How to chair your first meeting

Know your two prerequisites

Before you call the meeting to order, confirm two things: that you have quorum, and that you know which rulebook applies. Quorum is commonly a majority of your board's authorized seats unless your governing documents set a different number, so pull your bylaws and confirm the actual figure before the meeting starts, not during it. Read Establishing quorum for how that number gets set.

Robert's Rules of Order does not govern your board automatically. It only applies if your bylaws name it as your parliamentary authority. If you've never checked, check now, you may be running meetings under rules nobody actually chose.

Opening the meeting

The opening move is simple: state that the meeting will come to order, confirm quorum is present, and move into the agenda. Once quorum is established, it is presumed to continue, you don't need to recount heads every few minutes. A director who believes quorum has been lost raises it as a point of order; it isn't something the chair has to police proactively.

Most HOA boards are small enough that the chair gets to participate like anyone else.

"...meetings of a small board (where there are not more than about a dozen board members present)..."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th ed., FAQ, Robert's Rules Association

On a board that size, the chair may join full discussion and vote on every motion, not just to break ties. If your board is unusually large, that relaxed rule may not apply to you; check with your parliamentary authority.

Whose agenda is it

A common misconception is that the chair controls the agenda. Under Robert's Rules, a proposed agenda only becomes binding once the board adopts it.

"It is wrong to assume, as many do, that the president 'sets the agenda.' It is common for the president to prepare a proposed agenda, but that becomes binding only if it is adopted by the full assembly."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th ed., FAQ, Robert's Rules Association

Where a state open-meeting statute applies to your association, the practical constraint is tighter still: the board is bound to whatever agenda was posted in the notice, regardless of who drafted it. Check your state's statute and your own bylaws for how strictly your agenda locks in. See Who controls the agenda? and Creating an agenda.

Pausing versus ending

Two closing tools get confused constantly. A recess is a short pause inside the same meeting; when it ends, business resumes exactly where it left off.

"A recess is an intermission in the day's proceedings, as for meals or for counting the ballots when much time is required."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order, Privileged Motions chapter, Henry M. Robert (public domain text)

Adjournment is different: it formally closes the meeting, and unfinished business carries to the next one instead of resuming immediately. If you announce a "quick break" but actually mean to end the meeting, you've misled everyone in the room about what happens next. Read Recesses and Adjournment before you need either one.