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NO MATTER WHAT YOU CALL IT – IT’S A BOARD MEETING
By
Jan Bergemann
Published March 26, 2021
Over the years I have seen many
association boards trying to circumvent the requirements of
holding a board meeting. Giving a board meeting a different name
doesn’t change anything – it’s still a board meeting.
Remember: You can call a dog a cat,
it’s still a dog.
Even so-called “specialized” attorneys
are often in cahoots with the board trying to hold “secret”
board meetings.
This is the fact – and it’s easy to
remember: As soon as a quorum of board members is participating
in discussing association business, it’s a BOARD MEETING.
It requires an official, minimum 48
hours, notice. And it requires that official minutes of this
meeting are being kept. Contrary to common belief this goes as well for so-called “closed”
meetings, “meetings
between the board and its attorney with respect to proposed or
pending litigation where the contents of the discussion would
otherwise be governed by the attorney-client privilege”.
Even committee meetings turn into
board meetings, if board members appointed themselves to these
committees in numbers that creates a quorum of the board.
Actually, it anyway doesn’t make a lot of sense to have board
members sitting on committees. Committees should report to the
board. Remember: Committee members are serving at the pleasure
of the board – with other words: They would be reporting to
themselves?
The latest hype among board members:
Holding a “WORKSHOP-MEETING” by Zoom, without
giving any owners the access code to the Zoom meeting. Oh, by
the way: The CAM was allowed to attend!
The rule of thumb: A board meeting is
a BOARD MEETING, no matter what fancy name is
being used to disguise it.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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