WHAT IS OPEN FORUM? ??? How is it handled at your board meetings?

If all else fails.

http://www.davis-stirling.com/MainIndex/ExecutiveSessionMeetings/tabid/1769/Default.aspx

Hi FionaC:

This is the link to the ca.gov website that lists the California Civil Code 1363.05 AKA "Open Meeting Act"

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=01001-02000&file=1363.03-1363.09

Sections h & i sound pertinent to your situation. Hope this helps.

1363.05. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the
Common Interest Development Open Meeting Act.
(b) Any member of the association may attend meetings of the board
of directors of the association, except when the board adjourns to
executive session to consider litigation, matters relating to the
formation of contracts with third parties, member discipline,
personnel matters, or to meet with a member, upon the member's
request, regarding the member's payment of assessments, as specified
in Section 1367 or 1367.1. The board of directors of the association
shall meet in executive session, if requested by a member who may be
subject to a fine, penalty, or other form of discipline, and the
member shall be entitled to attend the executive session.
(c) Any matter discussed in executive session shall be generally
noted in the minutes of the immediately following meeting that is
open to the entire membership.
(d) The minutes, minutes proposed for adoption that are marked to
indicate draft status, or a summary of the minutes, of any meeting of
the board of directors of an association, other than an executive
session, shall be available to members within 30 days of the meeting.
The minutes, proposed minutes, or summary minutes shall be
distributed to any member of the association upon request and upon
reimbursement of the association's costs for making that
distribution.
(e) Members of the association shall be notified in writing at the
time that the pro forma budget required in Section 1365 is
distributed, or at the time of any general mailing to the entire
membership of the association, of their right to have copies of the
minutes of meetings of the board of directors, and how and where
those minutes may be obtained.
(f) Unless the time and place of meeting is fixed by the bylaws,
or unless the bylaws provide for a longer period of notice, members
shall be given notice of the time and place of a meeting as defined
in subdivision (j), except for an emergency meeting, at least four
days prior to the meeting. Notice shall be given by posting the
notice in a prominent place or places within the common area and by
mail to any owner who had requested notification of board meetings by
mail, at the address requested by the owner. Notice may also be
given, by mail or delivery of the notice to each unit in the
development or by newsletter or similar means of communication. The
notice shall contain the agenda for the meeting.
(g) An emergency meeting of the board may be called by the
president of the association, or by any two members of the governing
body other than the president, if there are circumstances that could
not have been reasonably foreseen which require immediate attention
and possible action by the board, and which of necessity make it
impracticable to provide notice as required by this section.
(h) The board of directors of the association shall permit any
member of the association to speak at any meeting of the association
or the board of directors, except for meetings of the board held in
executive session. A reasonable time limit for all members of the
association to speak to the board of directors or before a meeting of
the association shall be established by the board of directors.
(i) (1) Except as described in paragraphs (2) to (4), inclusive,
the board of directors of the association may not discuss or take
action on any item at a nonemergency meeting unless the item was
placed on the agenda included in the notice that was posted and
distributed pursuant to subdivision (f). This subdivision does not
prohibit a resident who is not a member of the board from speaking on
issues not on the agenda.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a member of the board of
directors, a managing agent or other agent of the board of directors,
or a member of the staff of the board of directors, may do any of
the following:
(A) Briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by a
person speaking at a meeting as described in subdivision (h).
(B) Ask a question for clarification, make a brief announcement,
or make a brief report on his or her own activities, whether in
response to questions posed by a member of the association or based
upon his or her own initiative.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the board of directors or a
member of the board of directors, subject to rules or procedures of
the board of directors, may do any of the following:
(A) Provide a reference to, or provide other resources for factual
information to, its managing agent or other agents or staff.
(B) Request its managing agent or other agents or staff to report
back to the board of directors at a subsequent meeting concerning any
matter, or take action to direct its managing agent or other agents
or staff to place a matter of business on a future agenda.
(C) Direct its managing agent or other agents or staff to perform
administrative tasks that are necessary to carry out this
subdivision.
(4) (A) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the board of directors may
take action on any item of business not appearing on the agenda
posted and distributed pursuant to subdivision (f) under any of the
following conditions:
(i) Upon a determination made by a majority of the board of
directors present at the meeting that an emergency situation exists.
An emergency situation exists if there are circumstances that could
not have been reasonably foreseen by the board, that require
immediate attention and possible action by the board, and that, of
necessity, make it impracticable to provide notice.
(ii) Upon a determination made by the board by a vote of
two-thirds of the members present at the meeting, or, if less than
two-thirds of total membership of the board is present at the
meeting, by a unanimous vote of the members present, that there is a
need to take immediate action and that the need for action came to
the attention of the board after the agenda was posted and
distributed pursuant to subdivision (f).
(iii) The item appeared on an agenda that was posted and
distributed pursuant to subdivision (f) for a prior meeting of the
board of directors that occurred not more than 30 calendar days
before the date that action is taken on the item and, at the prior
meeting, action on the item was continued to the meeting at which the
action is taken.
(B) Before discussing any item pursuant to this paragraph, the
board of directors shall openly identify the item to the members in
attendance at the meeting.
(j) As used in this section, "meeting" includes any congregation
of a majority of the members of the board at the same time and place
to hear, discuss, or deliberate upon any item of business scheduled
to be heard by the board, except those matters that may be discussed
in executive session.

;)

In California, "open Forum" is the law. Civil Code 1363.05(h)

FionaC,

Is this your first bosrd meeting? If so, maybe you misunderstood the proceeding. Did the President actually state that no open fourm questions would be allowed? This sounds a little strange, is the Pres. new to the board? Seems some inoformation might be missing.

Hi Rob:

I wonder if it would work better if Homeowner Concerns is put at the end of a meeting for potentially needing to add an item to agenda for next board meeting. This way individuals will need to be there for the entire meeting, then hopefully will gain better understanding how HOA operates.

Hmmm ... I can see now each would have its pro's and con's. Nice to know you tried it and what the outcome was.

If your HOA has time allotted exclusively to Open Forum, it does help for a Board Member to help the speaker along.

Before I joined the Board, people would often ramble unimpeded for 10 or 20 minutes, returning to the same point multiple times, until they became exhausted and finally stopped talking. In some cases, people would often talk about nothing in particular or about things that bothered them.

When I joined the Board, I started interacting, prompting and summarizing people's points and that helped them say more and say it more quickly.

For me, it is rarely useful for a homeowner to engage in discussion during the agenda items. They don't have the info that the Board has in front of them so they don't have any info that a Board Member doesn't already have. Also, Board Members can address individuals directly during agenda items so, if they want or need input, Board Members can ask for it directly. Even so, I don't mind that homeowners participate in the meeting itself, just that it makes the meeting longer than necessary.

The presiding officer can acknowledge anyone at a meeting. If a member in the audience could have useful information, there is no reason to not allow that person to speak - at any time. This puts pressure on the presiding officer to choose wisely.

re: Fiona's dog issue. It seems she is having a hard time getting the board to deal with this "issue." There was no space in the agenda for her to bring this up, and she was frustrated.

She might have requested a slot under "new business." Board responses to the question of clarification about animals in common areas and the consequences would have been put into the minutes.

But I think the REAL issue is the preceived elevated position of board members in that they do not have to follow rules.

Wow! There is a lot going on with you. So now you are mad because you turned people in who were breaking the rules and they are not saying "Hi!!" to you in the elevator. Didn't you think this would happen? I'm not defending the other peoples actions, but now you are miffed that they are mad. And to get back at them you are going to run for a spot on the Board? Through you own admission, you have a history of quitting the board once elected. Is this fair to the other home owners? I would not discourage anyone from becoming active on their board, we could use more help, but it should be for the right reasons.

Our open forum is at the very beginning and is 30minutes. Members get 3 minutes each to address anything they want. After the 30 minutes we move to the live agenda where homeowners do not get to participate. This works great and the meeting moves right along. Occasionally the board will take a poll from the audience, but usually the meetings run super smooth...especially with this great new board we have.