Standing Executive Session with no agenda, just secrecy?

SAm,
The Executive Session is standard practice in HOA meetings. Some last only minutes if the only items the PM wants to discuss is the collections report. This is totally normal, and this will never show in any meeting notes. No need to list the topics as only 4 topics can be discussed.

1) Collections and Payment plans
2) lawsuits
3) Contracts
4) Disciplinary issues

I mentioned executive sessions in one of your last posts - Mark said basically the same thing I did.

With these questions, I have to ask - are you READING your documents at all? It seems to me some of this stuff would be addressed there, but if it's not (and not everything in HOA can be addressed in the documents), you should be asking the board about this. That said, executive sessions should be announced before they're held and they should explain the reason, e.g. CCR violation appeals. You don't get minutes of those meetings, but you should be told what the board decided.

All of this said, I don't see any reason for an executive session if the only thing the board members will do is gossip.

Our HOA we did not officially call it "Executive session" but we only discussed business AMONGST the Board members ONLY. Mind you we had OPEN meetings. Which meant you were free to attend the meetings and WATCH the board members interact. The board members would discuss the Collections report but this was kept ONLY with board members. It was NOT distributed as it had personal information on it. You could know what YOU owed but not your neighbors. Our job as board was to decided what to do with those who did NOT pay. We never discussed names but referred to Lot #'s. People in attendance could HEAR if we were placing a lien. Making a payment plan. Considering foreclosure. That was the board's job to do.

The other part is we discussed our EXPENDITURES. This was available for general membership in attendance or request. The board again discussed the report amongst themselves openly. General membership could LISTEN in. After that we may discuss future or ongoing projects or actions.

The General membership was allowed to have input or requests. They could do it at the end of the board portion in person. They could also write in request or issues. The period AFTER the board portion was for general membership. That did not mean the general membership made any decisions. That is a board job. We would listen and decide to discuss it next meeting. Giving time to do research and get more details.

If you can not respect this, then meetings are not for you. Wait for the notes to come out after they are approved. Unless your on the board or willing to participate, your going to be a general member who has the right to LISTEN.

Sam,
You sound like you are being very paranoid. Have you tried running for a board seat? If so you can see exactly what happens in Executive session. As someone who has been on boards for over 14 years the last thing most boards want to do after a long meeting is gossip. There is plenty of time for small talk during the day for that type of talk.

I would advise you to not watch Football when is starts again. When the teams huddle up, they could be talking about you or gossiping.

Hadda a feeling from the get-go that the state isn't really Alaska and that the poster is perhaps someone with whom we're already familiar.
Your first post say "it seems that x or y "must" occur? Only your docs or state statute can tell you that We can't possibly guess!

Per your bylaws and In your state, Sam:

Must advance notice of x or xx days be posted for owners before the Board can hold executive session?
If so, must that "notice" contain the agenda items?

Must executive session only be entered from a regular open board meeting? Or is it permissible to hold one at any time (with proper notice and agenda item(s) if required)?

The Board in my complicated HOA holds an executive session every month immediately before the monthly regular open meeting. All permissible items, basically as Terri lists them, are on the agenda posted 4 days in advance. But only the matters to be discussed or decided are completed, e.g., Contracts in Formation: Proposals for Sidewalk Painting.

Last week, the Board held an executive session and it was posted as required 2 days before it was held with only a single agenda item on it.