Every AGM packet I've seen at a self-managed HOA falls into one of two camps:
- Too thin. Three pages, no financials, no records of the year's decisions. The new board can't tell what happened.
- Too thick. Forty pages, includes every email thread, the secretary spent three weekends writing it.
This post is the middle path. The AGM packet a board chair can produce in an hour, that the new board will actually use.
The 8-section template
- Cover page. One sentence summary of the year. One photo from the best event.
- Agenda. 30-minute meeting target. Voting items first, reports second.
- Roster of voting members. Who's eligible to vote. Auto-exported from Core.
- Year in numbers. 6-row table: dues collected, members in good standing, events held, attendees, volunteer hours, sponsor revenue (if any).
- Decisions log. Every board motion from the year, one line each. Auto from Governance Pack.
- Treasurer's report. Operating budget vs actual. Capital reserves. One paragraph of commentary.
- Motions for vote. Each motion in standard form: "Motion to [action]. Moved by X, seconded by Y." Numbered.
- Transition kit annex. What the new board inherits. See section below.
The three things volunteer boards always forget
After two years of looking at AGM packets, here are the three sections that get skipped 80% of the time:
1. The "boring decisions" log
Boards remember the controversial decisions (the pool fence, the budget cut) and forget the procedural ones (changed the dues due-date from Mar 31 to Apr 15). The procedural decisions are the ones the new board needs.
Fix: dump the full decisions log into the packet. Tag each entry as either "procedural" or "policy." New board reads procedural first.
2. The "we promised X" log
Boards make commitments to the city, to vendors, to neighbors. ("We'll repaint the entry monument by June." "We'll review the speed-limit petition next quarter.") These commitments live in someone's Gmail and die when that person leaves the board.
Fix: a one-page "Promises log" with date, recipient, commitment, and target date. Update it once a month. Include in every AGM packet.
3. The "what works" log
Three things from this year that the new board should keep doing. (e.g., "The April community cleanup got 41 volunteers — the Tuesday email reminder was the key.") This is institutional memory that compounds.
Fix: at the bottom of the packet, three bullets. What worked. New board reads it Day 1.
The transition kit annex
The annex is for the incoming board chair specifically. One page. Six headings:
- Bank info. Account names, where the checks come in, who has signing authority.
- Vendor contacts. Insurance, lawn care, the city contact at parks. Names, numbers, when contracts renew.
- Tools and passwords. Where the website is hosted, where the email goes, who has admin access.
- Recurring commitments. Anything we've promised to do quarterly or annually.
- Open items. Things this board started and didn't finish.
- A note to the new chair. One paragraph. What you'd want to know in your shoes.
Most boards skip the "note to the new chair." Don't. It's the highest-leverage page in the packet.
What we ship in GetNeighbor
The Governance Pack ($25/mo) generates the auto sections (roster, decisions log, dues report) as a PDF. You add the hand-written parts (cover commentary, motions, the chair's note). Total time: about an hour.
The transition kit annex template is one of the GetNeighbor templates we publish. Free to use even if you're not a customer.
The takeaway
A good AGM packet isn't a record of what happened — it's an onboarding doc for whoever takes over next. Write it for the new chair, not for the outgoing chair's pride.
If your board's AGM is coming up and you want a second set of eyes on the packet structure, email me at [email protected]. I'll send back notes.