Part of California’s Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act — Civil Code Section 4926 — allows 100% virtual board and membership meetings, so long as homeowner association member votes aren’t being counted.
Of course, in-person meetings and hybrid meeting (in which some attend personally while others attend virtually) formats are fine.
Here are some ideas your board may wish to consider to enhance virtual HOA board meetings.
No virtual vote-counting: While Section 4926 allows board meetings and non-voting membership meetings to be virtual, Section 4926(b) specifically does not allow virtual membership or board meetings if member votes are to be counted.
Who’s there?: Require that participants rename themselves in the meeting to list their name and HOA address, so everyone knows who is attending the meeting.
Members only: Only HOA members (i.e. owners of homes) have the legal right to attend meetings. The rules should reiterate that to prevent someone from giving the meeting link to a tenant, Realtor®, or someone else not entitled to attend HOA board meetings.
We see you: Participants should be required to have their cameras on, which helps confirm their identity and right to attend. Also, consider banning visual displays by an attendee of anything other than the participant’s location — visual message displays, inappropriate background material, attire, or behavior should not be permitted.
We hear you (and don’t want to): Set up the virtual meeting so participants are automatically muted and only the host or administrator can unmute them. Some homeowners just cannot control themselves and disrupt virtual meetings at will.
What you say won’t be used against you: Virtual meetings should not be recorded, and it should be clear that the HOA does not permit recordings of any type to be made of HOA virtual meetings. Members should not be subjected to the pressure that their comments might be recorded and potentially shared with others. Remember, the HOA is a neighborhood, not a public agency, and the board members are not politicians, but unpaid neighborhood volunteers. They shouldn’t have to be trained to choose every word deliberately —that’s what lawyers are trained to do.
No chat please: In attending countless virtual or hybrid meetings I have seen some amazingly offensive statements made in the virtual platform chat box. I don’t know why homeowners are willing to write things in a chat box they would never say openly in a live meeting, but they do. Also, homeowners in live meetings are not allowed to banter back and forth — so why allow it in the chat box? Consider a policy that the chat box will be disabled. Open forum should be verbal, not through chat notes.
Pardon the interruption: Just as with live meetings, someone disrupting or otherwise violating the rules should be warned and then be removed from the meeting.
Who will help: Notice of virtual meetings must identify and provide contact information for the person to contact with connection problems.
When the roll is called: Civil Code 4926 requires in virtual meetings all board votes be by roll call vote, meaning each director verbally states their vote on each matter decided (yes, no, or abstain).
If your HOA pursues virtual board meetings, make them an asset for your community, not just a convenience. Consider including such policies in written meeting rules, so all know the expectations.
Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and Partner of Richardson Ober LLP, a California law firm known for community association advice. Submit questions to Kelly@roattorneys.com.