Using Zoom for an HOA Annual Meeting

[Guest wmljr2002@bellsouth.net]

I am the president of our community HOA.  Our By-Laws state we must have our Annual Membership Meeting in October of each year.  I fear that even if we schedule the Annual Meeting, our Members will be reluctant to attend and thus, we may not have a quorum necessary to conduct business and we would have to adjourn. Our Board is considering having our Annual Meeting via Zoom.  While Robert's Rules of Order and our By-Laws may not directly address this issue, how have other organizations addressed the issue of Annual Meetings in this era of corona virus making folks reluctant to attend? 

[Joshua Katz]

RONR does directly address it, though. It says that, unless your bylaws (or other higher-ranking rules) say otherwise, you can't hold meetings electronically. 

How is quorum defined? Also, note that you could move to set the time to which to adjourn (well, presumably, not you, but someone) to allow for the continuation of the meeting at a later date. Regardless, you will have satisfied the obligation, so far as the rules are concerned, by calling the meeting to order, even if you then adjourn.

[Guest wmljr2002@bellsouth.net]

Our By-Laws define a quorum as ..."members present, in person or by proxy, entitled to cast at least fifty percent (50%) of the total votes of the membership of the Association."

[George Mervosh]

22 minutes ago, Guest wmljr2002@bellsouth.net said:

Our By-Laws define a quorum as ..."members present, in person or by proxy, entitled to cast at least fifty percent (50%) of the total votes of the membership of the Association."

As Mr. Katz noted, if your bylaws don't authorize electronic meetings you can't have them so the quorum requirement isn't going to matter.  It's probably better to take a chance that you'll meet the quorum requirement at a properly called annual meeting.  If you don't have a quorum at your in person meeting you still have satisfied the bylaw requirement to hold the meeting, whether that meeting simply adjourns or, as Mr. Katz notes, adjourns to another date and time.  So scrap Zoom, in my opinion.

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, Guest wmljr2002@bellsouth.net said:

I am the president of our community HOA.  Our By-Laws state we must have our Annual Membership Meeting in October of each year.  I fear that even if we schedule the Annual Meeting, our Members will be reluctant to attend and thus, we may not have a quorum necessary to conduct business and we would have to adjourn. Our Board is considering having our Annual Meeting via Zoom.  While Robert's Rules of Order and our By-Laws may not directly address this issue, how have other organizations addressed the issue of Annual Meetings in this era of corona virus making folks reluctant to attend? 

I concur with my colleagues in regards to the holding of the meeting itself.

I imagine another concern with regard to the annual meeting is the issue of election of officers, which is addressed in Official Interpretation 2020-3.