What communicatons are confidential on a board?

Kathryn, everything, except what is discussed in an executive session or otherwise considered personal and confidential, may be discussed. We email minutes of Board meetings to all members who have an email address and have completed our Notification Request Form and asked to receive minutes (as well as monthly financial reports).

Sherpa, most states have statutes which address members rights to access their corporation files. Unfortunately not all associations provide access to their members- some are not aware of the law and a few chose not comply even when made aware.

All association's we manage have open files for members viewing with certain exceptions. One exception is when the association has established a Rule and Regulation on Enforcement of Covenants and Rules that includes "any homeowner can file a complaint and will be provided anonymity". To honor that R&R we would not provide files which show the name of the original complaintant. Their managing agent investigates, becomes the complaintant, and that name has already been provided in letters to the homeowner who is violating a restriction.

If we receive a request from an attorney they would need to complete the same information request form as an owner and would be provided access to the same information as an owner after providing proof that the owner have authorized them to be their representative. The owner's cost when using an attorney would result in several hundred dollars more to get the same infomation.

Fl Statutes require that all board meetings are open to the members of the association, except in executive sessions. Our management company post the minutes on the web site. We have no restriction on what can be discussed with members. Of course it would not be wise to discuss things of a sensitive or personal nature that involves two opposing views.

James, no the financial reports do not include names of delinquent owners- only the net accounts receivable total. The names are not published. However, this information can not be withheld durning inspection of records IF the purpose the requestor gives for the inspection of accounts receivable records justifies inspection of this info.

Is the compensation that a Manager receives confidential?
Should there be a single entry in the budget that lists:
Salary, mileage, insurnace, taxes, office rent, bonus, telephone expenses, office supplies and any other compemsation, plus total.I would imagine any discusions the board would have with manager about salary or any discussions the board would have separately should be handled in executive session, but the vote on the decision to set the total compensation shouldd be a single line item in budget.

Thank you Roger,
This is my initial exposure to this site and I must say it is refreshing to be able to discuss this condo HOA business where you don't automatically had to deal with personal agendas and defensive attitudes. Our budget, I believe, has all the information about the managers compensation but some of it is hidden under other items.
One fund in particular they call a Discretionary Fund. I worked over fifty years and never once did I give any consideration to whether someone knew how much I was making, I didn't and don't care.I also believe that if the manager wants to hide how much money he is making from the people paying his salary, he is in the wrong job. But, we have had three managers in my tenure here and each one guards this information with their lives and so, apparently, other managers of HOA in the area do the same.
Yet, some owners and board members decry loudly that our association has members that are not bashful about asking questions and expecting open answers.

One more thing Robert, I do not consider line items such as Discretionary Fund and Miscellaneous as acceptable accounting practice. So I include some of these under Administration