When it comes to the most important meetings with your HOA Board of Directors or other important community groups, having well-polished, thorough meeting minutes is essential to the success of all meetings.
Knowing about the dos and don’ts of taking minutes is essential if you are part of a Board that is new to the association or hasn’t held its first big meeting yet. Working with Goodwin & Company can help you develop effective, documented meetings that help your association thrive.
What Are Board Meeting Minutes and Why Are They Essential?
Board meeting minutes are an official recap of an HOA board of directors meeting or other important groups.
Board meeting minutes are essential because they are an official way to track a formal meeting’s content, decisions made, proposed items, votes taken, and future action items. Meeting minutes are also important because they can serve as a legal record of the board meeting and are presumed to be accurate.
Do’s and Don’ts When Taking Board Meeting Minutes
If you are tasked with taking Board meeting minutes for a board of directors meeting for your community or other HOA meeting, there are some very specific Do’s and Don’ts you must follow.
What to Do When Taking Board Meeting Minutes that Will Make Them Most Effective
First off, you must ensure HOA board meeting minutes are typed and stored in the cloud or in an accessible location. This grants easy access to Board members, HOA lawyers, and association management if they need to review points from the meeting.
Also, you must include some specific details surrounding the meeting. These include:
- The meeting’s agenda
- The date and time of the meeting
- Everyone in attendance
- Who was invited to the meeting but didn’t show
Note-Taking Tips for the Big Meeting
- Note any documents or links to any presentations shared
- Note any corrections or updates made to previous HOA board meeting minutes
- Make careful note of all proposals presented at the meeting
- Record the outcome of any votes taken, including who presented them, votes taken, who seconded the vote, and any other pertinent information
- Note and track all action items and go-forward steps discussed, adding due dates if applicable
- Record any new business discussed
- Note items that are on hold and the reason why
- Instead of making your meeting minutes fully chronological, organize them in a way that best makes sense to include specific topics in one place that may have been mentioned multiple times
After the meeting, remember to write a final, well-polished copy of the HOA board meeting minutes as soon as possible while the meeting is fresh in your mind. From there, disseminate a copy of the board meeting minutes if appropriate to all members with an interest in the meeting.
What Not to Do When Taking Board Meeting Minutes
Meeting minutes are critical to the success of a meeting and pushing certain items forward. Make sure that you don’t include any of the following mistakes in your minute-taking process:
- Don’t include personal observations or comments; keep all statements neutral
- Avoid over-writing and including comments or statements made that aren’t applicable
- Don’t gloss over a point or action you don’t understand; ask for clarification
- Don’t share meeting minutes until the meeting’s chair has the opportunity to review and approve them
How an HOA Management Company Can Help You Get Board Meeting Minutes Under Control
There are many ways that HOA board meeting minutes may be taken but have issues that affect their usefulness. For example, the person taking minutes may take too detailed minutes or not take enough detail. The organizational structure may also not be effective when presented to all members.
Working with an association management team like Goodwin & Company can help your Board organize meetings and ensure minutes are taken that communicate the right message to everyone in the community. Let us help your community’s most important meetings flow smoothly and achieve their desired goals.
Succeed Beyond Board Meeting Minutes With Goodwin & Company on Your Side
At Goodwin & Company, we have been providing best-in-class community management services for more than 40 years. We proudly manage over 800 community associations throughout Texas and have a 98% retention rate from our clients.
We set ourselves apart from the rest by hiring and working hard to retain the smartest professionals in the industry and provide them with unparalleled management solutions and technology.
We’re ready to help you make your community the best it can be. Contact us today to learn more about our HOA management services and how to become a part of the Goodwin family.
