number 1 issue with HOA's

Quoting MelissaP: "The number 1 issue with HOA's is owner apathy."

In my association, at least part of that problelm is that the homeowners don't have any reason to attend meetings. The agenda is not publicized or made known in any manner, even when important issues or speakers will be there to present information that will affect us all. I know that if people had known that there would be speakers at the last 4 meetings, at least a few homeowners would have been there, perhaps more.
When I asked why the agenda is not available to the owners, the response was that the agenda is always the same...

the agenda may have the same form, but the meat is always different. This is a power play intended to keep the members in the dark and without input.

Since the number 1 issue is apathy, why is the board not willing to tell what subjects will be addressed at a given meeting? That should reduce it.

Actually, in our rules, there is a list of the order of what is to be covered in the meetings. It goes: Financial Reports, Collection Reports, ACC Report, Old business, New business, and open discussion etc... Basically, it is the same old same old discussed over and over again. It ONLY gets exciting when owners decide to take an issue with something. When the owner's don't like the status quo, they tend to take action and forget the apathy!
It was a mixed bag in my HOA. My first year as president, I had a pretty consistent 5 - 10 attendees at every monthly meeting. The most was maybe 20 out of 107 homes! However, my second year I hit my stride. The people had learned to trust me, and thus they stopped coming to the meetings almost entirely! The HOA had never ran so good. The former President is a con-man who had ripped off some money and hired his friends. I fired his friends and got him off the check signing duties. My third year, well, things not so great. The HOA ran very well, but 5 out of my original 7 board members had moved away. The 2 left, one never attended meetings and the other was behind in their dues. Heck, even I moved out the last 3 months! Of course, when you have things running great, you will have a group of owner's who thinks they can do better. These are the SAME people who never attended a meeting the whole year until the last one where I announced my leaving. (Con-man was behind group).
Yes, it is HARD to generate owner interest in a HOA. Especially when they see no reason why. People and the board tend to forget that the money the HOA spends is EVERYONE's money. It's important for the members to vote for the right board members to represent the way they want their money spent. It's the owner's who get that who tend to be in positions of "power". The owner's who don't understand this, tend to not participate or just keep a head of steam behind them.
I improved the owner apathy in our HOA simply by offering other "distractions" that were also beneficial to the HOA overall. I created a neighborhood watch. It functioned outside of the HOA but also within it as well. Meaning the BOD didn't pay for it's support but the people in the watch were also members of the HOA. I also introduced neighbors to each other and started a "board" for the kids. Having other activities besides business, does help in spreading the word about the HOA. HOA's are businesses but they don't have to be business all the time.

We experience the same thing. Very few attend the meetings unless there is talk of raising the dues or something is not right. There is a misconception that we get reimbursed somehow for our time and efforts. I find that 10% of the people do 90% of the work.

You are on the right track, but along with your view there is the attitude of the BOD. In most cases the BOD wants full control and no outside interference from homeowner's. The BOD does not want to answer to anyone and GOD forbid if they follow any of the state statutes or other governing documents. I know because I have been quoting state statutes, bylaws, cc&r's and rules & regs to the BOD letting them know where they are in violation. They (BOD) could care less.

Hey Brad! You want more owner's to show up? Just make 1 bad/questionable decision and they will come! Deny a person a fence, structure, or paint color, they will come! Hold an election, they will come! (Our biggest meeting once a year). A board member makes someone mad, they will come! A member has a boat, RV, or other large obvious violation, they will come. (Someone plants plastic flowers you NEVER hear the end of it!) A member makes a request and doesn't get their way, they will come! Threaten to collect unpaid dues, they will come!

Funny, they won't come if: The board makes a positive decision. Pre-planning of an expensive item, are happy with their board decisions, or you can save them money on their car insurance!

My opinion has changed to if the members don't come to a meeting, then they are happy and satisfied with the decisions that are being made on their behalf. IF that is the case, then the board's got to do what it's got to do.

We always had our meetings on the 2nd thurdsay at 6:30 PM. Already had a pre-made sign that got posted the week of the meeting. It was laminated. It costs money to actually send out a notice to each homeowner. The HOA has to pay for postage, envelopes, and office supplies each and every time. We just posted a sign up on the bulletin board and passed the word along. If someone truly wants to attend they will make an effort to do so.

And people wonder why their BOD's get away with so much? Gee, maybe because they are the ones willing to show up and participate in the running of their neighborhood. The one with the can opener gets the coke!

Well I would have to say that our online forum is somewhat of a success.... It is by invite only and recently we has a few BOD Members submit a request to join.... What a joyous day indeed.... We/I stress to all who live here that this our community....We should work together for the COMMON GOOD .....Life is just way too short for a few to be on a power trip....Consistancy is the key word here..... I have made it apoint to post the agenda... and inform the other neighbors that if you have concerns attend the meetings and ask questions....Dont let someone else do your bidding for you......It's nice to walk into a BOD Meeting every 3rd Sunday of the month and see a couple of new faces added to the crowd....Even the President made a comment about how nice it was to see attendance UP.......Must be the baked goods...LOL LOL...
It's not always easy to keep people invovled but if you stay consistant at it , sooner or later it will work.. We are now approaching time for renewal of our Deed Restricitons and as a member of the Commitee I suggested that we have " town hall" type meetings for owners to attend and get a fuller understanding of what it taking place... Much to my surprise the senior BOD Member actually said that was a greta idea - presented it to the whole BOD at our last meeting and we will have our town hall meetings on the 3rd wed of the month at 6:30 pm. to allow working folks to attend........ASK AND YE SHALL RECIEVE...........Seems we have a whole lot more SMILING PEOPLE here lately and all it took was persistance to remind them that it is their NEIGHBORHOOD AND HOME..........have a GREAT 4th and celebrate your INDEPENDENCE...........LindaC

Jeff, there are many variations of Agenda which are recommended by RRO, some contain "Adopt the Agenda" and some do not. The board does have the discretion to amend an agenda during a meeting - RRO is often used a "guideline" during a meeting, not the omnipotent authority.

KarenW6......................With pleasure I will tell you about our forum.... It is a web based email group free from Google Groups....... You become the "owner" as you are the one setting up the forum...It is by invite only...they have rules to follow......You become your own moderator....To date I have not had to kick anyone out for making slanderous remarks as I have posted RULES OF THE FORUM.....I expect people to conduct themselves as adults and to date it has worked... Remember on a web based email everyone sees what you write...Our site is a locked PRIVATE GROUP.. you cannot "search" for it and enter the forum........WE post jokes, recipes, death announcements. births etc.. and have lively conversation about our Commnunity.....To date we have 47 members and i will consider that a success.......It's the place to go to be in the know.....Take some time and go to www.google.com and see how great it can be to have this forum.......You can also upload documents there in PDF format etc....Best of luck and hopefully you will have as much success with your forum as we have with ours.......IF you would like a copy of my disclaimer let me know and i will post for you...HAPPY 4th...........LindaC