Meetings
Contents
The short answer: write the agenda the week before, name the decision each item needs, and send it out with the packet before the meeting.
The template
Hoavik hoavik.com/templates Meeting agenda
One page, published before the meeting. Every item names the decision it needs tonight.
If an item cannot state its decision in one line, it is not ready for this meeting.
1 Call to order
2 Approval of last minutes
3 Treasurer's report
Balances, doors still open
4 Old business
The decision needed tonight
5 New business
Who brings it, the decision, money it commits
6 Owner forum
Time box, stated
7 Next meeting
8 Adjournment
Meeting agenda THE MEETING Association: ______________ Date: ______________ Time: ______________ Place, and how owners attend: ______________ ON THE TABLE 1. [ ] Call to order Time: ______________ 2. [ ] Approval of last minutes Time: ______________ 3. [ ] Treasurer's report (Balances, doors still open) Time: ______________ 4. [ ] Old business (The decision needed tonight) Time: ______________ 5. [ ] New business (Who brings it, the decision, money it commits) Time: ______________ 6. [ ] Owner forum (Time box, stated) Time: ______________ 7. [ ] Next meeting Time: ______________ 8. [ ] Adjournment Time: ______________ From hoavik.com/guides/hoa-meeting-agenda-template · General information, not legal advice.
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Most agendas are written the afternoon of the meeting, from memory, and read like it. This one takes ten minutes the week before, and it is the difference between a meeting that decides things and one that discusses them twice.
Send it before the meeting, with the packet. And write the decision needed, not the topic: 'landscaping' is a topic, 'renew the mowing agreement at this figure or send it to bid' is a meeting.
Send the agenda before the meeting
The agenda lives with the meeting in Hoavik, beside the minutes it produces and the packet the board takes in. A resident can find the next meeting and what it will decide without a forwarded email thread.
- Send it a few days before, with the packet
- Name the decision each item needs, not only the topic
- Keep the adopted agenda with the minutes it produced
File it with the packet it introduced
The agenda you sent is part of the meeting record. Keep that sent copy with the packet and the minutes, so a reader next year sees what the board was asked to decide, not a draft edited after the fact.
If an item got no decision, carry it onto the next agenda in the same words. Items that change names between meetings are how things quietly never get decided.
General information, not legal advice. Your state and your governing documents differ.