How to write HOA minutes

This is a method for a volunteer secretary. It is not a 50-state roundup, not Davis-Stirling, not “compliant everywhere.” Your CC&Rs, bylaws, and counsel control. Sample only.

Eight elements

1. When and where. Date, time in, place (or “video conference”), and how notice was given if you recorded it.
2. Who was there. Directors present and absent. Guests by name if it matters. Owners who spoke in open forum can be a name plus a topic.
3. Quorum. Say the number required, the number present, and whether a quorum was established. No quorum, no votes on association business.
4. Each motion in one sentence. Start with a verb: Approve, Authorize, Decline, Refer, Table, Adjourn. Not a paragraph of how people felt about the grass.
5. Mover and seconder. Names. If the notes do not have them, the minutes do not invent them.
6. The vote. Result (carried / failed). Where your documents or state law require it, how each director voted — yes, no, abstain, absent.
7. Actions. What happens next, who owns it, due date. Copy the row onto the register so it shows up as old business instead of living in someone’s head.
8. Adjournment. Motion, result, time out.

A novel, a shrug, or a minute

Minutes usually fail in one of two ways. The novel writes down the argument and never the vote, so three pages about the grass still do not say what the board decided. The shrug says that old business was discussed, that new business was discussed, and that the meeting adjourned, which means nobody can tell what happened.

The useful minute is one sentence for the motion, who moved it, how each director voted, and what happens next. The argument stays in the notes, and the vote is what lives in the book.

Same facts · two sentences · a vote

Motion 7. Lot 7 hoop.

Courtesy request to relocate within 30 days. April agenda if not moved. No fine tonight.

All yes. Carried.

That is the entire skill. The kit packages it so you are not designing a format at 10 p.m. See the HOA meeting minutes template for the full skeleton, and a filled Cedar Grove sample if you want to copy the shape, not the facts.

After-meeting workflow

1. Within a few days, while the notes are still readable, open the minutes file next to the notes. They use the same numbers, so you fill in the record instead of outlining the meeting a second time.
2. If a vote, name, or motion is not in the notes, it is not in the minutes. Do not reconstruct it from memory. Flag the hole.
3. Open forum is topic plus who raised it. No board action during open forum unless you later made a separate motion.
4. Executive session: public minutes get category plus time in and time out. Details stay sealed. See HOA executive session minutes.
5. Copy new actions onto the register. PDF the minutes. Send a draft to the board. Approve at the next meeting. That approved PDF is the record owners may request.

Optional: the kit includes a notes-to-minutes how-to for ChatGPT, Claude, or Grok. If a fact is missing, it is supposed to print [NOT IN NOTES] instead of guessing. You still read every line. You own whatever is published. You can skip AI and type it. Same files either way.

The president chairs. You write. The free chair page is how to run a 60-minute board meeting. If this is your first month, use the new HOA secretary checklist.

Get The Minute Book — $49

1. Pay through Paddle (your statement may say Paddle).
2. Get an email with the zip.
3. Open “00 Read me first.” Copy this month’s files. Leave the originals.

It is a Word kit for $49 once. Pricing is on its own page, and the homepage shows what is in the zip.

Common questions

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