Board meeting style

I believe there are about 7 meeting types. Example of one is brainstorming. I have a book called "memory jogger" that listed the different meeting types. A few are not commonly used.

Are Articles of Incorporation had the list we followed for meetings. It was all listed in our documents. We read the .invites from prior meetings to approve, discuss collections with disclosing address or names, go over the expenses, projects, needs/wants, and finally open floor. All of this held in same room and open. We did not have closed meetings or close anyone off except for collection reports. Those were board members only.yoi could listen to the actions we were taking.

Hm, I guess you’re back (again).

Not sure what posed this question, but generally, our board works from an agenda, with the president going down the list:
• Security officer report
• Resident forum – sometimes it and the security officer’s report wind up combined if someone came to the meeting to comment or complain about something
• Treasurer’s report – when I was board treasurer, this is where I’d make a recommendation to the board to do something on a delinquent account (which would be sent to the board in advance) and it would be discussed and a motion made to accept it or do something else
• Management report – this is the heart of the meeting, featuring issues the property manager has worked on or a continuation of something from the last meeting. For example, we may have asked her to get RFPs for vendors to do certain tasks for next year and the current meeting would feature discussing the RFPs.
• The end of the meeting would be FYIs the property manager would tell us about – there might also be some new business, and then we adjourn.

The board had sat at a circular table, but that changed to a long table facing everyone. Now the board is back to a circular table, but it’s more of a semi-circle so you can see who’s saying what, although most of the time anyone who showed up left after the resident forum.

Nowadays, the meetings go fairly quickly and finished within 90 minutes. It might take two hours if next year’s budget is being discussed. Generally, everyone behaves like adults, probably because some of the people who tended to cause trouble have already had a visit from the security office – or they’ve sold the home (or were foreclosed on).

I don’t know what you’re looking for with these questions, but every HOA has its own style and you’ll eventually find yours – and then it’ll change again as new people join the board. I don't think you have to run it exactly like Robert's Rules of Order, but there should be some direction and general guidelines as to what will happen. That helps set the tone of the meeting, which I believe is critical. It's not about being intimidating, but everyone should understand this is a business meeting and no one wants to be there all night. Show up prepared, by reading the reports and perhaps a few questions, and be prepared to participate and vote – it’s ok to disagree, but once the decision is made, don’t sulk, but do what you can to make it work (time will show if you were right). I like homeowners being there to listen, but everyone needs to understand you don’t get to interrupt or act like an ass. Speak your piece during resident forum and then shaddup and listen to the proceedings – you can ask questions or make comments after the meeting.

items for agenda must be submitted to the president at least 2 days before event
all members are invited to speak 30 min before the zoom meeting about anything they want, we give them a time limit if needed.
they can't talk during the meeting but can add chat input if they want
board goes through and discusses and votes on each item on agenda
anything not decided on get put on table till next meeting.

In Florida we also have to only have open meetings. We are not allowed to have executive sessions.

We have to post notice 48 hours before the meeting and publish the agenda. We usually start with approval of past minutes, manager's report, treasurer's report, new business (agenda items like approving contracts for work, discussing possible new projects), old business (discussing current projects) and adjournment.

By statute, owners are allowed to comment on any item on the agenda. We have pretty informal meetings, so we allow comments after the manager's report and then before we vote on any agenda item.

In the past they have limited comments to 3 or 5 minutes. We don't have to do that. We generally have very cordial discussion with owners during the agenda items.

Yes, I know there are exceptions to open meetings. We follow all the rules in FS 720 which is the statute that applies to us.

However meetings for those exceptions are few and far between and difficult - your attorney has to be present or on the phone for the attorney exception and you actually have to discuss personnel issues for the other one. That's why I said we are not allowed to have executive sessions and all homeowers are allowed to comment.