Frequency of public meetings?

We are mandated to have only one public meeting a year, and that's the annual meeting for the purpose of electing officers.

Our board meets monthly, only because that's the most constructive process we've worked out, however, those are not resident-attended meetings.

We have had one every quarter a few times, but most years only the one annual meeting.

This year we plan to have 3 as we are trying to get more people involved.

However, like you, we still only ever have about the same 10-15 households attend, out of 300+.

There is no thing as "public" meetings for your HOA; there are Board meetings and then there are Members meetings (the annual meeting) EXCEPT if you are dealing with an outside governmental agency, such as a zoning committee, which in case the meeting IS open to the general public.

At the Board meetings, IF IT IS IN YOUR BYLAWS or other documents, members may be able to attend and speak, but remember, this is the Board meeting for them to conduct Board business. Usually meetings are supposed to be closed from everyone except to the members that are meeting.

Look in your governing documents and see if there is Member Input or Member Discussion anywhere on the agenda. That would be your opportunity to speak.

If you don't think that your Annual Member's Meeting is often enough, then you will have to amend your documents, but you could hold some discussion gatherings at any time you want.

Sorry, I did word that incorrectly. What I meant by public was open to the residents. Our previous HOA only had two meetings a year open the residents and our current HOA has monthly meetings open to the residents.

Yes, the meetings spiral out of control toward the end.

Eric:
Maryland law states that any meeting of the Board where business is conducted must be open to all homeowners. If meetings are getting out of control, put together a sheet with Roberts Rules and hand it out to everyone. Then follow it. For more information on meetings, go to www.marylandhomeownersassociation.info

I believe that you are actually meaning member meetings vs board meetings. I believe that the right thing to do is to have all board meetings open to the members for attendance. Then move to executive session for matters of sensitive matter (typically relating to member infractions, personnel reviews (if you have an employee), or litigation).

Having said that, I would think that too many full membership meetings would be detrimental to your organization. Our HOA has an annual membership meeting and it seems adequate to me. As the first owner controlled board though we will probably have a special meeting to allow a membership vote on changes to our design guidelines and a decision on what to do with a large sum of money that has accumulated.