HOA meetings in the time of Covid & beyond!

Many HOAs are now using virtual meetings ever since Covid. If you haven’t used these yet read on for recommendations on how to get started with virtual meetings.

Virtual meeting tools are readily available, and we’re especially excited about today’s video conferencing capabilities. In fact, the toughest part of meeting online these days may be choosing which virtual tools to use.

Tools

There are loads of tools at your disposal, and many are totally free depending on your needs.

Phone Conferencing Services

Let’s start with phone conferencing and then move on to video conferencing services.

To set up a phone conference, the meeting organizer simply logs into a phone conferencing website. With a few keystrokes, you can easily schedule a phone meeting. The virtual HOA board member just dials the call-in number at the scheduled meeting time and enters the meeting ID. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

FreeConference.com www.freeconference.com

The basic service is totally free. This is the service we use to set up phone meetings. They also have paid plans with extra features, but most would never need the extra features. They now have video conferencing, but we haven’t yet tried that feature.

FreeConferenceCall.com www.freeconferencecall.com

We haven’t used this service personally, but it is extremely popular and also free.

There are many others, but not all have a free option.

Video Conferencing Services

So let’s move on to video conferencing services, and we think this is really where it’s at! Options include video, of course, but you can also screen share or just use the phone-conferencing portion. The advantage of these services is that you and your fellow HOA board members can see one another. That visual element means better communication and includes screen sharing, which allows virtual meeting participants to share documents or view a PowerPoint by a presenter at the meeting, both of which can make for a much more effective HOA board meeting.

Zoom www.zoom.us

We love Zoom, and so does PC Magazine, which rates it 4.5 out of 5 and gives it an Editor’s Choice Award. We use Zoom for doing demos and providing tech support, and we like how you can do a meeting with or without video. That way you can attend a meeting from home in your sweats and a T-shirt. For audio, you can use Zoom’s conference phone numbers or voice communication through your computer along with the video. You can have up to 100 participants per meeting, and it’s free unless you really need extra features.

One restriction on the free version of Zoom is a 40-minute time limit per meeting – sometimes that’s a good thing – but if you run out of time, you can always continue by starting a new meeting. You can also pay for the unlimited Pro plan. (The time limit only applies when you connect with three or more people.) Here’s a video that shows how to use Zoom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMUxzrgZvZQ&feature=youtu.be

Join.me www.join.me

Join.me provides a good product, and this was the service we used for virtual meetings until they significantly reduced the features available with the free plan. PC Magazine gives it a 3.5 rating, partly because the Lite plan doesn't include webcam feeds.

GoToMeeting www.gotomeeting.com/

Again, another good service, but GoToMeeting doesn’t offer a free plan. It’s been around for a long time, so it works quite well. PC Mag gives it a 4.0 rating, but it’s definitely not as user-friendly as Zoom.

Cisco Webex www.webex.com

Like Zoom, Cisco’s Webex earns a 4.5 rating and Editor’s Choice Award from PC Mag. Webex also offers a generous free plan, and in the past couple of years it’s dropped the prices quite a bit for its paid plans. We have tried Webex in the past, but found it not to be that user-friendly and a bit complicated. PC Mag recommends checking out its feature limitations before committing.

Skype www.skype.com

As one of the original online phone services, Skype has good name-brand recognition, so you’ve probably heard of it.

Google Hangouts www.hangouts.google.com

Google Hangouts is the other virtual meeting option you might recognize, but you have to set up a google account to use it.

So while any one of these virtual meeting tools will work, we’d advise doing a little research to see which tool has the features and pricing that fit your HOA best. Choose the one that feels best to you. And regardless of which service you decide to use, you should definitely do a test run or two before you try to have an actual meeting online.

We are definitely biased toward Zoom since that is the tool we use at HOA Guru and we’ve had excellent success with it. We are not affiliated with Zoom, we just like happy customers.

Legal Considerations

Rules and regulations on virtual meeting attendees vary from state to state. We strongly recommend that your HOA check to be sure there isn’t anything in your state’s laws preventing virtual attendees at nonprofit board meetings.

For example, in our home state of Colorado, we called the Colorado Secretary of State’s office to find out if there are any restrictions in Colorado. After waiting a few minutes on hold, the person who answered informed us that there are no state restrictions on virtual attendance at nonprofit board meetings.

We’ve been told that nothing prohibits virtual attendance in Massachusetts, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, Florida and California, but we recommend verifying this information for yourself.

If your state does not prohibit virtual meeting attendance, be sure there is nothing in your bylaws that does. If so, the bylaws can be changed. And even if you have restrictions on virtual meetings, you should still be able to meet virtually for a work session and have a much shorter meeting later to take votes and make formal decisions. State rules and bylaws can sometimes be vague, so if you’re uncertain, it may be best to consult an attorney.

Takeaways

Although the pandemic of Covid has subsided, virtual meetings offer several benefits to in-person meetings, like significantly increasing the ability to meet quorums and increasing participation among board members. Meetings with enough attendees to meet quorums are obviously more productive, and increased participation means a broader range of perspectives informing important decisions. Virtual meetings also eliminate the need to reserve and/or pay for a meeting space. And if you have any technophobic HOA board members, perhaps this is the nudge they need to finally step into the 21st century.

Keep in mind that virtual meetings don’t have to be limited to board meetings, annual HOA meetings with homeowners can also be accomplished. You just need to be sure that the service you use allows a sufficient number of participants; otherwise, you may need to use a paid plan. If you have the budget for it, the extra features of paid plans definitely have their benefits, especially the ability to record meetings.

And while you’re looking at online resources to help manage your HOA, consider our HOA Guru solution to help your HOA take more management tasks online. HOA Guru will reduce the need for face-to-face meetings and improve efficiency on into the future. Want to know how? Contact us or request a demo to find out more.

Don’t be afraid to jump into virtual meetings as a way to stay productive and increase the efficiency of your HOA.