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RULES ON CONDUCTING BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETINGS
October 1, 2005
Chapter 720 defines a Board of Directors Meeting whenever
there is a quorum of the Board to conduct Association
business. All Board of Directors Meetings must be open to
all members of the Association. The only time that the
members would not be allowed to attend and participate in a
Board of Directors Meeting would be at a meeting of the
Board and the Association’s attorney. In order to exclude
any members from attending the meeting, the statute goes on
to explain that the meeting would have to be about any
proposed or pending litigation. Also, the discussions in
the meeting would have to be governed by the
attorney-client-privilege. In other words, if there were
to be a meeting that the attorney would attend to discuss
proposed amendments or rules enforcement with the Board,
the members would be able to attend this meeting.
The Association may adopt reasonable written rules which
would govern the right of members to speak and participate
at these meetings. These rules may expand the members’
frequency, duration and manner of any member statements.
Meetings of committees also follow these rules. There is
also one other time when the members may be excluded from
attending a meeting and that would be when the Board of
Directors or Committee was meeting with the attorney and
they were discussing personnel matters.
Notices of all meetings must be posted in a conspicuous
place in the community at least 48 hours in advance of the
meeting. The statute also allows mailing this notice
and/or delivery to each member at least 7 days in advance
of the meeting. The statute allows for alternative means
of notice through newsletters, having a provision of
regularly scheduled Board meetings and broadcast of the
notice through a closed-circuit cable television system
serving the Association. There are more rules regarding
the transmission through the television system. We will
not go into detail in this article regarding these
additional rules.
Board meetings where an assessment or a special assessment
is to be considered must be posted or noticed in the same
manner as above, not less than 14 days before the meeting.
The notice must state that an assessment will be considered
and it must also state the nature of the assessment.
Directors may not vote by proxy or by secret ballot at
Board of Directors Meetings, except when they are voting on
the election of officers. The same holds true for any
meetings of any committees.
In addition to the above, if 20% of the total voting
interests of the Association petitions the Board to address
an item of business, the Board must take up this petitioned
item at its next Board meeting and be placed on the Agenda.
The Board may hold a special meeting to discuss the
petition item. In any case, this item must be discussed at
either type of meeting at least 60 days after being
presented with the petition. The Board must give at least
14 days notice of the meeting. Each member who attends
this meeting shall have the right to speak for at least 3
minutes on any petitioned item. The member may be required
to sign a sign-up sheet, if provided, or submit a written
request to speak at the meeting. The Board is not
obligated to take any action on the petitioned item.
A word about Minutes. All meetings of the members of the
Association and of the Board of Directors must be
maintained in written form or in any other form that can be
converted into written form within a reasonable time. All
votes and any abstentions for each Board member must be
recorded in the Minutes.
These rules are a minimum requirement, as your documents
may have more stringent rules to follow. Let these rules
be a guide for your community Association to follow. If
you conduct Board of Directors and committee meetings in
this manner, your owners will be encouraged to participate
and become active in your community.
Copyright 2007© Associated Property Management of the Palm Beaches, Inc.
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