Annual Members Meeting minutes

Hi, I'm in Tennessee and our community had their annual meeting in September 2023 and the meeting minutes have not been published yet. Is there a rule or law about when they have to be published.

Sometimes the HOA waits until the next annual meeting to approve the minutes, but as a practical matter, it doesn't make sense because you may have another set of owners who weren't there at the time. Everyone's slept since then, so you might not remember what happened at the meeting.

According to this article. The 12th edition of Robert's rules of order states bodies that don't meet less than quarterly don't approve annual meeting minutes - the board could do that at its next regular meeting.

https://blog.lawfirmcarolinas.com/should-annual-meetings-approve-minutes/

Note this wouldn't apply to weekly or monthly meetings- those must be approved at the next meeting. This is why minutes should be prepared as soon as possible - it's not about recording who said what, but reflects the actions taken during the meeting, such as the board voting yo hire X company as the lawn care contractor for 2024 through 2026.

There are meeting minutes examples around the web, and Word has templates you can download and adapt.

With Shelia, I believe the Board (since it's composed of owners/members) could approve the annual meeting minutes at a board meeting.

A friendly manager or board secretary COULD give them to you now clearly stamped "DRAFT."

But since minutes should only record decisions, and since few are made at annual meetings, what do you think you'll see in these, Nik, that a neighbor who attended cannot simply relate to you?

It was an annual meeting that we had in September 2023 and elections were held for the board but they counted the proxies and votes after the meeting. We have a facebook page and I understand that it is not required to post who they are on the page but many homeowners have been asking but no one replies. I contacted the management company and found out who they are and posted it. I then got a email from the president saying to take the post down. I emailed him back and asked why but he hasn't replied. I guess my issue is transparency. He also said that he didn't want to include in the minutes who was running and how many votes each person received. This is required because it was a vote so I'm not sure what he is trying to hide. I thought the minutes have to be available to view within 30 days of the meeting. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

An argument can be made that only the final results of the voting (who won) needs to be included.
However, the ballots are considered records of the Association and should be made available if one were to ask to review them.

An argument can be made to not disclose the vote count in the minutes to not embarrass anyone.

Personally, I think the count should be included.

I have my annual minutes approved by the Board at the next Board meeting after the annual meeting.

While one part of me says the Annual Meeting Minutes need to be approved at the next Annual Meeting it would be foolish to wait for such a time. I say release them ASAP and noted they have yet to be approved. Do not hide stuff.

I contacted the management company to review the minutes and I was told they were not done yet and the meeting was in September. Is there a timeframe that the minutes need to be done by.

If, Nik, as you say, the votes were tabulated AFTER the annual meeting was adjourned, the tabulation will not be in those minutes. As I wrote below, read the minutes of the Board regular meetings, surely there've been some since Sept., to find out who's on the board.