Guidelines for meeting minutes
Are there guidelines on what verbiage is to be used for the meeting minutes the HOA secretary writes down? For example in previous meeting minutes the secretary wrote a board member had a heated discussion with a homeowner instead of just writing a discussion. She wasn’t present for the discussion. I was under the impression that the secretary is to keep the notes generalized and not write every small nitpicky detail or things concerning feelings rather than HOA business. This is not the first time that I’ve noticed this trend with the note taking.
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Carol;
While Roberts Rules have standard guidelines for meeting minutes, Association boards have no obligation to use Robert’s rules for conducting their meeting or recording their minutes. Because a secretary transcribes such minutes does not mean that the board has to accept those minutes as written. Any reasonable board would never allow such minutes to become a permanent record of the association. Having said that there are far too many unreasonable boards to go a round and use the minutes to embarrass or intimidate homeowners who disagree with them. I’ve seen boards approver minutes with blatant lies about what a homeowner said or did in a meeting because the board did not like that homeowner who simply was trying to get the board to comply with the law. The plan was that if they embarrass him enough he will stop coming to the meeting. All too often that tactic works, and the board simply continues to do what ever it wants to do irrespective of the law.
My recommendation to you is to record the meetings and attend the next meeting, during the motion to accept the minutes identify that the minutes are not correct and show the board exactly wat was said. If they refuse to alter the minutes to reflect the truth than inform them that they have thereby approve a falsified record for the association, which could result in legal action against the board members directly and individually. Their indemnification from liability does not protect them from intentionally falsifying an official association document.
Dennis