How do we hold our HOA annual meeting online or as a hybrid meeting?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised November 4, 2026

How an HOA board runs an online or hybrid annual meeting: what TX, FL and CO law allows, notice wording, owner check-in, quorum, voting and a sample timeline.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

In Texas, Florida and Colorado, state law now lets most associations hold the annual owners' meeting by video or phone, fully or in part, as long as the governing documents do not require a physical location. The legal permission is the easy part. The work is making sure every owner who shows up can hear, speak and vote, that you can prove who was present, and that ballots are handled in a way that survives a challenge. For most boards of 26 to 150 homes, a hybrid meeting is the safer first step: a room at the clubhouse or a library, with a video link and a phone line for everyone else. This guide covers the members' meeting. Board meetings by video have their own rules, covered in our guide on whether an HOA board can meet by Zoom or conference call. Rules vary by state and by your bylaws, and this is education, not legal advice.

Confirm the authority before you send notice

Read the bylaws first. If they name a meeting place or require members to meet 'in person,' that language may control, and changing it is a bylaw amendment, not a board decision. Texas. Property Code section 209.0056(d), added by SB 2629 and effective September 1, 2025, says an owners' meeting may be held by any method of communication, including electronic and telephonic means as provided by Business Organizations Code section 6.002. Section 6.002 requires a system that lets each participant communicate with all the others, reasonable measures to verify that each remote voter is who they claim to be, and a record of every vote taken. Section 6.051 adds that the notice must state the form of the communications system and how to access it. Florida. Section 720.306 still requires the annual meeting at a time, date and place set by the bylaws, with at least 14 days' notice. If your HOA is a nonprofit corporation, chapter 617 also applies. Section 617.0721(5), as amended by HB 797 effective July 1, 2026, lets the board authorize remote participation and even hold a members' meeting solely by remote communication, unless the articles, bylaws or a proper member demand require a physical location. Remote members count as present and may vote only if the association takes reasonable steps to verify they are members or proxies and lets them read or hear the proceedings substantially at the same time, and it must keep a record of each remote vote. Colorado. The Common Interest Ownership Act requires an owners' meeting at least once a year but says nothing about remote attendance. The Nonprofit Corporation Act, section 7-127-108, fills the gap: unless the bylaws say otherwise, members may hold or join a meeting by any means that lets all participants hear each other, and they count as present in person. California boards have a narrower rule. Civil Code section 4926 allows a fully virtual meeting with technical instructions, a support phone number and email, and a phone option, but not for the meeting where election ballots are counted.

Decide how votes will be cast before you pick a platform

Most failed virtual meetings fail on voting, not on video. Settle three questions in writing. First, how do owners vote on the election and any other item: paper ballots mailed in advance, an electronic ballot, a proxy, or a live vote at the meeting? Texas section 209.00592 requires the association to offer at least one of absentee ballot, proxy or electronic ballot, and says an owner's in-person vote at the meeting overrides an earlier absentee or electronic ballot. Florida's online voting statute, section 720.317, requires each owner's consent to vote online and a board resolution setting up the system. The board meeting that takes up that resolution needs its own notice, mailed or emailed to owners and posted on the property at least 14 days ahead, with an affidavit of the notice filed in the records. Each owner also needs a way to test their device with the system at least 14 days before the voting deadline. Second, who counts, and where? If ballots are counted at the meeting, do it in the physical room with a camera on the counters, or finish the count before the meeting and report the result. Third, what happens to a motion that is amended on the call? In Texas, absentee and electronic ballots are not counted on a motion that was amended at the meeting, so keep the owner vote items to the exact wording on the ballot. A poll button or a show of hands on video is fine for procedural votes like approving last year's minutes, but do not use it to elect directors unless your counsel has confirmed it meets the verification and record rules.

Notice wording the board can adapt

Send notice inside the state window: in Texas, not later than the 10th day or earlier than the 60th day before a meeting where owners vote; in Florida, at least 14 days ahead, delivered as the statute requires, with the affidavit of mailing kept in the records; in Colorado, 10 to 50 days ahead by hand delivery or mail, plus a copy posted in a conspicuous place where that is practical. Colorado section 38-33.3-308(1) also makes the notice list the agenda items, including the general nature of any proposed declaration or bylaw amendment, any budget changes and any proposal to remove a director or officer. A paragraph you can copy: 'The annual meeting of the members of Willow Creek Homeowners Association will be held on Tuesday, March 10, at 7:00 p.m. at the Willow Creek Clubhouse, 100 Willow Creek Drive. Members may also attend and speak by video at the link below or by phone at the number below, using meeting ID 000 000 000. Please join 15 minutes early to check in. Remote attendees will be asked to give their name and street address, which the secretary will match to the member roster before quorum is counted. Ballots for the director election must be returned by mail or at the clubhouse by 5:00 p.m. on March 9. Questions about joining: call or text the secretary at the number below.' Put the link, the dial-in and a real person's phone number in every copy of the notice. An owner who cannot get in has a better complaint than one who did not like the outcome.

Check-in, quorum and running the call

Give four people jobs. The chair runs the agenda and nothing else. A host runs the video platform, admits people from the waiting room and mutes background noise. The secretary checks names against the member roster, tracks quorum and takes minutes. A fourth volunteer staffs the phone number for anyone locked out. Open the waiting room 30 minutes early. Ask remote owners to rename themselves with their street address, and admit them after the secretary finds them on the roster. Add in-person sign-ins and valid proxies, then announce the count. Florida's quorum is 30 percent of voting interests unless the bylaws set a lower number. Other states follow the bylaws. If you might fall short, read our guide on what to do when an HOA annual meeting won't reach quorum before the night, not during it. For owner comments, use one queue for everyone. The secretary keeps a single list that mixes raised hands in the room, raised hands on video and phone callers who press the platform's hand-raise key, and the chair calls names in order with the time limit the board set. Say at the start that the chat window is not part of the record. In Florida, owners have a statutory right to record meetings of the members, subject to reasonable board rules, so do not tell anyone they cannot.

A sample timeline

Eight weeks out: confirm the bylaws allow a remote or hybrid meeting, book the room, and pick the platform. A Florida board adding online voting sends and posts notice of the board meeting that will vote on the resolution this week. Six weeks out: adopt the voting method by board resolution, and in Florida open the consent and device test window for owners. Five weeks out: run a test call with the board, including one director dialing in by phone. Four to three weeks out: mail or email the notice, the agenda and the ballots, inside your state's window. Two weeks out: send a reminder with the link and a one-page how-to-join sheet. Three days out: a second test with the host and the secretary on the actual laptop and room camera. Day of: open the room and the waiting room 30 minutes early. Within a week: approve draft minutes that record how many members attended in person, by video and by phone, and keep the attendance list and any record of remote votes with the association's records.

Mistakes that give owners a reason to challenge the meeting

Leaving the link out of the formal notice and emailing it later to some owners. Holding a fully online meeting when the bylaws name a physical place. Letting anyone into the call without matching them to the roster, then counting them toward quorum. Running the director election through a chat poll. Letting the room hear each other while remote owners cannot, which breaks the hear-each-other condition in both the Texas and Colorado statutes. Amending a ballot question on the floor after owners already voted by mail. And skipping the phone option, which quietly shuts out the owners who most need it. Fix those, and a remote or hybrid meeting usually draws more owners than the folding chairs ever did. If the board also wants to move elections themselves online, read our guide on whether an HOA can hold elections by mail or online.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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