10 Most Important Things for A Board?

1) Bylaws. Any board member MUST be familiar with the by-laws, inside and out.
2) Covenents: same as above. If you don't know these two documents, you cannot govern effectively.
3) State laws. Know your state laws regarding HOAs.
4) Income Tax: know how to file your income tax forms, and do it, every year.
5) Insurance: property, accident, and errors/omissions. be aware of your policies, what they cover, what they dont.
6) Budget: know what it is, and know why everything is budgeted for the amount it is.
7) Expenditures: you must know where all the money is going. who are you paying, and for what? Why?
8) name, number of your local beat officer, or community liason officer, or police rep.
9) how to write a business letter
10) how to document minutes, keep business records, and run an organizations document control.
11) How to run an effective meeting.

sorry, that's eleven. you could do without number 9 or 8, if you had to.

I agree.

Well said Patrick, besides keeping the homeowners in the loop on things, it makes it harder for malcontents to sabotage things. (Yes I know people have a valid right to question things the BOD does and that in itself makes a community better, but some people like to stir up trouble just to stir up trouble.) We announce in the spring the issues/repairs we hope to address during the year. This year in May we announced that a crumbling walkway made of paving stones would be replaced with a concrete walkway.

The work was done in September and in October one of the members demanded to know why we hadn't considered replacing it with blacktop instead of concrete as it would be cheaper and we were just wasting money. That person had gotten a whole group upset until I pointed out the timeline and asked them why they waited until after the work was done to complain. Needless to say the focus shifted from the "wasteful BOD" to why they waited to complain.

At some level that would be a good idea. On the other hand, the members elected the BOD to "run" the HOA just like citizens elect people to run the government. If the BOD was considering a major project such as a new clubhouse, swimming pool, marina, etc., it would be appropriate to bring the subject up at a general membership meeting. If a member gets worked up over a BOD decision to repair a cracked walkway and the method used, or what contractor is hired to cut a tree down, he or she should consider running for office on the BOD.

Our monthly BOD meetings are held in a board member's house (currently mine). Members may come to a meeting to voice their concerns or they can phone or e-mail us. If all 134 members decided to show up at my house with their spouses it's pretty clear there would be a problem. Minutes are kept and I suppose a member could ask for a copy if he or she wanted to.

Each association is different just as each community is different. We have 134 properties, no pool, no tennis courts, no marina. We have a front entrance, a couple signs, a decorative gazebo, several hundred feet of easement to maintain, and several worthless properties that were deeded to us by the developer.

Typical BOD meeting items:
We have a tree that's on our property but leaning over a member's fence and needs to be taken down. Who will find a contractor? I volunteer. Next meeting - I interviewed six contractors. Question - Should we go with the lowest bid which was two guys in a truck who planned to remove a section of the neighbor's fence and drop the tree in their yard and garden or should we pay a little more for the licensed pro who will climb and take it down with ropes and repair the damage done to the homeowner's tree by "our" tree?

You really want to discuss this in front of 134 members and their spouses? It's less than $500.00.

Next item:
We submitted some text to one of the members who composed the newsletter and has brought it for suggestions and approval prior to printing and mailing. Do we hand out 134 "draft" copies and ask for comments?

Next item:
When can we (the BOD members) get together to decorate the entrance for Christmas?
We're going to discuss this with the members?

What days and for how long should we set the timer for the irrigation system?
See above.

Should we pay $100.00 to have the brick walls at the entrance steam cleaned?

Another one:
Should we purchase imprinted plastic bags to place violation reminders in so they look more professional and don't get wet from rain?

It's nuts and bolts daily operation of the association. As I posted above, major policy changes, major expenses and the like have a place at the membership meeting or even a special meeting called for the purpose. We would likely get nothing done if we had to listen to 134 opinions on each item.

It's a lot like the US Congress. We have a constitution to follow (the CC&Rs). We cannot take any action not allowed us by the CC&Rs. We have been entrusted by the membership to take whatever actions deemed in the best interest of the membership as a whole. We have each provided telephone numbers and e-mail addresses both in the newsletter and on the website. If anyone has a concern they can contact one (or more) of us and some do. They can attend and speak at a BOD meeting if they feel the need to (and some have). As for the others, they seem to be happy with how we are operating. If not, there's an election every two years.

opening a meeting to owners and allowing the owners to express their ideas, opinions and thoughts on every item are two different things. I think we all agree that somewhere in the mix is the optimum transparency and interaction, and it may vary from HOA to HOA, month to month, item to item.

Holding open meetings is crucial. Work done by the board should be transparent, visible, etc... not necessarily does it need approval every step of the way, but the process should be visible for scrutiny, if desired. I assume Ron has the bids saved in a file for the tree removal, and there was discussion among the board as to which contractor to hire, and perhaps even the documented reason as to why they chose who they did. That's transparent enough to me. I could have attended the board meeting, heard the discussion, and been happy that my board was working the way i wanted, or unhappy at how they did things and able to secure documents to show what I desired at the next meeting.

Boards were elected so that all opinions need not be expressed or heard AT THE TIME OF VOTING (ie, HOA's are republics, not democracies in 80% of what they do). Giving the owners the rights to express opinions is absolute... as mentioned, if we don't, we run the risk of losing touch and becoming despots. But those opinions can easily be gathered between meetings, over the fence, in the driveways, etc... and should be.

Having an effective meeting is knowing your ownership, and knowing how to allow them participation without allowing them to derail the business needs of the hoa... it's a skill, an art, and tough, and never done 100% successfully all the time.

my two cents.

The BOD meetings have been held in board members homes every month since 1989 and as far as I know there have been no complaints yet. I've only lived here for a little less than two years and have been on the board for a little less than six months so I don't know the complete history. There's an annual membership meeting and that's held in a rented facility. I do know that that facility cost us $100.00

As I look back at what is discussed and decided at these meetings, it occurs to me that we are mostly making decisions that would be made by a management company if we had one. I don't believe a management company would allow HOA members to sit in on its decision making processes. Our CC&Rs don’t allow us to make “rules”, only to enforce the ones provided in the CC&Rs.

One problem with soliciting input is that those whose suggestions are not followed often become resentful. In one case posted above, the BOD decided to replace a failing stone walk with concrete. Someone became upset because they didn't replace it with asphalt. At an open meeting, this discussion could have taken an hour or more and ended with yelling, accusations, and hard feelings. And several members would have walked away from the meeting upset because "the BOD never listens to me".

Go back to the issue of who to hire to take the dead tree down. Because I respect the other BOD member's intelligence and honesty, I was able to bring all the estimates and my impressions of each contractor to the table and we discussed the pros and cons of each choice. A discussion among five like minded people is manageable. For a public meeting, I could easily discard the estimates I didn't like and present the one I favored along with two higher ones. So much for "openness".

In the end, it's like I said before, elections are every two years, if you don't like how we are taking care of business, if you believe we're not responsible to your input, if you believe we are dishonest, elect someone else. I’ll proudly walk away knowing I tried my best.

I do appreciate the input and it’s something that we will certainly consider when and if the time comes.

I think this is one of those things where "size matters". For Don N's huge POA, meetings held in a public forum make sense, but for a 20 home HOA, a board member's home usually will suffice. The key is to find the best way to get sound feedback from the owner's on what they want, are willing to pay for and how the association is doing. The board is elected to govern, but where they choose to draw the various lines is a constantly moving target, often on an issue-by-issue basis. For example, take awarding a lawn-cutting contract. Is it always on the lowest bid or does quality of work enter the discussion? Sometimes its as simple as asking if they'd be willing to pay $2 more a month for a better job. If they say yes, then the place looks nicer - if they say no, then it dampens the criticism of the current job. A board shouldn't work in a vacuum.

I am often amazed at how many board member's feel that lack of open criticism means they are doing a good job. They usually end up surprised when a single issue, thought to be minor, pushes a majority over the edge and the association implodes.

Good feedback is critical to governing and keeping the association moving in a positive direction, and the way you get good feedback is by communicating with the owners as often and as thoroughly as you can. And by listening more than talking.

In case you haven't noticed, community associations, mostly homeowner and property owner associations, have taken a beating this year, and in almost every instance, bad or lack of communication was at the heart of the matter.

Yes, you were elected to govern, but waiting until the next election to find out that the owners don't like what you've done doesn't make for a good community.

The list above is great for what a board member needs to know, but it only the first step in being a good board member.

Joe

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." Ben Franklin Happy New Year!