Hello everyone,

I'm curious of any of you know if there is a state law that governs how a road association board interacts with it's members?  What I'm specifically wondering about is whether there's a state law that says a member can address his board of directors for a certain period of time, like 5 minutes.  Our bylaws are silent on this issue.  I need to find something that's official in writing somewhere so my fellow board members realize that it's more than just my personal opinion on how they should conduct themselves. 

My board has already told a member that he couldn't address his board, because they knew what he was going to talk about and didn't want to hear it.  I'm concerned that we may have violated this member's legal rights somehow, in more ways than just being impolite hosts.

I'm looking for a Maine Revised Statutes number, not an easy explanation that it's common law, or common sense, or good manners...

Craig Gordon

Todd Tolhurst wrote:
The Private Ways statute has very little to say about how the internal matters of an association are to be conducted, only that:

The owners of parcels of land benefited by a private road, private way or bridge at a meeting called pursuant to subsection 2 may choose a commissioner or board, to be sworn.

Bear in mind, however, that under the Private Ways statute, the commissioner or board only has the power to carry out the will of the association as expressed by the membership:

By a majority vote, the owners may determine what repairs and maintenance are necessary and the materials to be furnished or amount of money to be paid by each owner for repairs and maintenance.

Meetings of the association may be called by the commission or the board, but they "belong" to the owners.  The owners may adopt rules by which the meeting is to be conducted, and may elect a moderator to preside over the meeting.  That moderator need not be the commissioner or a board member.

It would probably be a good idea to adopt Roberts Rules of Order as the controlling authority for the conduct of your association meetings.