Am I out of line to ask all board members cc: me on all emails?

I'm the board president for our association. I find that once I hand a task off to someone else, I have no idea what is going on with the project. Probably 2/3 of the time, nothing at all is going on and the project dies.

Am I out of line to ask that every other board member cc: me on all e-mails with their projects, so I can be sure that they are moving forward?

That seems a bit heavy handed to me, but we can't let 2/3 of our projects simply die.

I have to agree with Max - I've seen several of your posts and I appreciate you take the job seriously and want to do it well and see that association business gets done, but at the rate you're going, you are going to burn out. I've been there - I started as a garden variety board member (that is, attend once a month and decide how to spend money, then go home), and then became newsletter editor...then represented the community at the local events sponsored by CAI....then treasurer (that alone took up 50% of my free time!) That's how my 10 years on the board went and why I left in 2014.

In another of your posts, I said every board member should have an area they can oversee, based on their interests and talent. But all of you are adults and if a task has been handed off to your colleague, you need to get out of their way and let them work. They may not do the task exactly as you would, but as long as it gets done and they don't veer too far off course, you must trust them to get it done. If something doesn't get done, there's nothing wrong with asking them why - and they should tell you.

It may be time to have a heart-to-heart with your board at your next meeting and tell them (again) that you cannot and will not babysit. THEY volunteered for the board position and while it shouldn't take up all their free time, everyone has to work together to get the job done. If they volunteer to oversee a project, it has to be done. If they have questions on how to manage it, they should ask. If they run into problems, work it out and if they need help, say so.

I know you don't want to see most of the projects die, but if your colleagues can't or won't do their part, you may have to accept that. When the homeowners ask why something isn't being done, it's ok to direct them to that board member and let him or her explain what happened.

I've also suggested your board look into the education materials offered by CAI - it may be someone took on something he or she really doesn't have a clue on how to address it, and reading a book or two, or taking a seminar (they have online seminars available) may help them.

With Sheila, I can see and appreciate that you're working very hard, Jack.

First, imo, it's the Board that votes to undertake a project and the Board assigns projects to directors, not the president.

2nd. The director with an assigned project should write a monthly report to the Board about what they've done, who they've contacted, etc., to be submitted for presentation at your monthly board meetings.

Some projects might suggest the Board wants an ad hoc committee to handle the topic.

I see Bill & my posts crossed. I agree with Bill.

Jack,

I don't know how often you hold board meetings.
If it's once a month, there should be a report on the project monthly.

If it's once a quarter, then an email from you to the project manager (whomever was tasked with the project)at the one month mark simply asking how it's going and if they need help wouldn't be out of line.

Insisting on being copied on all emails does seem extreme.

Not sure why you need to be. You assigned that task onto someone else. They don't need you over their shoulder. Let them do their job and then report it at the appropriate time. The appropriate time is a board meeting. It may or may not be before or after if nothing much is moving forward. You will know what is going on when everyone else involved knows.

Again, if you can't run a away to play a game of "golf" for an afternoon and the HOA falls apart, that is a reflection of your management style. The other positions are there for a reason. To share the tasks and responsibilities.

i have a different take on this. CC: everyone i.ie PM and board members and or committee person or person performing a task etc is not necessarily micromanaging, it is accountability. For records keeping sake, it makes prefect sense to keep a paper trail. BUT!!!! it depends on the situation.. I digress.

For privacy, I really can't go into the details. I will say that we are a well funded HOA, however, have a big maintenance backlog because our 5 parks are approaching 20 years in age and it's time to renovate them. We're working our way through the parks renovation process now. I hope this will last about 3 years, at which point we will stabilize into a more maintenance phase and then have less projects going on. Roughly 30% of our annual budget is dedicated to community improvement projects right now, which I think is a huge share of our budget, but our community is gradually looking much nicer because of the investments that we are making.

Calling or emailing someone weekly and asking for status is micromanaging. Expecting to be kept advised as to progress is good management. Our Board shares info almost weekly when bigger projects are underway. No one is asking for the updates, we just understand that every board member should be able to provide some answer when casually questioned by other owners in the elevator or around the property.

The last reserve study was done in 2020. We plan on our next one in 2022.

We are about 75% fully funded in reserves, which is considered "good" by reserve study standards. It did recommend an increase in reserves, which we did increase our annual reserve set aside.

I am very curious to see what our next reserve study will show because that will be after we complete a number of renovation projects, and have eliminated much of the near term items. We've been careful not to draw down reserves to pay for most small-ish things in the last couple years, and will be funding a good chunk of the renovations out of operating budget, so I am expecting our reserves will show a healthy number.

Side note - my experience is that the reserve study woefully underestimates the cost of repair. Usually our bids are coming in about 50% higher than what the reserve study estimated. In this situations, we are careful to pull only 71% of the reserve study estimate from reserves and pay for the remainder of the cost from operating budget.

Keeping a healthy reserve fund is one of my goals for our association.

Jack pretty much answered my questions in an earlier thread, at https://www.hoatalk.com/Search/ForumSearch/tabid/87/forumid/1/postid/306149/view/topic/Default.aspx:

About 250 - 300 homes, operating budget around $250,000 per year. ... Our HOA has about 5 community parks that include 4 separate play areas. We have many acres of community property, much of what is irrigated. Our annual landscaping budget is about $70,000 per year.