Does Your Association Suffer From Unruly Board Meetings?

If you're lucky, your board meetings are calm, civilized, and organized. However, as you may know, that is not always the case. During association meetings emotions typically run high, sometimes these emotions are caused by unpopular board decisions, increased assessments, or violation compliance letters sent to an angry owner. Although the conflict and unrest might be unavoidable, if the board members and management come to the board meetings prepared it will be possible to run an unruly meeting even if angry owners attend.

One of the best tools any association can use to control unruly meetings is to create a "meeting conduct" policy. This policy should specify when and for how long association members are permitted to speak on a particular subject, require courtesy to others present when speaking, and permit the board to require attendees to leave if he/she gets out of order or fails to follow the approved policy.

Below we have provided some additional tools and policies your association can implement to help the board control unruly meetings: 

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  If the board or management are anticipating an intense association matter to be discussed at a meeting, the board should try to calm association members about the specific matter prior to the meeting by discussing concerns with the individuals prior to the meeting.
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  Require owners who wish to speak on a particular matter to sign up prior to the meeting, rather than having them raise their hands during the meeting.
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  Set a specific time limit for any association member desiring to speak and allow them to only speak on only one particular topic at a time. This will keep the meeting in order and focused.
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  Appoint a committee, specific board member or management to investigate certain issues raised by association members and report back to the board.
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  If necessary, have the association’s attorney present when legal or sensitive matters are being addressed, this can help control emotions.

 While many associations have “meeting conduct” policies and rules for their board meetings as described above, it is the responsibility of the board to keep control of the meeting, follow the meeting agenda properly, and enforce the conduct policy as necessary.

The board must be organized and properly prepared for their meetings. The board and manager should always remain composed and calm throughout the meeting. Should the board be faced with a difficult owner, the owner should first be warned and reminded of the associations meeting conduct policy. If the difficult owner refuses to come to order the board should issue the disruptive owner a warning or ask him/her to leave the meeting. Although, we suggest that this be a last resort. An alternative to asking the disruptive person to leave the meeting is for the board to adjourn the meeting and reconvene again when all emotions have cooled.