FOIA

Freedom of Information Act does not apply to an HOA.

Good look getting hand written notes from people. It will never happen because all someone has to say is I threw them out.

Andrea,

As others have said, per the MO Chapter 355 Nonprofit Corporation Law, applicable if your Association is incorporated (most are but check to be sure), members are allowed to inspect the records of the corporation.

What is considered a corporate record is defined in 355.821. Corporate records.

Your right to inspect (not necessarly have copies of) are outlined in 355.826. Member's inspection of records and 355.831. Scope of inspection right.

You may have additional rights in your governing documents.

Hope this helps,

Tim

What Melissa & you both seem to be fearing to are meeting minutes. These must be approved by the Board and kept forever. They are the official record of the board's actions/decisions.

I have years experience taking meeting note/minutes. Not only for HOA but in my real job as well. We did NOT hand out the "notes" of the meeting. We handed out the final agreement of what came from those notes agreed by all parties. Me and other people often were tasked with taking our own respective notes in my real job. After the meetings were done, we may send the copy of our notes to each other. That did NOT mean they were official. It meant we were comparing notes to make sure we had a full list or did not miss something. It was after we did that, we then worked on the Final draft of the notes. Once that was done those were submitted to be officially approved by management or the attendees of that meeting.

So no you don't get the "notes" of the meetings. You get the final draft just like everyone else. If you attend in person, you are welcome to take as many notes as you want to. Doesn't mean your notes are part of the HOA records. Those are for your personal use.