Board not allowing members to attend meetings?

You now have a new member from GA. I was wondering if anyone else is having problems with their board not allowing members to attend the meetings and not allowing residents to view minutes of their meetings? Southern Eagle

Hello, We have a similiar situation in our communtity the president is kicking homeowners off the board without discussing it with the board telling homeowners if they speak he will have them removed. I was the president of our community for 8 years i know parlament procedure and our by-laws you cannot deny anyone who wants to come to a meeting any meeting even if it's about delquent, what ever the discussion any one is welcome or is supposed to be.Our problem is solving this situation any advice out there?

Our board has open meetings each quarter and keeps a binder of past board meeting minutes at our club house.

Check your association's rules about attendance and/or suggest sharing the minutes and/or periodic open meetings.

If your association is located in Florida the state statutes offer potential solutions to many HOA problems.
You can find the Florida statutes at: www.ccfj.net/HOAFS720partI.htm

I'm the president of a relatively new HOA in OK.

Here's my 2-cents.

Being a new board, we have a lot of work to do - meeting often 3 times a month, and don't need residents attending every meeting. We allow them to attend 1 meeting a month. When they attend, they are not allowed to participate - instead, I have Q & A time AFTER the board finisheds discussions (trust me, try holding a meeting with multiple opinions flying around - you'll never finish). No one's complained, and they usually take notes so they're ready to ask questions when we are done.

Minutes are provided upon request, but are not voluntarily sent out.

Bottom-line - its easiest to address homeowner concerns 1 on 1 outside of the board meetings and/or by having a Q & A time after the boards business is completed.

One other item - we're usually meeting in someone's home, so we really avoid having very many visitors during our meetings (admittedly, there are only 50 homes currently, with another 50 on the way, so not too many residents taking an interest).

DTP

Our covenants state that all meetings are open but that a homeowner cannot speak until acknowledge by a board member. The board also has the right to call an executive session in which sensitive legal matters are discussed in private.

The only time we have ever had anyone other than a board member attend a board meeting was after removal of board members. The person spearheading this effort didn't get onto the board and she became a 'watch dog' so to speak for a few months.

The covenants are very specific in the removal of board members. We also post our meeting minutes on our website.

All:
Read your CC&Rs and your by-laws. If a board is elected by the membership (all of the homeowners voting) then they can only be removed by the membership (probably a 2/3 vote). A petition is required with a certain percentage to call a special meeting and then a petition with a certain percentage of member's votes to remove the director. A board can vote to change an officership or committee chair if they've voted it in ON THE BOARD. But if members vote in directors, they have to vote them out. The board can only ask a director to resign; if they do not, the rest of the board will usually marginalize them anyway, and then they may as well quit. This happens all the time because even when that director knows they are being left out, they can't prove it unless they accidentally get an email or communication, and if the MC is working with the president or other corrupt directors, they will help keep certain info out of a board packet--I know this--I've been the one left out and the one targeted because I asked questions about their wrongdoings. These boards are really getting out of hand IMHO. Something needs to be done by lawyers getting on the side of this irresponsibility and focusing on this instead of ways to make money off foreclosures and fees due to it. These homeowners certainly should want their community to be nice, but the wrong type of board is a power trip and everyone suffers for it. I don't approve of people getting on boards because they want to argue over getting violation letters either. What if everyone disobeyed the law? I've said this before in a thread on this site--I have a rental property that is unsellable because people around it in the assn. do not keep up their property. I've put $50K into the inside and outside, new appliances, new A/C and furnace and CANNOT sell because of the way the community looks. A homeowner doesn't get worried about the rest of the assn. until THEY try to sell. Then it's too late. Our former president of our board did not want to enforce deed restrictions; did not follow them because she selectively enforced (or didn't) for her friends. She finally sold her house but it took several months, but she moved to a property that has no HOA. Do you know what this tells me? But the other people that didn't want to abide with the deed restrictions are still here and they are still violating. It doesn't have to be unpleasant; it just appears that it's their way or the highway!
EdR

Arizona passed a statute a almost two years ago that prevents HOA board from not letting members speak. So we start the first 15 to 30 minutes of the board meeting with an open forum. Members can address the board on anything they wish.

When they come to the meeting they sign in with their lot number and are checked as the home owner. They are given copies of the minutes and the agenda.

The minutes are also put on the internet under Yahoo Groups.

I am talking of the open meeting, the executive is still closed while deliquencies, fines, etc are discussed.

Of course with 199 home owners, we usually get less than 10 members to show up at the meetings.

Tina---I wholeheartedly agree with your statement about living in Florida. The statutes were easily found, there were a great many attorney's who specialized in community HOA law. I have not found this in Mississippi. I am in an area with few HOA's to begin with and it is difficult trying to find answers, which is how I stumbled upon this site---which I am immensely grateful for!

TinaD - Two thoughts here:

1). PattiB's original post was over 5 and 1/2 years ago. Hopefully she has resolved her issue in the intervening time.

2). While finding "someone" in Georgia to "enforce" violations attributable to HOA Boards is certainly not the case, the Boards themselves should understand the risk they are placing themselves in PERSONALLY when they knowingly, willfully, and in a premeditated way take actions that violate either the governing documents of their HOA or of state law.

Most HOAs are incorporated as non-profit corporatins in Georgia and are thus subject to Georgia Code, Title 14, Chapter 3.

Board members should recognize that any D&O Insurance will not protect them from willful acts of wrongdoing and they are personally liable for the outcome of any legal action brought against them as a result of their wrong doing.

I realize this may sound a little overly dramatic, but it's a real risk that should weigh heavy on them. If they aren't aware of it, perhaps someone should remind them of that possibility.

Rather than reactivating an old thread, please respond to BillindaN on this thread:

http://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/1/postid/133415/view/topic/Default.aspx