Board Meeting Agendas

The number one most important part of a Board meeting is the agenda. The agenda is what guides the Board in conducting a timely and productive Board meeting all the while keeping the homeowners informed.

Once a Board meeting concludes, you should keep a folder of items for the next Board meeting. This way, throughout the month or months depending on when your Board meetings are held, whenever an issue comes up, whether it’s a homeowner correspondence or vendor proposals, everything you need at that next meeting is already collected by the time the agenda needs to be written.

Approximately two weeks before your Board meeting is a good time to start looking at the agenda. The top of your agenda should always be the association’s name, the title of the meeting, the date of the meeting, the location of the meeting and the time of the meeting. The rest of the agenda is made up of ten items that should be basic for every agenda you write. It is recommended to put a time limit to each item, which will keep the Board on track throughout the meeting and stop them from having the urge to digress from the Board’s business. If you follow this basic template, you’ll walk away from your Board meetings on time, with all action items voted on and an impressed and informed Board:

• Call to Order & Instructions: This is always the first item on your agenda.
  
  
• Approval of the Agenda: If any additions or corrections need to be made, the Board can have the agenda changed in the minutes.
  
  
• Approval of the Minutes: You always want to note the date of the minutes you are approving so that if anyone needs to research an issue, the issue in question can be documented and tracked.
  
  
• Matters for Board Decision: Under this category will go any proposals, resolutions or other action items the Board needs to vote on. This is usually the most important section of a meeting and why many homeowners attend so you want to go through these items in the beginning to prolong the meeting. When you list these action items, make sure to title them “Approval of…” so it’s clear the Board has to make a decision.
  
  
• Matters for Board Information/Discussion: This section is for concerns and issues that need to be brought to the Board’s attention but does not need to be voted on. Important items to always include in this section are the manager’s report, which updates the Board every meeting on items that need to get completed or looked in to and when they are completed. This not only keeps the Board on track but makes the manager involved in the meeting. Also, you want to include the financial statement with a variance report. Including the variance report in the Board package prior to the meeting helps keep the questions at the Board meeting to a minimum because the Board has had enough time to look them over and ask questions before the meeting. Other items that would go under this section would be homeowner correspondences or recommendations from committees that aren’t ready to be voted on yet.
  
  
• Committee Reports: Make sure your committee secretaries send you a copy of their meeting minutes so you can include them in the board packages for the board. Board minutes are always important but committee minutes are just as important to document and make official at the Board meetings. It also makes the committees correspond with the Board so the Board may review recommendations and matters of a committee.
  
  
• Resident Forum: The resident forum gives the residents time to speak on issues of the homeowners’ concerns. I would recommend a three-minute per homeowner time limit, this way the Board can tell him/her the three minutes are up and move on. As with executive session, remember to get a motion and a second to enter and close resident forum.
  
  
• New Business: This is so anything that wasn’t on the agenda can get included, as well as any new business Board members want to bring up can get on the radar for a future Board meeting and/or follow-up.
  
  
• Executive Session: Under this section, it is important you put on the agenda what will be discussed, for example, “Homeowner Appeal, Delinquent Members or Architectural Violations.” Homeowners have a right to know why the Board would go into executive session, without knowing the specifics. Remember that items under executive session aren’t discussed in the open meeting so you need to get a motion and a second to enter and close executive session.
  
  
• Adjournment: The adjournment section is important for the Board to make sure all business has been completed before making a motion to end the business of the association.

At the very bottom, include who prepared the agenda and the names of the Board members who the agenda will get distributed to. Once you have written the agenda, you should send a draft copy to the Board President asking for any other agenda items he or she may want to include on the agenda. Now you are ready to put your Board packages together. Follow this for every meeting by having a clear and concise agenda and your Board packages will be organized and easy for the Board to follow. Your Board meetings will improve significantly as well.

Nicholas J. Mazzarella, MBA, CMCA®, PCAM®
General Manager
Heritage Hunt Homeowners Association
Community Management Corporation
Fairfax, Virginia