All’s Well That Adjourns Well


How WUCIOA Can Improve Community Meetings


By Erik R. OIsen, Esq., of Hanis Irvine Prothero, PLLC


W


hen it comes to association meetings, having clear structure and procedures is


essential to a functional association. Once disorganization converges with the exercise of authority over the homes of others, the stage is predictably set for tempers to flare, civility to die, and rationality to exit before intermission.


While some sets of governing documents have the structural flow, detail, and textual richness of Shakespearean verse (“A lien! A lien on both your houses!”), many sets are riddled with omissions and ambiguities.


Some governing documents have the structural flow, detail, and textual richness of Shakespearean verse,


“A lien! A lien on both your houses!”


Fortunately, the recently enacted Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA) (RCW 64.90) provides comprehensive guidance on many aspects of association management, particularly on the subject of


22 Community Associations Journal | April 2023


meetings. While WUCIOA only applies to associations formed on or after July 1, 2018, nothing prevents older associations from adopting WUCIOA in whole or in-part or passing amendments to mirror its language. Here are several notable meeting provisions in RCW 64.90.445 to consider:


Disruptive Owners at Board Meetings


Generally, the few owners who regularly attend board meetings come in two varieties: benign owners with ample time on their hands and the rabble rousers who cannot decide if seceding from the union or orchestrating a coup d’etat is more desirable. It is the latter that causes meeting agendas to be hijacked, profanities to be exclaimed, and volunteers to resign. In short, they doth protest too much.


WUCIOA specifically authorizes boards to “expel or prohibit attendance by any person who, after warning by the chair of the meeting, disrupts the meeting.” Farewell to the days of a belligerent owner’s claim that they have


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