Tips on streamlining your association’s board meetings

Association board meetings don’t have to be three hours long. However, we often hear from clients that each board meeting takes several hours. Here are some hints to streamline the meeting process.

The board benefits from an assertive president to preside over the meetings. The president should have some basic understanding of parliamentary procedure. Knowing how motions are made, seconded, amended, discussed, and voted on is essential. Importantly, the president needs to manage discussions, keep order, and keep the meeting moving along and on pace.

Board packets should be provided to board members well enough in advance of the meeting. The board packet should include the notice of meeting, agenda, and any contracts or documents that the board will be considering at the meeting.

Board members should be prepared for the meeting. This means that board members should review the board packet before the meeting. Reading the board packet for the first time at the board meeting wastes time, and reading comprehension can’t be at its best in the board meeting setting.

It may seem obvious but have an agenda for the meeting and stick to it. The agenda should be detailed enough so that the scope of the meeting is clear. The board should consider allocating a specific time period for each agenda item. Of course, the amount of time to be allocated to each agenda item needs to be appropriate for the subject matter. The president needs to manage the meeting so as to keep to the agenda and the time allocated to each item.

The purpose of the meeting is to conduct board business. It’s not an association meeting and it’s not a social gathering. During the meeting, board members should address one another and engage in a dialogue with each other and not the members of the association who may be in attendance. Owners have a right to attend open board meetings as observers. Owners do not participate in discussions or votes at board meetings. Owners who interrupt should be admonished by the president and informed that the owner will be barred from the rest of the meeting if the disruption continues.

Unit owner forums have become custom and practice at board meetings and are required under the Common Interest Community Association Act. These forums are intended as a general comment period for owners. A specific amount of time should be allocated at the meeting (beginning or end) for this purpose. The amount of time should be relative to the length of the meeting, and it should take up a relatively short portion of the meeting. The time limit should be announced at the beginning of the forum so that it does not leave the incorrect impression that an owner is being arbitrarily cut off when time expires. If an owner has anything substantial to address with the board, the owner should contact the board in advance so that the matter can be formally placed on the agenda, if appropriate.

Some boards just can’t manage the length of their board meetings, because they allow for too much irrelevant discussion or participation. There is a solution to this as well. Many municipal buildings, like the library or recreational facilities, have meeting rooms that are available for board meetings. The catch is that these buildings have a closing time. So, schedule the meetings to start 60 or 90 minutes before closing time.

While the particular business of any specific board meeting might not be concluded in an hour or so, the goal of the board should be to be prepared for meetings, focused on board business, and to be as efficient as possible.

• Matthew Moodhe is an attorney with Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit in the Chicago suburbs. Send questions for the column to him at CondoTalk@ksnlaw.com. The firm provides legal service to condominium, townhouse, homeowner associations and housing cooperatives. This column is not a substitute for consultation with legal counsel.