Where your Homeowners association is a company we will have to look at the Companies Act – Act 71 of 2008 for guidance. In Section 63 this is stated:
63. (1) Before any person may attend or participate in a shareholders meeting—
(a) that person must present reasonably satisfactory identification; and
(b) the person presiding at the meeting must be reasonably satisfied that the right of that person to participate and vote, either as a shareholder, or as a proxy for a shareholder, has been reasonably verified.
(2) Unless prohibited by its Memorandum of Incorporation, a company may provide for—
(a) a shareholders meeting to be conducted entirely by electronic communication;
or
(b) one or more shareholders, or proxies for shareholders, to participate by electronic communication in all or part of a shareholders meeting that is being held in person,
as long as the electronic communication employed ordinarily enables all persons participating in that meeting to communicate concurrently with each other without an intermediary, and to participate reasonably effectively in the meeting..
(3) If a company provides for participation in a meeting by electronic communication, as contemplated in subsection (2)—
(a) the notice of that meeting must inform shareholders of the availability of that form of participation, and provide any necessary information to enable shareholders or their proxies to access the available medium or means of electronic communication; and
(b) access to the medium or means of electronic communication is at the expense of the shareholder or proxy, except to the extent that the company determines otherwise.
It is therefore clear that Skype meetings can be held – with all the Directors on Skype or only some of them on Skype. They must however be identifiable so you cannot use Skype chat (typing) – you will have to do video conferencing so that all participants are visible to each other. But first of all you have to check if your Memorandum of Incorporation does not prohibit a meeting held in this way.
In terms of Common Law Associations you will have to see if the Constitution allows for this type of meeting – if not you will not be able to do it. Or you will have to amend your Constitution to allow it.
