HOA Board of Directors in Connecticut meeting

Started by PatR6 • 5 replies • 363 views

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PatR6 (Connecticut)
Posts: 1

Posted:

I am the treasurer of the board of directors for our condo association in Connecticut. We have been told that we cannot meet to discuss any business or basically anything unless it is at our regularly scheduled meetings with all residents invited. How can share our opinions or our research that has been done on any number of issues if we only see each other at public forums. It seems that projects will take forever to be agreed upon. Any suggestions will be welcome.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

1. Meet monthly

2. Send research out via email ahead of meetings (allows every director to read the info before the meeting, helping to keep the meetings short).

3. Empower individuals. Example: authorize the treasure to impose or waive late charges that are 1 month or less.
Example: authorize $x for tree pruning - abc director to identify trees.

4. You may meet with others providing there is not a quorum present (as it takes a quorum to conduct business). So assign less then a quorum to work on issues.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Welcome, PatR. Holding "open meetings," to which owners are invited as observers, to discuss, deliberate and decide (vote) is the law in many state, including CA.In such state, statutes define any gathering of a quorum of board members as a "meeting of the board."

Calif. doesn't allow a quorum of the board to discuss, diligent and decide business items online, either (except for emergencies), but some states do, e.g., Ohio.The board meets once a month and the agenda for board meetings is posted 4 days in advance . The agenda must be followed in CA and a strong presider--usually the board president-- who keeps the Board on track means business can be conducted smoothly and productively.

If you have a property manager (PM), often many decisions are delegated to that person by the Board, who handles certain matters between board meetings.

But instead of writing that "your Board was told," can you tell us what your bylaws say? Or your state laws? In your bylaws, you'll see that the board can also hold special meeting, also open to Owners and executive sessions for a few topics that must be kept confidential. this also varies by state, but in Ca executive session can include topics like personnel issues, owners disciplines, meeting sixth the HOA attorney, contracts in formation & payment plans for delinquent owners.

What size is you HOA? How many directors?

LoriM15 (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

Florida also has sunshine laws that don't allow directors to meet and make decisions outside of public meetings. We do a lot of work via email - we share information and discuss but don't make any decisions until we are voting at the actual board meeting. It really saves a lot of time at the meetings and is pretty efficient. If we have to meet with a vendor, we pick a committee of two directors to go and then report back to the rest so we never have a quorum outside of an official meeting. The other thing we do is have workshop meetings, which are extra meetings that are official (notices posted and agenda published). We had one yesterday to discuss our wish list items to put in next year's budget. At these meetings the board discusses without interruption and we do have a homeowner comment period at the end. We got a lot accomplished at these meetings.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

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The answer will be in your Bylaws and CT Law. There is no one answer for all. Generally speaking, a BOD can use Email to pass information between BOD Members. Less then a Quorum of the BOD can meet to discuss issues. In neither case can there be any voting.

You are probably not as limited in communication as you may think.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Tim's advice is really helpful. Delegation to individual directors or committee or fewer than a quorum of the Board works really is key especially if there's no full-time community manager.

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