diff --git a/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml b/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml
index a913fd8807..1c604355ab 100644
--- a/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
   - restart apache
 
 - name: allow apache to run team sync script
-  file: path=/srv/web/meetbot/teams recurse=yes owner=apache group=apache mode=0755
+  file: path=/srv/web/meetbot/teams state=directory recurse=yes owner=apache group=apache mode=0755
 
 - name: start mote-updater service
   service: name=mote-updater state=started enabled=yes