North Dakota HOA Board Roles & Responsibilities
What each board position actually does, how many people you need, and how to keep a volunteer board functioning as members rotate out year after year — including where board composition is actually set by state law versus your own bylaws.
North Dakota at a Glance
Most HOA boards have three to five members, elected by the membership for terms set in the bylaws — often one to two years, frequently staggered so the entire board doesn't turn over at once. Your specific bylaws define much of the exact structure, but in some states, part of that structure — minimum board size, owner-eligibility, or officer requirements — is actually set by statute, not left to the association to decide.
⚠ Common mistake: Assuming North Dakota's minimum board size comes from HOA law. It comes from general nonprofit corporation law, which applies only if your association is incorporated as a nonprofit, so check your articles of incorporation.
In Plain DilloPsst… here's what this actually means…
North Dakota has no HOA board law. Incorporated HOAs follow the Nonprofit Corporation Act, which allows director terms of up to 10 years.
President
Runs board meetings, is usually the primary point of contact with homeowners and outside parties (attorneys, vendors, the county), and typically has authority to sign on the association's behalf for routine matters. The president does not unilaterally make board decisions — actions still require a board vote — but does set the agenda and keep meetings moving.
Secretary
Keeps official records: meeting minutes, the membership roll, and official correspondence. In a self-managed HOA, the secretary is often the person who ends up being the institutional memory of the association — the one who can answer "wait, when did we actually vote on that?" This role matters more than it sounds like it should, because undocumented decisions are one of the most common sources of later disputes.
Treasurer
Handles dues collection, financial reporting, and the annual budget process. Many associations require some form of annual budget, and increasingly a reserve study projecting future major expenses. The treasurer role is also the one most commonly outsourced even in an otherwise self-managed association — hiring an accountant or bookkeeper for the mechanics while the treasurer sets policy and reviews the numbers is common and often worth the cost.
North Dakota — Officer RequirementsGeneral corporate law
If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, it must have a president and a secretary, however titled. Officers must be individuals 18 or older and are elected by the board as the bylaws provide. One person may hold any number of offices.
Minimum board size and who can serve
Whether your association has a statutory floor on board size, and whether some or all of the directors must be owners, depends on your state. Where a rule exists, it usually comes from one of two places: a law written specifically for homeowners or condominium associations, or general nonprofit corporation law, which applies only because the association is incorporated as a nonprofit. The badge on each rule below shows which one applies in North Dakota.
North Dakota — Minimum Board SizeGeneral corporate law
If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, at least 3 directors, except that an association with only one or two voting members may have fewer, but not fewer than the number of voting members.
North Dakota — Owner/Member RequirementBylaws/documents
The nonprofit act does not require directors to be members. Directors must be individuals, and the articles or bylaws may add qualifications.
North Dakota — Other Eligibility Rules
Directors must be individuals (people, not companies), and the articles or bylaws may add qualifications. No more than 49 percent of the board may be financially interested individuals, as the nonprofit act defines them.
Term limits
Some states cap how long a single director term can run. A cap on one term is different from a limit on how many terms in a row someone can serve: a term cap alone doesn't stop a director from being re-elected. That takes a separate consecutive-term limit. Check both rows in the reference below for North Dakota.
North Dakota — Term LimitsGeneral corporate law
If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, a fixed director term (other than ex officio) may not exceed 10 years; if the articles or bylaws set no fixed term, it is one year.
Conflict-of-interest disclosure
If a board member stands to personally benefit from a contract or decision the board is voting on, several states require a specific disclosure process before that vote can happen — not just a general "act in good faith" expectation. Some states wrote this rule directly into their HOA or condominium statute; others expressly import the state's general nonprofit corporation conflict-of-interest rules instead of creating a separate one.
North Dakota — Conflict-of-Interest RuleGeneral corporate law
If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, a transaction in which a director has an interest can be approved in good faith by a majority of the board after the material facts and the director's interest are fully disclosed or known. The interested director may not vote and is not counted toward the quorum.
The Dillo-DownIn everyday terms…
Unlike many states, North Dakota bars an interested director from the vote entirely: that director can't vote and doesn't count toward the quorum.
⚠ Common mistake: Treating a conflict of interest casually because "everyone already knows" a board member has a stake in a vendor contract. In states with a statutory disclosure requirement, informal awareness isn't the same as a documented disclosure — skipping the formal step can make the contract itself challengeable later, regardless of whether the board's decision was actually reasonable.
Additional roles on larger boards
Associations with five or more board members sometimes add a vice president (covers for the president, sometimes chairs a specific committee like ARC) and an at-large member with no fixed portfolio, available to take on whatever the board needs — chairing a violations committee, leading a specific project, or simply providing another vote and perspective.
Can one person hold two roles?
It depends mostly on your bylaws, and in some states on the statute itself. Very small associations sometimes explicitly allow combining roles out of necessity. Others prohibit certain combinations — most commonly, keeping treasurer separate from any role with check-signing authority, as a basic financial control. Check your specific bylaws, and the state reference below, before assuming either way.
The real challenge: surviving turnover
The hardest part of running a self-managed board usually isn't any single role — it's what happens when the person who understood how everything worked rotates off the board and nobody wrote it down. A self-managed HOA has no institutional memory beyond what the current board happens to remember or document. The associations that handle this well share one habit: they write things down as they happen, not from memory afterward — meeting minutes the same day, a violation logged when it's observed, a decision recorded the moment it's made.
State-by-State Quick Reference
Select your state below for its actual board-composition rules. Every field is tagged with where the rule comes from — a statute written for HOAs or condominiums, general nonprofit corporate law that happens to apply, or your own governing documents — because those aren't the same thing, even when the resulting number looks identical.
| Scope / governing statute | No North Dakota law written specifically for homeowners associations sets board composition rules. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act (N.D.C.C. Chapter 10-33) applies. |
| Minimum board size General corporate law | If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, at least 3 directors, except that an association with only one or two voting members may have fewer, but not fewer than the number of voting members. |
| Owner/member requirement Bylaws/documents | The nonprofit act does not require directors to be members. Directors must be individuals, and the articles or bylaws may add qualifications. |
| Other eligibility rules | Directors must be individuals (people, not companies), and the articles or bylaws may add qualifications. No more than 49 percent of the board may be financially interested individuals, as the nonprofit act defines them. |
| Officer requirements General corporate law | If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, it must have a president and a secretary, however titled. Officers must be individuals 18 or older and are elected by the board as the bylaws provide. One person may hold any number of offices. |
| Max individual term General corporate law | If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, a fixed director term (other than ex officio) may not exceed 10 years; if the articles or bylaws set no fixed term, it is one year. |
| Consecutive-term limit | The nonprofit act's director sections do not limit consecutive terms. |
| Conflict-of-interest disclosure General corporate law | If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, a transaction in which a director has an interest can be approved in good faith by a majority of the board after the material facts and the director's interest are fully disclosed or known. The interested director may not vote and is not counted toward the quorum. |
| Citation | N.D.C.C. §§ 10-33-02; 10-33-28; 10-33-29; 10-33-30; 10-33-46; 10-33-49; 10-33-51; 10-33-27 |
Read the law
What North Dakota's law actually says about board composition, in its own words, with links to the full text where available:
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N.D.C.C. § 10-33-02
- Governing Statute / Scope: “This chapter applies to all nonprofit corporations incorporated for a purpose for which a corporation might be incorporated under this chapter.”
- Minimum Board Size: “The board must consist of three or more directors, with the number specified in or fixed in accordance with the articles or bylaws.”
- Minimum Board Size: “if the corporation has either one or two members with voting rights, the number of directors may be less than three but not less than the number of members with voting rights”
- Owner/Member Eligibility Requirement: “Directors must be individuals. The method of election and any additional qualifications for directors may be imposed by or in the manner provided in the articles or bylaws.”
- Required Officer Positions: “Must include a president and a secretary, however designated”
- Required Officer Positions: “The officers of a corporation must be individuals who are eighteen years of age or more”
- Required Officer Positions: “Each officer must be elected by the board at the time and in the manner as may be provided in the bylaws”
- Required Officer Positions: “any number of offices or functions of those offices may be held or exercised by the same individual”
- Maximum Individual Term: “A fixed term of a director, other than an ex officio director, may not exceed ten years. If the articles or bylaws do not provide for a fixed term, the term is one year.”
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “The material facts as to the contract or transaction and as to the director's interest are fully disclosed or known to the board or a committee”
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “the board or committee authorizes, approves, or ratifies the contract or transaction in good faith by a majority of directors”
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “the interested director or directors may not vote and are not considered for purposes of a quorum”
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N.D.C.C. § 10-33-29
- Additional Eligibility Rules: “Directors must be individuals. The method of election and any additional qualifications for directors may be imposed by or in the manner provided in the articles or bylaws.”
- Additional Eligibility Rules: “No more than forty-nine percent of the individuals serving on the board of any corporation may be financially interested individuals.”
Making the transition easier
Formtabulous keeps your association's records — elections, violations, ARC requests, homeowner communication — in one place that survives board turnover, instead of scattered across whoever's personal inbox happened to handle it.
See how it works →North Dakota — Common Questions
This article is general information about how HOA boards typically operate and is not legal advice. The specific roles, terms, and requirements for your association are set by your bylaws and, in some states, statute — consult the governing documents and, where needed, a qualified attorney for your specific situation.