Can homeowners attend the meetings where we discuss management proposals?

Depends on your state and your documents. Many state acts require open Board meetings with limited executive session exceptions, and contract negotiations are sometimes an allowed exception and sometimes not.

Practically, most Boards evaluate proposals in executive session where permitted and take the vote in open session, which keeps the deliberation candid while keeping the decision on the record.

Check your act and your bylaws before assuming either. Getting this wrong is a procedural challenge waiting to happen.

Where owners can attend, the session works better with a structure: presentations made to the Board rather than to the room, owner questions taken in writing beforehand, and no pricing negotiated in public. Firms behave differently in front of an audience, and not in ways that help you evaluate them.

Whatever the venue, put the substance in the minutes — who was invited, who responded, what each proposed, and the reasoning behind the choice. That record is what makes the decision defensible a year later when the Board has three new members, and it is the part most Boards skip.