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Tag Archives: minutes

Record Keeping 101

    Most community associations in South Carolina are incorportated, therefore they are governed by the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act . Pursuant to the Act, there are certain requirements that community associations must follow in terms of record keeping. The Act also provides members the opportunity to inspect and copy certain documents within the statutory guidelines. The issue of member inspection will be addressed in a subsequent article.


Meeting Minutes– It is necessary to keep permanent records of all meetings of corporation members and board of directors, a record of all actions taken by the members or directors without a meeting, and a record of all actions taken by committees of the board of directors. The Act does not specify the amount of detail required for these documents.


Accounting Records– The Act provides that corporations must maintain “appropriate accounting records.” Appropriateness depends on the size, nature, and other characteristics of the corporation. Accounting records do not have to be kept permanently, so it is up to the corporation to establish a document retention policy. Community association accounting records will typically include checkbooks, canceled checks, and receipts.


Membership Lists– A corporation must maintain a record of its current members in a form that can easily be put into alphabetical order and shows the number of votes each member is entitled to cast.


Form of Records– Records must be kept in either written form or a form that can be converted into written form in a reasonable amount of time.


Location of Records– A corporation is required to keep the following records at its principal office (or the home of an officer or director):



  • Articles of Incorporation

  • Bylaws

  • Resolutions adopted by the board of directors

  • Minutes of all meetings of members and records of all actions approved by the members for the last 3 years

  • All
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Taking your HOA meeting minutes

Author P. Michael Nagle writes: “It is crucial to the conduct of any meeting that the chair be composed, organized, soft-spoken, equitable, and obviously in charge without being overbearing.” (”Meetings & Elections: How Community Associations Exercise Democracy”). If the chair fails to control the meeting, the resulting chaos will be reflected in the minutes.

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Handling HOA business by e-mail

Q: Can the board of an HOA handle any items via e-mail and have those acceptable as legal actions? I am wondering if the approval of meeting minutes can be handled via e-mail rather than waiting for the next meeting. If so, they could then be posted on our Web site and not be held up for the next meeting’s action.

If your HOA is organized as a nonprofit corporation as most are, it is governed by the N.C. Non-Profit Corporations Act (Chapter 55A of the N.C. General Statutes). The laws authorize a board to take action by majority vote at a board meeting.There is no substitute for the open exchange of ideas that occurs at a face-to-face board meeting. However, in recognition of the fact that decisions sometimes need to be made between regular board meetings, the laws also authorize the board to take action without a meeting, provided there is unanimous written consent of the directors.

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