Running for hoa president

The normal process is running for a position as a director on your Board. This position, as director, is normally done by the Members at their annual meeting. The other way is being appointed by the Board through a a vacancy.

The positions of President, VP and so on is done by the Board, unless your Bylaws outline a different procedure. If you believe a resume and cover letter will potentially influence a Board, I guess, knock yourself out.

Uhm why? Can you walk and chew gum at the same time? Your clearly over qualified then... No one needs your "resume". It's a VOLUNTEER position. What people need to see? That you WANT to do the job and are willing to volunteer to do it. Plus in many HOA's you run for a board position 1st then that elected board elects the officer positions.

I'd highly recommend you get VERY familiar with your CC&R's, by-laws, and Articles of Incorporation. If you have a A.C.C, I'd get up to date with that as well. Make sure you can reference your rules when asked a question. Don't be afraid to say "I will wait till can consult the documents BEFORE giving an answer".

Best be prepared to live and breath the position. It's basically going to become your "DNA" if you win. You will now be "Them or They". You represent the total of the HOA. Show others you are willing to be all that and you have a shot. A resume is for a job. This is a life position.

You could put this experience on your resume but would not submit one.

Melissa,

I know you mean well, but some Associations actually have enough civic minded folks interested in serving, that a blurb, summary, resume, etc, along with proposed plans and ideas are often used as introductory tools.

Please consider more helpful inputs to posters?

I mustn't be normal, then. :-)

I can't tell you how many times I went back to our Declaration and bylaws to find the exact wording for a particular item, because exact wording matters when issues arise. (This is where you get into arguments over "shall" vs. "may".) Not only that, information could appear in unexpected places.

Example: we're a condo community and water is paid for by our monthly assessments. A year ago a homeowner complained about how unfair this was, and I'd remembered reading language in our documents noting that included utilities in the assessment can provide an unfair advantage to some homeowners and an unfair disadvantage to others. I had to read through all of our governing documents **three times** - and was beginning to think I'd dreamed up the whole thing - before I found the passage I was looking for. Not in our Declaration where it talked about assessments and other relevant info. No indeedy - it was in our Bylaws.

So a few hours will give you the gist of things, which is probably good enough for someone who is trying to decide whether or not they can live with the restrictions and whatnot. But it's not good enough for a director who is trying to resolve various issues in accordance with the governing docs and who wants to feel confident in their decisions. At least it wasn't good enough for me.

I really don't think that's necessary in most HOAs. I'm assuming you're already on the Board of Directors for yours? In mine, people who wanted to be on the board were just asked to submit a paragraph or so explaining why they wanted to do it, or speak at the annual meeting. From there, the Board decided among themselves who the specific officers would be.

Well I am going into my 10th year on Boards and 6th as a President and I feel a few things make you the strongest candidate for the Top position.

1) You have to know the Rules.
2) You have to live by them and respect them. Seems simple but it is not always done.
3) You have to have enough life experience to know when something is not right. Vendors Lie
4) You should be excited to go to your meetings. Passionate
5) I always suggest having Skin like an Alligator and a memory like an Elephant
6) Be able to fight for what you believe but willing to lose some fights. Compromise
7) Have the best interest of the Community at heart. Not your Pet projects.
8) Remember you are part of a team. 20% of the board so you have to collaborate.
9) You must have the time to give to the position. Typically takes 50% more than average board members.
10) You have to be willing to learn and research the stuff you know that you don't know.

If you have many or most of these qualities you should not have to put it on paper. Your Board members should already know you have them. If they don't think you will lead them you won't get their support. It is not always your time. If you want it that bad work harder to get it next time.

I never implied that reading your governing docs within a certain time frame would ever be suffice. My point is really in the second paragraph. Much of an association's governing docs are not black and white. They may need some interpretation at some point in time. If they are old, have thy ever been updated. Does a president know where to find state statues to verify new law that trump current docs.

I would never imply that someone would become an expert after one reading. You will always need to be able to reference your docs to deal with current situations within your community, but also know that there is also a hierarchy if your documents haven't been updated. This is even more important when associations try and self-manage themselves.

I formally served as a president of a relatively large HOA. I read my documents in one evening, but I went so far as getting certified as a CMCA through Community Association Institutes (CAI). In my circumstance, I wasn't considered as a president, not because of experience, but because I poised a threat to the establishment.

The sad fact though, and this is based on personal experience, most board members have never read their governing documents. Maybe the poster's cover letter and resume would be more relevant if the positions on a board were actually done by the members and not by the board themselves. Just have to change their documents.

Good luck to the poster.

Just making sure am clear.

I don’t believe resumes etc are required, just saying some communities use them.

In both Texas and Ca. the 2 States that I have served on boards 3 or 4 generic questions are asked. The candidates can put their views on display here. In Ca. we were limited to a Total of 250 words of answers. Homeowners do not want to read a resume and most don't even read any part of it or mail in the ballot.

I have always been in favor of having a Meet the Candidates night so that people who are interested can meet and ask questions of the potential board members.