Meaning of Volunteer Board Members?

James, to get the best out of "just volunteers" don't ask them to do more than they are willing to do. Volunteers can easily burnout or simply quit. Been in your shoes and experienced that several times. Also, HOA "Just volunteers" need to be made aware of the legal liability which comes with being a Board member. That's two of the several reasons for hiring an HOA management company.

James, what I mean by "aware of the legal liability which comes from being a Board member" is that the Board members are fiduciaries who are the stewards who are responsible for the operations of the association. Thus they are at risk. When a Board member does not act in good faith; does not make decisions based on sound business judgement; does not comply with and enforce the CC&Rs; or creates fraud or other wrongdoing then they are at risk of being sued. D&O insurance and the "corporate shield" may not cover them. For other circumstances, such as an irrate owner they can also be sued. This should be covered by insurance but it could still take time and money to defend themself.

JamesR2:

HOAs are not the only ones who have issues with "just volunteers."

But the fact is, that is what they are. They are not paid employees and are not contract workers. Someone told me a long time ago that I would regret working within an organization that is structured with "just volunteers" since there is no real way to motivate them, at lease not any ways like we're used to in the "working" world.

All sorts of organizations have problems getting "just volunteers" to maintain a certain "work ethic," arts organizations, social services organizations, children's organizations, you name it, and the "just volunteer" mentality has been the bane of all of them.

It takes a certain kind of leadership style to get the most out of "just volunteers." I'm not sure what that style is, since I have the same issues you do.

To me, if someone makes a commitment to do something, they should either do it or be "man enough" to hand the commitment back in enough time that someone else can pick up the project (or whatever) and still manage to get it done well and on time.

One thing I can tell you, is that even though the board members are "just volunteers," you can still demand a higher level of communication from them, even if you can't demand a higher level of performance.

You need to set clear communication guidelines and commit to following through on them yourself.

Build in critical status checkpoint dates. Let them know up front that if certain deadlines are missed the entire project is to be pulled and delegated to someone else. If there is no one else to delegate it to, then it will be outsourced and the board will then be responsible for the cost.

good luck.

If you have a newsletter or some other means of communicating with the members, then perhaps you can propose to set up small committees, and ask for volunteers to serve on them. Since you may have various projects, it would lessen the heavy load on the BOD members, while also giving a sense of perhaps need, belonging and accomplishment to those members of the association who may have the skillsset that you need, for perhaps what may be a short period of time.