Just last week, I had the privilege of teaching a class for the Aspen Pitkin County Housing Authority on HOA meetings.  Since my friends in Aspen and Pitkin County had numerous and excellent questions relating to meetings, I thought it would be helpful to post a series of blog entries on HOA board and membership meetings.  In order to avoid confusion, I will start this series of blog entries by addressing issues relating to HOA board meetings.

For those of you who follow our blog, you know that the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA") is the primary body of statutory law in Colorado that regulates HOAs.  Since most HOAs are nonprofit corporations, when we are dealing with issues relating to governance, we must also look to the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act ("Nonprofit Act") for guidance. 

The first question I will address is whether HOA boards must provide notice of their board meetings to the members of their associations.  Interestingly, CCIOA and the Nonprofit Act do not require that members of an HOA be provided with notice of board meetings.  However, it is important to check out the bylaws for your association to determine whether the bylaws require that notice of board meetings be given to the members.  If your bylaws require that notice be given to members, make sure to carefully follow the notice requirements outlined in your bylaws. 

Since CCIOA does require that all meetings of the board of directors of an HOA be open to the members or their designated representatives and it is essential for boards to govern in a transparent manner, I recommend that boards plan the dates of regularly scheduled meetings at the beginning of each year and post the dates, times and locations of the meetings on the association’s website and in newsletters. 

It is also important to know that CCIOA does require that the agendas for board meetings "be made reasonably available for examination by all members of the association or their representatives."   To comply with this provision of CCIOA, it is recommended that agendas be posted on the association’s website and copies be made available to members or their representatives at the board meetings.

Stay tuned for the next entry in this HOA Board Meeting Basics blog series, where I will discuss the requirements for open meetings.