To avoid the extra cost and effort of reconvening an annual HOA meeting, it’s really important to reach quorum the first time around. Reconvening a meeting means planning a new date and time, securing a new meeting place, and drafting and mailing a new notice— which are all time and resource-sapping tasks your HOA can do without! Sometimes, however, even if your board works hard, you still miss quorum. Because an annual meeting is crucial to a homeowner’s association –you can’t elect new board members and carry out important HOA business without it!– you will need to reconvene your annual meeting.

Reconvening annual meetings can be a bit complicated. The process isn’t well-known (reconvened meetings don’t happen often!), and special guidelines need be followed, which can change from one association to the next. That’s why, this week, we’re going over tips to help you reconvene your annual meeting successfully:

  1. Check your governing documents for annual meeting quorum requirements. Before you hold your initial annual meeting, you should review your governing documents to make sure you understand the quorum requirement for reconvened meetings, just in case. For some associations, the percentage of homeowners required to meet quorum may drop for a reconvened meeting, such as by 20%. This makes it easier to hold the reconvened meeting than the initial one! Second, if your association’s governing documents let you adjourn an annual meeting that hasn’t met quorum, and then reconvene thirty minutes later when quorum has been met, you should announce your plan to do so. In the initial meeting notice, include something like this: “The annual meeting will be called to order at 6:00 p.m. However, if quorum is not met at that time, the meeting will adjourn and reconvene at 6:30 p.m., when quorum will be reevaluated.” Lastly, your association’s governing documents may put restrictions on when you can hold a reconvened meeting. You may only be able to hold a reconvened annual meeting within ten days of the annual meeting, or you may simply need to announce the reconvened meeting within ten days of the failed initial meeting. If your association has restrictions like these, your board should plan a possible date, time, and place for the reconvened meeting ahead of time, in case you need to hold it.
  1. Know what’s still valid. Even though laws vary from state to state, requirements similar to the following Texas rules could apply to your association—so, the tips could still help you, as well! In Texas, announcing a reconvened annual meeting isn’t like announcing a regular annual meeting all over again. For starters, you don’t need to send a complete annual meeting notice for a reconvened meeting. Instead, you will simply need to send a postcard that announces a reconvened annual meeting is going to take place, and includes the time, date, and location. Second, all the proxies and absentee ballots submitted for the initial annual meeting will be valid for the reconvened meeting, so your board can still use them. This means that you don’t need to collect ballots all over again!
  1. Work for the remaining proxies and attendees. It’s great that any votes and quorum-building attendees you already have for the initial annual meeting will still count for the reconvened meeting, but how can you make sure that you get the remaining percentage? Your board should communicate with homeowners, and even go door to door, to get those last few proxies. You can also offer door prizes and drawings at your meeting to interest potential attendees.

Additionally, be sure to post the information for the reconvened annual meeting on the association website, to send out a reminder eblast for the meeting, and to announce the quorum requirement (and how close you are to reaching it!) in the notice for the reconvened meeting.

Note: Proxies are illegal in Arizona even if governing documents say otherwise. To follow state law, Arizona HOAs need to acquire in-person attendees to meet quorum. The challenge is a bit tougher, but with some of these tips and tricks, it is definitely possible!

For HOAs, holding the annual meeting is of utmost importance. Without yearly elections to appoint valid, active board members, official HOA business cannot be conducted. So, if the initial meeting fails because of low attendance, your reconvened meeting really needs to pull through! We hope these tips help you successfully hold your reconvened meeting.