HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - November 21, 2014
Published: Fri, 11/21/14
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Feeling Ignored? How to Be Heard at Your HOA Board Meeting
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In this week's tip, we listen to-and help-a reader who's been feeling
ignored. Our reader piped up during an executive session of the board to
offer an amendment to a motion-and was utterly ignored and even chided
afterward for interrupting the meeting. What happened? And how can he be
heard next time?
Generally, states don't govern the parliamentary procedures boards must
follow during any type of HOA meeting.
"In Illinois, both townhome and condo associations are completely free to
set their own rules of procedure," says Barry Kreisler, founder of Kreisler
PLLC, a Chicago law firm that represents 70-100 associations, most of which
are condos. "They don't have to use any existing set of procedures. Some tend
to use the black book of procedures-Robert's Rules of Order-but it's
something like a 250-page volume."
Texas is similarly hands off when it comes to meeting procedures. "There's
no statutory requirement in Texas that HOAs use or conform to any
parliamentary procedure rules," says Gregory S. Cagle, a partner at
Savrick Schumann Johnson McGarr Kaminski & Shirley in Austin, Texas, and
author of Texas Homeowners Association Law, written for homeowners and
association leaders. "Unless it's in their actual documents-and very few,
if any, have requirements that they're going to follow Robert's Rules; I've
seen it, but it's pretty rare-the person running the meeting tends to use an
informal, made up, very lax version of parliamentary procedure. It can be an
absolute free-for-all. I've seen it happen where people talk over and
interrupt each other."
That's also what Alessandra Stivelman, an associate attorney who
specializes in community association law at Eisinger Brown Lewis Frankel &
Chaiet in Hollywood, Fla., has seen. "With these meetings, it can be kind of
chaotic," she says. "Maybe this board member wasn't even heard. In
associations with a large board, and sometimes with unit owners speaking
out of turn, the president needs to move onto the next item and can't take all
comments."
Head to our new article, http://www.hoaleader.com/members/1094.cfm,
for suggestions from our experts that may help our reader be heard in the
future.
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Recognizing Board Members During an HOA Board Meeting
An HOAleader.com reader writes, "At a recent annual meeting of unit owners
at which I was newly elected to the board, an executive session of the new
board occurred, and a motion was offered and debated. I wanted to amend that
motion before it was voted on, and without getting the attention of the chair
called out, 'I wish to amend it.' The other board members refused to discuss
an amendment and later on accused me of interrupting the meeting. What did I
do wrong and should have done? Did I need a second or something like that to get
an amendment to a motion accepted and debated? Background: The motion that
was offered I believed was contrary to a state (Maryland) statute, and I
wished to have it amended so that it was not contrary to that statute before
voting on the motion."
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Recognizing-Board-Members-During-HOA-Board-Meeting.cfm
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Easier Enforcement of Your HOA's Rules: Steps to Create Enforceable Rules,
Effective Fines, and a Fair Violation Process
Enforcing rules doesn't have to be a pitched, tense, and unpleasant battle
between your homeowner association board and your homeowners. With some
smart planning, you can make enforcing your HOA's rules fairer, quicker,
easier, and less stressful.
Join us for an in-depth webinar on December 11 led by two community
association experts: a lawyer with more than a decade of hands-on
experience in advising associations on how to create and enforce rules,
along with a veteran association manager with insights on the day-to-day
operations of rules enforcement. You'll get practical ideas, systems, and
processes you and your condo or HOA board can begin to take advantage of the
minute the webinar ends.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/snip/180.htm
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Adjourning and Ducking into an HOA Executive Session: Can You Do It?
Raise your hand if your board has done this: "Our board all of the sudden
announced it was going into executive session, and they asked us to leave the
room."
The question we get fairly frequently from readers is: Can they do that?
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Adjourning-Ducking-into-HOA-Executive-Session-Can-You-Do-It.cfm
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Getting to Your HOA's Executive Session, Step by Step
We hear this complaint frequently: Our board all of the sudden announced it
was going into executive session, and they asked us to leave the room. Can
they do that?
Your right to adjourn a board meeting and then to reconvene in private in an
executive session depend on your state's law. Here, we offer up a sampling of
the laws in three states to explain who can call an executive session
meeting, when can it be done, and how, including on what type of notice.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Getting-Your-HOAs-Executive-Session-Step-by-Step.cfm
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HOA Board Members and Fiduciary Duties: What You Must Know to Fulfill Your
Duty to Your Association and Protect Yourself from Personal Liability
When you volunteered to serve your community association as a board member,
did you realize you were agreeing to set aside your own interests and act as a
fiduciary on behalf of the entire association? Are you confident you know
every scenario where you might trip up and expose yourself to personal
liability by failing to live up to this important duty?
Set aside an hour of your time to learn what you need to know and ensure you're
not risking your own financial security by making common--but easily
avoidable--mistakes while volunteering as an HOA board member.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/snip/178.htm
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