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The One Hour Board Meeting

Ask any member of an association board of directors whether they can have a meeting in about an hour and most will tell you to keep looking for the Holy Grail, the Loch Ness monster and a good 10¢ cigar.

The association board of directors meeting in its current form has developed and perpetuated itself over 25 years into the beast that devours board members. Ask any former director why they no longer serve and it usually can be attributed to something stemming from a board meeting.

Intended to mirror corporations for the conducting of business, many association meetings more closely resemble the atmosphere of the corporate lunchroom. Part of the problem is lack of education, dominant owners vs. passive directors or the board’s efforts to create a town meeting open atmosphere (the road to you know where is paved with good intentions).

For associations suffering from depleted volunteerism and board member burnout, it is suggested that the board look at its meeting schedule and procedures and see if it can make it more "board member friendly," as well as unit owner friendly. Here are some suggestions on how to have productive and efficient directors’ meetings:

Limit owners’ questions and comments to a set amount of time prior to the meeting commencing. The homeowners forum is not the place to report maintenance requests unless the owner is having a problem receiving service. 15 to 30 minutes should be sufficient time to answer questions, but homeowner interchange should not be part of the board business meeting. If there is significant homeowner issues, a special meeting of members should be scheduled.
Start every meeting on time. Even if a quorum is not present, the homeowners forum, announcements and other items can be handled until it is necessary to vote.
Schedule meetings when your directors are most readily available. If the meeting begins too late in the evening or runs too long, thinking gets muddled and the irritability factor increases.
Prepare an agenda and have it available for all attendees. "Front load" the most important issues so they can be addressed while everyone is still fresh. The management report and minutes do not have to be read verbatim. Copies should be given to directors in advance and owners who attend. The treasurer’s report is not an action item and does not require a vote. Announcements, committee reports, president’s report, etc. can be saved to the end of the meeting.
Alternate speakers of opposing points of view to avoid redundancy and limit the amount of time for discussion.
Set time limits for discussion in advance. This will create an expectation and encourage speakers to get to the point. Sometimes the president has to ask if anyone has something new to add and them move toward a vote.
Consider that significant issues requiring more lengthy discussions being scheduled for more than one meeting (Villages sometimes have a workshop meeting before they go to a vote at an open meeting). Often an association board can have their workshops in closed session so the lengthy discussion can be disposed of and the vote at an open meeting will require only limited debate.
The president needs to sense when discussion is either becoming repetitive or everyone is in agreement and call for a vote. (This is known as "dead horse" syndrome.)
Do not meet just for the sake of meeting. Condominiums and most other types of associations are only required to meet four times per year. Expenditures already allocated in the budget do not have to be voted on. Board review of bids, tentative policy changes, disciplinary proceedings, etc. can be handled by the committee of the whole in closed session so long as any votes are conducted at an open meeting. If you meet monthly, consider canceling the December meeting and maybe one or two during the summer. Better yet, consider meeting every other month, or even quarterly.
Develop a rhythm. Meetings should follow the same organizational structure month in and month out.

If the purpose of a meeting is merely to inform, the board should send out a newsletter. If actual business is going to be transacted, then the meeting will be productive and more swiftly with the help of a good facilitator.

Most important, when the agenda has been prepared, you never want to have to ask yourself "what am I doing here?"