a really urgent phone call or text and would have to leave the meeting for a few minutes.

Lee could put the topic on an agenda for the Board to vote on in an open minute to be duly recorded in the minutes. It seems clear that a majority on the Board wants to weaken the minority with its secrecy. But would they actually vote to be on record to be rude and unprofessional?

Motion: "Texting by directors may not occur during board meetings unless urgent."

Very common-sense approach to this issue, Kerry. It should be assumed that elected or not, board members should know better. Adult behavior never ceases to amaze me.

PatJ1 (North Carolina)
Posts: 568

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BancsS on 02/16/2022 4:56 AM

Very common-sense approach to this issue, Kerry. It should be assumed that elected or not, board members should know better. Adult behavior never ceases to amaze me.

Never assume anything. This sounds like junior high stuff. If 4 of 7 are texting, then a vote might not pass. Shouldn't have to vote on this kind of stuff.

Every board member should be turning off their phones during the meeting unless they announce they are expecting a call. Unless they are researching on the internet a board question, or pulling up an email pertinent to the meeting they should not have their phone in hand.

You may not get anything done during a meeting, but I would stop the meeting when someone grabbed their phone and wait. Ask them to let everyone else know when their full attention to the meeting is available. They may, or they may not, soon tire of the delay and meetings that last 3 hours. You may have to ride out your elected term with this childish behavior. There are no requirements to being an HOA volunteer and behaviors are difficult to enforce.

Board member "cliques" are the most difficult to deal with when trying to get things done. Been there, done that. Didn't stay for long and nothing got done.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BancsS on 02/16/2022 4:56 AM

Very common-sense approach to this issue, Kerry. It should be assumed that elected or not, board members should know better. Adult behavior never ceases to amaze me.

It may be a common sense approach but toothless. After the motion is passed, and let's assume it does get passed, and people kept texting. Then what? The President cannot make the Board members do anything. They have the right to be in the meeting. He cannot adjourn the meeting without the consensus of the group. Thus, the meeting will continue even if the members keep texting.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MelissaP1 on 02/16/2022 4:19 AM

Overall my gut tells me that the meeting format may need to be changed. I would read your Articles of Incorporation or CC&R's on what is to be covered in a HOA meeting. Our documents covered what we were to cover in our meetings. It helped keep a format/outline to follow. That way we didn't get lost in the weeds discussing weeds.

Don't take this as a criticism. Take it as maybe a way to address the issue of why this would be happening. My gut says some of these text say "They are so clueless they don't even know we are texting each other" giggles...

My gut feeling is the same. Likely the meeting is droning on between the non-texting board members, and a couple board members are not allowing the 4 texting members to add to the discussion, so they are discussing among themselves. Likely, it's not the most well run meeting and perhaps Lee can change things up to make it more engaging especially among those texting.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

I say in an open meeting all attending have a right to hear every word the BOD has to say thus texting among BOD members on any association business is violating the rules of an open meeting and must be stopped.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnC46 on 02/16/2022 9:11 AM
I say in an open meeting all attending have a right to hear every word the BOD has to say thus texting among BOD members on any association business is violating the rules of an open meeting and must be stopped.

How do you stop people?

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

I mean to explain my previous post.

As President, you can encourage and request that people stop texting during meetings. Polite board members will stop because they are polite and listen to the President. Rude or inconsiderate board members will not choose to stop texting.

You can remind people again, but they can ignore.

You can have a threatening or overbearing personality, but that is not running a fair meeting with proper presidential etiquette.

You can pause the meeting I suppose.

You can motion to adjourn the meeting, but others may not vote in favor of adjourning the meeting.

The bottom line is that there is little one can do about inconsiderate board members. The biggest tool in the toolbox here is to look at the meeting format and make it as engaging as possible so people don't have time to text. That the president can do.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

I don't know why you assume the meeting is boring and that the presider isn't keeping it moving properly. You're assuming, Henry, that these oafs are simply playing with texting. but, according to the OP, it's clear they're texting each other about board biz under discussion.

If the Board make a no texting policy, ANY director can interrupt an "remind" the jerks that no texting is permitted. Since these ARE open meetings and perhaps an owner or two does attend, I'm sure they, too would appreciate the Board following its own policy and theca's to keep the meeting open to all.

HenryS7 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 336

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KerryL1 on 02/16/2022 10:13 AM
I don't know why you assume the meeting is boring and that the presider isn't keeping it moving properly. You're assuming, Henry, that these oafs are simply playing with texting. but, according to the OP, it's clear they're texting each other about board biz under discussion.

I assume it's boring because we only discuss things for about 3 minutes at our meeting. There is no time during discussions to text each other.

Most HOA board meetings across the country drone on and on. I have listened to many that have been posted to Youtube. The discussions go on and on and only one person talks and no one else talks. That is not efficient.

How many HOA Board meetings, school board meetings, and city council meetings have you listened to in the course of your work as an HOA member? I have listened to many and gathered ideas from many. My opinions and assumptions are based on what I have heard and seen. Of course I haven't been to Lee's meetings so I can't say for sure about his.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

I think that is what Henry and I are saying. How can there be clear texting without it being addressed on the spot? If I see it going to say something about it. Which if you are not then how is the conversation going? Seriously it is an open forum for the board to speak up so why do they not feel they can?

I studied in college various forms of meetings. There are about 7 different types. Most are the brainstorming type. Where everyone collabs on an issue to address it.

It just still lends me to think the meetings are not constructive as they should be.

Speak up and lay the phone on the table.

Former HOA President

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

I think I've gotten all the useful advice that I need from alot of the comments I've read. The assumptions not so much. Lets close this one of please.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Hence we got our answer from the op...

Former HOA President

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Good luck, Lee. I hope you & the Board minority can encourage lawful open meetings of your Board.

LeeC3 (Virginia)
Posts: 9

Posted:

Thanks Kerry for your educated and thoughtful replies.

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