Motion vs resolution

A motion is the ask

A motion is a formal proposal that the board take a specific action. It happens out loud, in the room, while the board is working through the agenda: "I move that we approve the roofing bid from ABC Contractors." Once a member states it, and the board seconds and debates it if needed, the motion gets a vote. That is the entire life of a motion, made, discussed, decided.

A resolution is the record

A resolution is the formal, often written record of an action the board has taken. In practice it usually begins as a motion. Someone moves it, the board votes, and once it passes the association may write it up as its own document the board can point to later, something like "Resolution 2026-03, approving the reserve study." Routine motions, approving minutes, adjourning the meeting, rarely get written up this way. Formal or lasting decisions, adopting a rule, approving a budget, authorizing a contract, more often do, because a written resolution is easier to prove happened if anyone asks later. Which decisions your board writes up as resolutions, and what that process requires, is set by your own bylaws. Check them, or ask whoever keeps your minute book.

Why the distinction matters

A resolution is not just paperwork. Once adopted, it can outrank Robert's Rules itself. Community association business runs on an order of authority: the state statute first, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the board's own resolutions and adopted rules, and only then the parliamentary authority those documents name, usually Robert's Rules. If a board resolution points one way and a suggestion in Robert's Rules points another, the resolution wins. Robert's Rules exists to fill gaps the board's own decisions leave open, not to overrule them.

"Most community association documents require the board to use parliamentary procedure at annual and special meetings."

Source: Parliamentary Procedure: Why Robert's Rules HOA Meetings, CAI / HOAresources

Those documents, including any resolution the board has already adopted, are what Robert's Rules is filling in around, not the other way around.