Meetings, Records, and Administrative Procedures
Meeting types
Know the difference between the annual membership meeting, regular and special board meetings, executive session, workshops, and committee meetings. Each has its own notice, agenda, and participation rules. Executive session is for narrow matters - personnel, litigation, contracts under negotiation, individual owner discipline - and the board must return to open session to act.
Notice, quorum, and voting
Notice must meet the timing, method, and content requirements of the bylaws and statute: what is being decided, when, where, and how owners may participate. No quorum, no action. Know the voting mechanics available to owners - in person, proxy, absentee ballot, electronic ballot, written consent - and when each is permitted.
Minutes and procedure
Minutes are the official record of actions taken, not a transcript: date, time, place, attendance, quorum, motions with mover and outcome, and a summary of reports. Leave out speculation, personalities, and privileged discussion. Basic parliamentary sequence: motion, second, discussion, vote; amendments are voted before the main motion; motions to table or to call the previous question are procedural, not substantive. Record conflict-of-interest disclosures and recusals.
Records
Maintain governing documents, financials, contracts, insurance, meeting records, and correspondence, and follow a retention schedule. Owners typically have a right to inspect many records but not all - personnel files, litigation files, and privileged or individually sensitive material are common exceptions. Respond to inspection requests in writing and on time.
Traps
Board decisions made by email without a noticed meeting, minutes that editorialize, and executive session used to avoid difficult conversations in public.
Rule of thumb: if it is not in the minutes, it did not happen - write the motion and the vote, not the debate.