Annual Member Meetings | Board Meetings
The bottom line for this blog is that members who join an Annual Meeting over the Internet can count towards a quorum, and can vote on directors and issues before the association! Polls can collect answers and feedback from members.
Michael Ungerbuehler, an attorney with a lot of Community Association Law experience, published an article on his firm’s website. He talks about virtual (Annual) Member Meeting participants, including establishing quorums and having member votes.
Ungerbuehler was kind enough to personally answer an email from me. He wrote, “The article is based on Ch. 617, Florida Statutes (not-for-profit act) as applied to condo (718) and HOA (720) member meetings and Board meetings.”
In his article, Ungerbuehler says that people attending a Member Meeting online may be considered “to be present ‘in person’ at the meeting and may vote remotely.” (Emphasis mine.)
The caveat that I see is that there must be some control over who is online.
Connecting the dots.
First, the meeting planner must verify that everyone online is a member or proxy holder. Here is one way to do this with Zoom:
- Require Zoom registration.
Configure the registration so that each attendee has only one login. - Publish the link, and members can sign up with their name and email.
The association can require additional information such as address or unit number. - The meeting planner manually approves each account.
- Upon approval, Zoom will notify the member and send a link.
- (Optional) The admin can resend the links shortly before the meeting starts. This goes to registered and approved members. They cannot complain about “not finding the link.”
Next, create a Zoom “poll” for the vote. For an annual Member meeting, votes for Directors can be secret. “Polls can also be conducted anonymously, if you do not wish to collect participant information with the poll results.” For a Directors’ meeting, individual votes can be recorded.
Finally, at the appropriate time, open the poll. During the polling, results are tallied as the vote progresses. When the poll is closed, the results are immediately available. The numbers can be added to the tallied paper ballots.
FYI: Zoom will allow you to stream the meeting over a Facebook group. This is where interested parties can watch without having the ability to cast a vote.
Hybrid Meeting Specialists will help you do these things for your HOA/COA!
DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney, and I cannot confirm that this solution will satisfy Florida HOA/COA requirements for e-voting.
You’re invited to read Ungerbuehler‘s complete blog: Is Virtual Participation in Community Association Meetings Here to Stay?