Resident notice for board meetings?

WA law RCW 64.34.332 states there must be 10 days notice for any meeting. My HOA is stating board meetings dont qualify under this but look up the law it says 10 days notice for any meeting period. Is a board meeting not a meeting. Do they have to provide 10 days notice for board meetings which owners are entitled to attend?
Additional information
view law link http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=64.34.332 again it does not specify what meetings require 10 days notice it says ALL meetings. There is nothing else I can find that exempts board meetings from this law but they refuse to give 10 days notice let alone 3 days notice for the last meeting! They are trying to prevent people from attending by giving short notice, to avoid them from bringing up issues. They continue to say that board meetings dont qualify for 10 days notice even though they are open to residents to observe, but the law says any meeting and a board meeting is a meeting!!!

****please cut and paste the law link before you answer please.

Kathryn,

Usually meetings are broken into two categories; member meetings and board meetings. This is usually done in the gov docs and also in state law. However, your state law does not do this, but by saying ALL meetings and also not having a separate article for board meetings, I believe the intent is to mean member meetings and also board meetings. I took a look at the statutes and could not see where there were two categories of meetings; the section you referenced is the only one that addresses meetings. Frankly I think the statute is very poorly written but it is the law and it is what must be abided by.

It appears to me you board is doing what they want to do regardless of whether it is against the law or not. When there is no state agency to oversee HOAs this is what happens. The only recourse you have is to gather as many members who agree with you and petition the board to comply with the state law. Let them know the members elected them and the members can unseat them. Violating the gov docs and/or state law is definitely a cause for recalling the board.

KathrynD, I google and copied below RCW64,34.332. I believe you need to read it again. It refers to association meetings, not any meeting. In Colorado the state requirement for Board meeting is 3 days.

"RCW 64.34.332 Meetings.
A meeting of the association must be held at least once each year. Special meetings of the association may be called by the president, a majority of the board of directors, or by unit owners having twenty percent or any lower percentage specified in the declaration or bylaws of the votes in the association. Not less than ten nor more than sixty days in advance of any meeting, the secretary or other officer specified in the bylaws shall cause notice to be hand-delivered or sent prepaid by first-class United States mail to the mailing address of each unit or to any other mailing address designated in writing by the unit owner. The notice of any meeting shall state the time and place of the meeting and the items on the agenda to be voted on by the members, including the general nature of any proposed amendment to the declaration or bylaws, changes in the previously approved budget that result in a change in assessment obligations, and any proposal to remove a director or officer."

Assuming your condominium association is a non-profit corporation, then RCW 24.03.120 applies. It states in relevant part:

Regular meetings of the board of directors or of any committee designated by the board of directors may be held with or without notice as prescribed in the bylaws. Special meeting of the board of directors or any committee designated by the board of directors shall be held upon such notice as is prescribed in the bylaws. Attendance of a director or a committee member at a meeting shall constitute a waiver of notice of such meeting, except where a director or a committee member attends a meeting for the express purpose of objecting to the transaction of any business because the meeting is not lawfully called or convened. Neither the business to be transacted at, nor the purpose of, any regular or special meeting of the board of directors or any committee designated by the board of directors need be specified in the notice or waiver of notice of such meeting unless required by the bylaws. If notice of regular or special meetings is provided by electronic transmission, it must satisfy the requirements of RCW 24.03.009.

Except as may be otherwise restricted by the articles of incorporation or bylaws, members of the board of directors or any committee designated by the board of directors may participate in a meeting of such board or committee by means of a conference telephone or similar communications equipment by means of which all persons participating in the meeting can hear each other at the same time and participation by such means shall constitute presence in person at a meeting.

Thus, check your Association's bylaws. However, I seriously doubt notice is required to the members even if the bylaws require an open meeting -- which is a shame since it defeats the purpose of holding open meetings in my opinion.

Larry,

You stated: "I seriously doubt notice is required to the members even if the bylaws require an open meeting". The purpose of providing notice is to ensure the meetings are open. I would be surprised to find bylaws or even state law which provides for open meetings but does not require a notice to be made to all members. I'm not saying there aren't any out there, just that I would be surprised to learn of any. On the other hand, I've seen bylaws and even state laws which state even board members do not have to be noticed of a board meeting. Case in point is the AZ nonprofit corp act which states: "Unless the articles of incorporation, bylaws provide otherwise, regular meetings of the board of directors may be held without notice of the date, time, place or purpose of the meeting." However, this statute does not apply as theree are HOA specific open meeting law statutes, but it did apply b/4 those statutes were enacted. Even my assn CCRs state: "No notice of regular meetings of the board of directors need be given." I think you'll find it more a matter of state law than assn bylaws that requires meetings to be open and to be noticed -- in AZ it's called the Open Meeting Law (OML).

Susan,

AZ has an open meeting law which requires all meetings to be noticed. If the board notices their "regular" meetings by stating "all board meetings will be held on the 2nd Tues of each month at the XYZ Elementary School at 5:30 PM" then they have fulfilled the requirement of noticing the meetings for the entire year.

Actually our notice is stated in our quarterly newsletter. I agree a notice before every meeting is the preferrable method, but some assn's just don't have the means for that. We have 1,700 homes ($748 just for postage to mail a notice!); no bulletin boards (we would need at least one for each of the 17 s/d's and many have 2 entrances) and no clubhouse where a notice can be posted. At one time we had a local newspaper that posted meeting notices each week, at no charge, for all the HOAs in the area but they quite servicing our area last year.