Who Can Make Motions and Serve on Condo Committees?

K.W. from New Haven County writes:

Dear Mister Condo,

The President calls for a committee to be formed. Can the President or any member of the BOD be a member of the committee? Also, when a motion is voted upon by the BOD and someone is opposed, should the minutes include the reason for the opposition? I have had a difference of opinions from CAI Legal Attorneys; some say the opposition reasons should be noted so there is a record and some say no opposition reason should be noted. Note the BOD waives Roberts Rules of order. During an Annual Meeting, can a unit owner from the floor make a motion? Should only BOD members be the one that can make a motion as it is the BOD that votes on the motion?

Mister Condo replies:

K.W., since I am not an attorney, I will not pretend to offer you legal advice in my column. Minutes should reflect any motions and votes that were taken by the Board. I am not familiar with noting the reason for voting for or against a motion as a requirement of a Minutes but I don’t see where it would cause any harm. If the association attorney is recommending doing so, I would follow that “paid” legal opinion. The BOD is free to waive Roberts Rules of Order but that doesn’t mean they can run a sloppy Board meeting. Annual Meetings do allow for input from unit owners as well as their votes for the election of officers and any other items on the agenda that require a vote of the unit owners. However, it is unusual that a motion would come from a unit owner at the Annual Meeting. Typically, the item would be addressed by the Board and added to a future Board meeting. The reason or this is so proper noticing can occur for an item on the agenda. For instance, you wouldn’t want to miss an Annual Meeting where a unit owner motioned that the brown buildings be painted pink and then find out a vote was held without any notice to unit owners and that pink was voted on to be the new building color. That would violate the proper notice of agenda items that most association require. Whereas Board members, following a properly noticed agenda, should have no problem motioning items on the agenda. All the best!