Workshop meets

Laverne,

A question for you. What does this mean?---"and the door is open for residents to come in and listen, not talk this is the Sunshine Law. If you need to speak with the board you make a time and we discuss the issues they have."

First of all, the Florida Sunshine Law DOES NOT pertain to HOA's except in a case where the County might be involved in a zoning or County building issue. That is stated in 2 places in the Sunshine Open Meeting Laws. So that part of your statement is to be forgotten.

Now, why are your workshops not an open forum for your members to address items? Workshops are informal meetings but they should be posted as such--a workshop. We sit around at tables, giving up the Board sitting up in front and alone setting. Everyone can speak when they raise hands or address an issue. So much gets accomplished with the great input from members. These workshops are NOT decision making time but research time. This is actually the only meeting where residents are allowed to speak without prior written request to be heard. We have Budget workshops long before the final Budget is approved. This is when members ask things about expenses and can we cut an item or how about looking at another possible solution for an expense.How about a landscape workshop where possible changes are going to be considered? There are tons of reasons to hold workshops and this is where the membership can really get involved in their wants and needs for the community.

If these "workshops" are free-for-alls in terms of subject matter, no wonder you are having difficulty with people who want to speak.

They should be on specific subjects, with a monitor and some kind of outline to follow and a goal for the meeting.(for example: come up with 3 ways to cut costs)

This "smells" bad to me. Is this a pseudo-meeting?

There is a big difference in holding a meeting and running a workshop. For sure, it is not "conducting business" because then it would be a "meeting" - which is not allowed.

I'm not exactly sure who "we" is, but the people attending should not be listening to Board members only, nor should Board member expect that they are the only ones that will be doing the only talking. In fact, the wise thing would be to have a non-board member leading the discussion.