HOA Members Should Attend Board Meetings and Utilize the Open Forum Responsibly

Most homeowners associations hold board meetings that are open to the members. However, many homeowners either do not attend those meetings or are unfamiliar with how the “open forum” portion of the meeting typically works.

The open forum session of an HOA board meeting is generally the designated time during which homeowners may raise concerns, ask questions, provide suggestions, express opinions, or otherwise address the board regarding issues affecting the community. For many homeowners, it is one of the few direct opportunities to communicate with the board of directors regarding association operations, maintenance concerns, governance issues, budgeting decisions, enforcement matters, and other topics impacting the community.

While homeowner participation at HOA board meetings is important, meetings often function best when there are clear procedures governing homeowner participation, speaking rights, time limits, meeting conduct, and disruptive behavior. Without reasonable procedures in place, meetings can become disorganized, confrontational, or difficult for the board to efficiently conduct association business.

In this article, we discuss:

• why homeowners should attend HOA board meetings,
• why open forum sessions are important to HOA governance,
• why associations should adopt reasonable rules governing homeowner participation,
• common procedures relating to homeowner speaking rights,
• and how professionally organized meeting procedures may help associations maintain more orderly and productive board meetings.

We also reference professionally formatted downloadable HOA operational templates designed to help associations establish and formally adopt homeowner participation procedures during HOA board meetings:

HOA Open Forum & Member Speaking Rules Template

Downloadable HOA operational template designed to help associations establish homeowner speaking procedures, time limits, meeting conduct standards, and open forum participation guidelines.

HOA Board Resolution Adopting Open Forum Rules

Downloadable HOA board resolution template designed to help associations formally adopt and implement homeowner participation and open forum procedures during board meetings.

Clear meeting procedures and professionally organized operational templates can help associations improve meeting consistency, reduce disruptions, and promote more productive homeowner participation during HOA board meetings.