Witholding copies of minutes

Congrats for joining your board--we all appreciate volunteers like you.

Minutes should be stored forever! When I first was elected to our board, which was very "dysfunctional" at the time, the first items I had forwarded to me from our Property mgr. were regular meeting minutes and executive session minutes going back 3 years. They really helped me understand the problems then.

What size is your HOA? How many directors? How often does the board meet? Do you have a property mgmt co.? An HOA attorney?

It simply could be that a small board without many resources may not have been diligent about keeping minutes and other records. It also is true that they may be hiding something as our old board had done.

Recourse? Well, first, I'd get the past couple of years of minutes that you indicate seem to be available and see what if anything they reveal. I'd also become as familiar as possible with your governing docs including your bylaws. If you do have an HOA attorney, you may be able to ask her/him to write the board a letter instructing them to give you the minutes.

It may not be wise to make waves right away--it may be a good strategy to come off as an eager student of the ins & outs of your HOA rather than give the impression that you're hostile.

Good luck!

Kurt,

I also applaud you for becoming involved and helping to run your Association.

My Association has also been in existence for over 30 years. 5 years ago the Secretary recommended that the records be gone through as not everything needs to be kept. The board at that time agreed. Unfortunately nobody took the time to develop a records keeping policy or to review State laws and our own governing documents to see how long records should be kept. They didn't even identify what records were destroyed. Bottom line - they destroyed all but the last two years of minutes, all but current contracts and most of the other files.

When I joined the Board, I discovered this error. Educated the sitting board at the time and we developed a records policy. By contacting past board members, we were able to recreate approx 5 years of records completely and some but not all of earlier records.

What I'm trying to say is, it's highly possible that someone with good intentions and a desire not to store 8 boxes of files in their house that records were destroyed. Yes, they might have even been destroyed in violation of your State laws. The question is, now that you are on the Board, how are you going to address this issue and prevent it from happening again in the future?

Tim

As Secretary, I have many of our old records stored in my small one-bedroom unit. I know some items can be tossed, like the outdated list of prices the Care Center next to us charges for services such as meals, cleaning, nursing care etc, but I am not tossing them yet. The lawyer that is on the Board is to go throught them with me so that I don't toss something we need to keep.
I don't remember reading anything in NE state law regarding how long minutes should be kept. We were established in 1981.

minutes are often kept in file folders, inside boxes, inside one member's garage, until they move. THen, the box is given to another member, who stores it, until they move. Add a couple moves, some members who take stuff out to copy and forget to put back in, the project to switch all the files onto floppy disks, the project to scan them all to a now broken CD, etc., and I can easily see why only the last couple of years of records may exist.

Most HOA's have a common area, but I haven't seen one yet with a common filing cabinet.

We had a management company for 10 years and a property manager who everyone thought was keeping minutes. No one needed them and no one asked to see them and I guess no one knew that they were suppose to be approved.
When we changed management companies we discovered that there were almost no minutes. The boards fault (both past and present) for not making sure the minutes were taken,recorderd, reviewed for errors and approved.
This was a top management company in the area.
It is very possible that there are no previous mimutes or then again ...

In an HOA the size of Kurt's it seems that the secretary would indeed take the minutes and submit them for board approval at the next meeting. In our 200+ complex HOA, our PM takes the minutes instead & submits them to the board for approval each month. It's part of our contract with the MC & doesn't conflict with our bylaws.

I can very easily see why past minutes of meetings and other documents may be missing over the years. No one really officially keeps up with them. It's supposed to be the Secretary's job or the Management companies etc. It's ALWAYS supposed to be someone's responsibility. However, the reality is that your dealing with a VOLUNTEER organization. Not everything goes as planned and one ticked off person can keep the records in limbo. There's just so many variables that can happen to HOA records over the years and it just not be any one person's fault.

I had to locate our records of our 20 year HOA. They were scattered in different locations. One of our old board member had some when she used to do the taxes. Our Bookkeeper had records. There was a box of them kept in our clubhouse. It took awhile to get everything together. If you want the records of your HOA, expect to have to do some digging to find them. I can't imagine them ever being handed over to anyone full and complete. Not after how much most HOA's operate over the years. It's just not feasible to expect everything tied up in a bow...

Oh, yes, Bonnie. Let the PM take minutes. I'm secretary and the PM shows a draft set to me prior to the next meeting. I only clean up typos, etc. as only the Board at a meeting may change substance.

S/he may not want to though if it's not in their contract. You're absolutely right about trying to keep minutes while simultaneously participating as a director--very difficult! Too bad your prez can't keep the meeting on topic.