Board Mmbrs receiving Gifts from Vendors

Recently, one of our Board Members received a substantial gift (over $100) from one of our current Vendors/contractors. How would you address this problem? Obviously, she must recuse herself from voting on any issues that involve this one vendor but probably needs some additional action. This does not put the Board in a very favorable light. "If common sense were common, we'd all have it!". What would you all do? What are your thoughts on this.

Aren't we getting a little too official here? I would like to know if the board member already knew the vendor personally? How do we know the "gift" wasn't a gift involving two mutual friends? BOD members are owner's too. They can have personal relationships with people.

I don't know how formal your HOA works. In mine, it's just us good ol' boy/girls living together with a few chosen to represent us. This post made me now question when I got offered "dinner" at a neighbors house, was it to get me to vote their way? mmm...

There's a reason for checks and balances in your system. Even if one board member voted for one vendor, there are still other members able to vote against it. Even the President can see partiality and use that as a basis of making a decision. I know if anyone ever recommended a vendor to me, I'd immediately ask what relationship they had with the vendor. It didn't mean I would deny them if it was a brother of a member. It just meant that I had to be more "politically" correct when speaking about that particular vendor around the member. I knew there was an existing "partiality" but I based everything on performance.

I don't see a problem with the board member getting a "gift" from a vendor. Most vendor's do give gifts or invites to "play golf" in the business world all the time. It's done under the guise of drumming up business. If the HOA members were PAID and NOT volunteer then the gift may matter just to the IRS. The BOD members ARE NOT paid! They are truly volunteers and almost anything given to them would be considered a "gift" under the traditional terms.

Melisa - With all due respect, I think that you're stuck in 70's or 80's. You've made too many assumptions here and have asked too many questions. Please do me a favor and if you see any of my posts in the future , just ignore it and pls don't respond. Thanks.

It's ONLY 2 drinks? Darn, that explains why I keep waking up to the vendor the next morning!!! Man I am more stuck in the 60's with all that free lovin!

The other fun part is that if this came to light in the middle of a law suit it could be considered compensation. As most HOAs are non-profit and the board is prohibited from receiving compensation that would not be a good thing.