After serious consideration, the CLPOA Board of Trustees has voted to amend our Rules and Regulations to prevent recording at association meetings.
The amended rule is as follows:
B. Open Meetings:
All meetings shall be open to CLPOA members in good standing and CLPOA employees, except as limited below.
(1) Recording of Meetings (voice, video or otherwise) by Guests, Property Owners, Trustees or Employees is prohibited.
(a) The stenographer or Secretary may record the meeting to prepare the official minutes.
(b) Security recordings are exempt.
(c) Anyone recording the Board of Trustees meeting will be asked to stop recording(2) If an individual fails to stop recording, they will be asked to leave the meeting.
CLPOA Rules and Regulations, page 14
(3)If an individual fails to leave the meeting, they will be escorted out of the building by a Deputy.
The Trustees have taken into consideration that there are property owners who would like to see us record our meetings and weighed this heavily against available information. In the end, the interest of the association must be held above the opinions of individuals. It is not in the best interest of the Choctaw Lake Property Owners Association to allow the recording of meeting minutes.
We’ve included our research below and hope you’ll take the time to read and consider the following.
Insurance companies could use recording to deny coverage:
“If you’re going to have a meeting and you’re taking action, you’ll have minutes of what happened,” notes Magill [HOA attorney]. “But when there’s litigation and insurance companies ask for 10 years of records, if they see that people complained at a meeting – even if it was baseless complaining – they’ll use that as a basis to deny coverage.” [emphasis ours]
Livestreaming Your HOA Meetings, Part 1
It sounds nice to allow the recording of meeting minutes and then prohibit the use of the recordings, but that’s not possible. If a recording exists it can be used by whomever for whatever purpose.
Association meetings are not public meetings
Yes, the City of Columbus allows the recording of their council meetings. But CLPOA is private organization and not governed by Ohio Public Meetings Act or Sunshine Laws (except where we have adopted them within our Rules and Regulations, as noted).
Recording meetings stifles debates
Public officials often attend meetings with prepared comments. What you are watching, if you watch public meetings, is often not open debate. Currently, our board debates open and honestly about issues. Trustees have the freedom to do this because they do not fear litigation as a result of sharing concerns or misspeaking while doing so.
There are other, important, reasons too
The above were the primary focus at the Board of Trustees meeting. But there are other reasons to oppose the recording of meetings for the protection of the association as well. Below are links to other online articles for further research.
Livestreaming Your HOA Meeting, Part I (quoted above)
Open Board Meetings (a reminder from our own attorney regarding open meetings)
Recording a Meeting (out of state, but has thoughtful consideration to the topic)
Electronic Recordings During HOA Board Meetings (another out of state source, but does a good job of addressing both side of the issue.)
Pros and Cons of Videotaping HOA Meetings
Electronic Board Meetings (out of state and so rule mentioned does not apply. Still has thoughtful points on the issue.)