Academy/Board Succession & Institutional Memory
Project histories
A short write-up after every major project so the next board is not stuck rebuilding what you already learned.
A project history is a short record, kept after every major project such as a roof replacement or repaving, of what was decided, which bidders were considered, why one was chosen, the final cost against budget, and problems encountered. It exists because minutes record votes, not the reasoning behind them.
What a project history actually is
A project history is not the minutes, and it is not the contract register. The minutes record that the board voted to award a contract. The contract register lists the contract while it is active. Neither one explains why the board picked one bidder over another, or what went wrong along the way. Robert's Rules is explicit that minutes were never meant to carry that reasoning.
"Minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, not a record of what was said."
Source: Robert's Rules of Order Official Website, Frequently Asked Questions, Robert's Rules Association
A project history fills exactly that gap. It is a page or two, written once the project closes, that a future board can read without having to track down a director who is no longer serving.
Why the next board needs it
Most major projects, a roof, a repaving, a clubhouse renovation, only happen once every ten or fifteen years. By the time the association needs to do the same project again, the directors who managed it the first time are almost always gone. Community Associations Institute frames this kind of turnover risk directly: an organization's history and relationships are an asset a departure puts at risk, and the time to protect that asset is before someone leaves, not after.
Without a project history, the next board relearns everything from scratch: which vendor underbid and then missed deadlines, which contractor's work held up, what the actual budget overrun was and why. A project history turns that into a five-minute read instead of a mystery.
What to put in it
Keep it simple and keep it consistent across projects. At minimum, capture:
- What the project was and why the board decided to do it
- Who was asked to bid (an RFP, informal quotes, or both) and what each bidder proposed
- Why the winning bidder was chosen over the others
- Any change orders made once work began, and why
- Final cost against the original budget
- Problems encountered and how the vendor performed
Nothing here found a required format for this document. Some boards write a page in a shared folder, others attach it to the project's closeout in a management portal. The format is a choice for your board or your manager, not a compliance obligation.
What the law actually requires you to keep
Retention rules for the underlying records vary by state. Florida is one of the two states this research verified in detail. Florida's official records statute requires an association to keep signed contracts for at least seven years, and requires bids received for a project to be kept for at least one year.
A project history is not itself a legal requirement anywhere this research found. It is a practice built on top of whatever records law already makes you keep, turning a pile of contracts and bids into something a future board can actually use. If your association is outside Florida or California, check your own state's nonprofit corporation act and any HOA-specific statute before assuming a retention period.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
The board approved a $340,000 roof replacement five years ago. The minutes only say the board voted 4-1 for Contractor A. The current board cannot find why Contractor A beat the other two bidders. Why is that reasoning missing?
A clubhouse renovation finished two years ago. The contract has expired and dropped off the association's active contract register. A new board is planning a similar renovation to the pool house and wants to know what went wrong last time. Where should that information live?
A Florida HOA is deciding how long to keep the losing bids from a recent repaving project versus the signed contract with the winning paver. Under Florida's official records statute, which pairing is correct?
Sources
- Florida Statutes Section 720.303(4), official records, Florida Legislature
- Robert's Rules of Order Official Website, Frequently Asked Questions, Robert's Rules Association
- Robert's Rules of Order (1915 public domain edition), "The Officers and the Minutes", Henry M. Robert, reproduced by Westside Toastmasters
- Passing the torch: Why succession planning is essential for community association professionals, Community Associations Institute (CAI)
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Board Succession & Institutional Memory
Once you have captured what happened on a specific project, the next habit is writing down the reasoning behind board decisions generally. See decision logs.
Which records you must legally keep, and for how long, differs by state; only Florida's and California's requirements were verified for this Course. Keeping a project history itself is a practice choice, not a statutory requirement anywhere this research found.