Annual meetings are an important aspect of governance within community associations. Some communities hold their annual meeting in January or February. Others meet in the spring. Many fall in late summer or early fall. Some are scheduled around fiscal-year close, others around developer transition, others around historical patterns set long before the current board was elected.
What does not change, regardless of when the meeting is held, is the planning runway. A well-run annual meeting requires roughly 90 days of preparation, and the timeline works backward from the meeting date in exactly the same way whether the meeting is in March, July, or November.
Boards that wait end up scrambling. Notice deadlines get missed. Candidates cannot be vetted. Quorum becomes a problem because outreach started too late. Proxies arrive incomplete with no time to resolve.
Boards that start 90 days out run a different kind of meeting. The notice goes out clean. Candidates are surfaced and supported. Quorum is locked in before the meeting opens. The agenda moves on time. Decisions get made.
This post is the 90-day runway: what should happen at each stage, what the statutes actually require, and where the operational pitfalls usually sit. Whatever month your annual meeting falls in, the framework is the same.
Why 90 Days
Three reasons the 90-day window matters more than it might seem:
Statutory notice timing. Notice requirements vary by community type and governing documents, but most fall in the 10-to-60-day window before the meeting. The 90-day runway gives boards enough lead time to issue notice with margin.
Quorum dynamics. Quorum is the single most common reason annual meetings fail. Most associations need somewhere between 25% and 50% of voting interests represented in person or by proxy. Hitting that number often requires multiple communication touch points.
Candidate readiness. Contested elections require candidates to be identified, vetted, given time to prepare a statement, and considered by the membership. Uncontested elections need at least enough volunteers to fill open seats.
The framework below describes the work that should happen at each stage. Slide the dates to fit your community’s meeting calendar.
Days 90 to 75: Foundation
Confirm the Date and Format
Pull the bylaws and confirm:
- When the annual meeting is required to be held — many declarations specify a month or a window
- Where it must be held — physical location requirements, virtual meeting authorization, or hybrid options
- Who calls the meeting — typically the board president, but the bylaws may specify
For Ohio planned communities, ORC 5312.04(C) requires the board to call an annual meeting of the owners association at least once each year, outside any period of declarant control. The Ohio Condominium Act (ORC 5311) imposes a similar requirement on condominium associations. Kentucky planned communities formed after June 29, 2023 are governed by the Kentucky Planned Community Act, which includes open meeting requirements but defers to the declaration on annual meeting timing.
Pull the Voting Roster
Confirm who is actually entitled to vote. This is harder than it sounds.
- Resolve any ownership changes in process at the time of the meeting
- Identify units in foreclosure, where voting rights may shift
- Confirm units that have suspended voting privileges due to delinquency
A clean voting roster, finalized 75 days out, is the foundation everything else sits on.
Set the Quorum Target
Calculate the quorum requirement from the bylaws and translate it into a real number. If quorum is 30% and the community has 120 units, that’s 36 voting interests represented in person or by proxy.
Days 75 to 60: Notice Preparation
Draft the Notice
The annual meeting notice has to satisfy all requirements: the governing documents, the applicable statute, and any practical content the board wants to include.
Required elements typically include:
- Date, time, and location (or electronic access instructions)
- Statement of purpose
- Names of candidates if elections will be held
- Proxy form, where applicable
- Voting procedures, including any electronic voting authorization
Optional but recommended content:
- Brief board report on the year’s activities
- Budget summary and any proposed assessment changes
- Architectural and rules amendments under consideration
- Map or directions for in-person attendees
Confirm Electronic Notice Authorization
Ohio’s Senate Bill 61, signed June 14, 2022 and effective September 11, 2022, updated both ORC 5311 and ORC 5312 to specifically authorize electronic notice for owners’ meetings, but only with the prior written authorization of the owner. If your association wants to use email as the primary notice channel, confirm that written authorizations are on file for every unit relying on electronic delivery.
Owners without written authorization on file still need notice through whatever delivery method the bylaws specify, typically physical mail to the address of record.
Identify Candidates
For any board seat coming up for election, candidates need to be identified early enough to be vetted, written into the notice, and given time to prepare. Common approaches include the following:
- A “call for candidates” communication 90 days out
- Direct outreach to engaged homeowners the board has identified as potential successors
- A clear statement of board responsibilities and time commitment so volunteers know what they’re agreeing to
Days 60 to 45: Notice Goes Out
Issue the Notice
Two delivery streams typically run in parallel:
- Electronic notice to owners with written authorization on file
- Physical mail to owners without electronic authorization, at the address of record; however note that some governing documents require the use of physical mail for all notices, regardless.
A proof of notice should be retained including affidavits of mailing, electronic delivery logs, returned mail tracking, etc. and this needs to survive challenge if anyone disputes whether notice was properly given.
Days 45 to 14: Engagement
Candidate Materials and Outreach
Candidates should have their statements circulated to the membership ahead of the meeting. This serves two purposes: it lets owners make informed voting decisions, and it signals to the membership that the election is being run seriously.
Pre-Meeting Communications Cadence
A key message or two between days 30 and 7 keep the meeting on owners’ minds. Restraint matters here. Owners who feel over-emailed disengage. One thoughtful message beats five rushed ones.
Lock the Logistics
Two weeks out, the operational details should be settled:
- Meeting space confirmed and set up confirmed
- Audio-visual equipment tested if presentations are planned
- Sign-in sheets, ballot stock, proxy log printed
- Inspector of elections appointed if the bylaws or law require one
- Recording method decided (audio recording for minutes, designated minute-taker, or both)
Days 14 to 1: Final Push
Quorum Verification
By 7 days out, the board should know whether quorum is on track. If it isn’t:
- Personal phone outreach to engaged homeowners who haven’t returned proxies
- Door-knocking by board volunteers for the proxies that haven’t come back
- A clear plan for what happens if quorum fails, typically an adjourned meeting or a continued meeting with reduced quorum, depending on the bylaws
Final Materials Assembly
The day before the meeting, the meeting package should be printed and assembled:
- Sign-in sheets
- Ballot stock and counting materials
- Agenda copies
- Financial summary handouts
- Spare proxy forms for late-arriving owners
At the Meeting
The meeting itself should feel almost anticlimactic. The notice was right. Quorum was hit. Candidates were ready. Owners had time to think. The board’s job at the meeting is to run a clean process: call to order, establish quorum, run through the agenda, conduct the election, take questions, adjourn. The substantive board governance happens in the 364 days between meetings. The meeting itself is the punctuation mark.
What Boards Should Do Next
Three practical steps for boards heading into their next annual meeting, whenever it falls on the calendar:
- Pull the bylaws and confirm the meeting date and notice requirements. Build a 90-day runway working backward from the meeting date.
- Audit electronic notice authorizations. If the board wants to use email as the primary notice channel under ORC 5311 or ORC 5312, confirm that written authorizations are on file for every unit relying on it.
- Start candidate outreach 90 days out. The hardest part of an annual meeting is finding qualified, willing volunteers. Ninety days of runway gives the board time to recruit thoughtfully rather than fill seats from whoever shows up.
The annual meeting is one of the few moments in the community association calendar when every owner is paying attention. The board that uses the 90 days before the meeting well sets a tone that carries through the next year of governance.
If you’d like Eclipse to help your board build the 90-day annual meeting runway for your community, reach out to us here. We run this process for the communities we manage and would be glad to walk a board through what it looks like, regardless of when your meeting falls on the calendar.
This article is informational and is not legal advice. Boards facing specific questions about notice requirements, quorum, or voting procedures should consult with the association’s attorney and review the governing documents.
