Condominium and Homeowner Association (HOA) annual board meetings are an essential component to fulfilling your duties as a member of the board. Although the agendas of annual meetings can vary from community to community, they often include reviewing the previous year, approving budgets, and electing new board members. With annual meetings, the board can strategize and work towards its goals, whether that’s increasing the condominium or HOA’s property values or fostering a deeper sense of community.
While poorly run annual meetings can hinder productivity and negatively impact morale, a well-run meeting can serve as a springboard for creating meaningful change and progressing toward your communities collective goals. In this blog, we share our six best practices for running an effective annual meeting and why they’re so important.
1. Follow the governing Documents
First, consult your governing documents to see if there are any protocols regarding your annual meetings. This may be impacted by the state you live in, and can cover how much notice you need to give homeowners, whether the notice needs to include the agenda, and how many votes are needed to elect an executive board member. For example, in Missouri, notice of the annual meeting must be given to homeowners at least ten days before the meeting, but not more than 60 days.
Pro Tip: To effectively plan for your annual meeting, consider using BulidingLink’s Event Calendar and Announcements features. Our Event Calendar allows you to schedule the meeting in advance and gives all homeowners the chance to mark their calendars early. Meanwhile the Announcements feature enables you to send out reminders as the meeting approaches, driving more transparency and attendance.
2. Set Clear Rules and Enforce Them
Rules help facilitate organized discussion, preventing your meetings from turning into four-hour open forums. Whether that includes raising hands to talk, setting limits on speaking time, using the chat feature for questions in a virtual meeting, voting in a certain method, or more, it’s important to set clear rules, have homeowners familiarize themselves with them, and enforce them.
3. Establish Quorum
A quorum refers to the minimum number of homeowners required to be present at the meeting for the proceedings to be considered valid. These requirements are generally outlined in the condominium or HOA’s governing documents. Missing quorum can be frustrating and inconvenient, as it delays progress toward the community’s goals.
BuildingBoard is BuildingLink’s solution to reaching quorum. Our browser-based system means there are no apps to download or software to configure. You and your owners simply access meetings from anywhere on mobile devices and desktop computers, encouraging higher attendance and letting participants easily vote electronically. Remember to verify your state/local regulations and association Bylaws on online meetings and e-voting to make sure your community can use the features offered by BuildingBoard.
4. Write an Agenda and Follow It
Writing your agenda in advance allows you to ensure all items that need to be discussed are covered while also allowing time for questions and answers. If there are any requirements for writing an agenda in your governing documents, be sure to follow them. Otherwise, designate a certain amount of time to each agenda item and don’t go over during the actual meeting so you stay focused!
5. Share Meeting minutes
Most bylaws give homeowners the right to see your condominium or HOA’s meeting minutes, the official record of the motions made and actions taken. Make sure your notes are easy to understand so all homeowners understand what was discussed. It can help to have two different people record meeting minutes so you can compare them for accuracy. Since minutes aren’t approved until the following year’s annual meeting, it’s important that the draft minutes are accurate and stored in a secure location.
Pro Tip: To facilitate easy and reliable access to all homeowners, store your governing documents and meeting minutes in BuildingLink’s Document Library.
Get Quorum At Every Annual Meeting with BuildingBoard
Never worry about reaching quorum again. BuildingBoard lets you run your annual board meetings virtually. Homeowners can vote from anywhere.
When you’re ready for smarter property management, learn more and request a BuildingBoard quote today.