Officially burned out

After spending a lot of my personal time working with vendor certificates of insurance to get a job done, I'm officially burned out. We've had a lot of vendor non-performance issues as of late. Our irrigation system has failed due to non-performing vendors, grass is growing brown, plants are dying, homeowners are complaining.

I joined the board to help improve things in the community, but spend the past four months doing more running the association type work rather than being able to contribute to cleaning up and making our community nicer and more liveable. It seems that my plate is full just ensuring that vendors perform and meet expectations.

I have thought for a long time, and seriously believe, that we need a property manager who can effectively run our association rather than trying to have community volunteers run it. One that will ensure that vendors are performing, and when not, be effective at getting them to perform. Not just a middle person who simply forwards e-mails back and forth between the board and vendors.

I'm tired. I've been going full throttle at making our community nicer. I'm not going to quit the board, but I can't keep going at the pace that I have been going at. Our community looks nicer since I joined the board, and things are moving forward, but I need professional help from a real property manager to support me. I can ask small things of other board members but don't want to burn them out to.

Any advice is appreciated.

I can't remember if I suggested to you what I'm about to suggest - if so, here we go again and this time, pay attention!

It's great you've put in a lot of time and effort as aboard mem. Too many show up once a month and decide how to spend money and go along with the crowd because that's easier. I've found one or two people end up dominating the board for that reason, and you either end up flaming out like you're about to do, or they start believing their ish don't stink and you have the beginning of a board member running wild. Neither scenario ends well for you and your neighbors.

Time for you to man up and tell your board members you're not made of stone and as much as you've enjoyed the work, it's time for them to pitch in or hire a property manager to handle the daily details. Self managed communities work best when everyone pitches in and if they can't or don't want to, the board will have to hire a property manager to do it for them.

In the meantime, your tendency to run and run like a hamster on a wheel ends right now. Tell them what you'll do and stop. They may step up and then you might be tempted to jump in, but Don't Do It! If something doesn't get done, whoever volunteered to oversee that has to deal with the consequences. Homeowners may squawk at hiding a property manager, but they need to understand board members have a life outside the association. If they insist on something being addressed, they can volunteer.

You might also consider that you micromanage entirely too much. You have to get out of the way and trust people to do what you want. That doesn't mean they must do it exactly as you would, but as long as the work is done correctly, give people the space they need.

You sound like you're a great board member, and I'd hate to see you flame out like I did. I served for 10 years and near the the end I was tired and more than a little annoyed at my colleagues. That's when I realized that they may have sat around because they knew I'd jump in. I had to step down so they could see what they could do. I also came to understand that I did all i could do and maybe the next steps would have to be taken by people with fresh energy and ideas.

I don't know if that's you, but I think you need to step away and clear your head. Good luck in what you decide to do.

Jack

After reading several of your posts, you are taking on to much. Either it is you personality and/or you do not trust others.
Time for you to delegate responsibilities.

Perhaps you missed it, Jack, but I've suggested your HOA hair a PM at more than, what?, 4 hours a week? 6 parks and 250 or more homes is too much for a board--especially one that only meets quarterly.

You're said you have no place for an office for such a PM, so you need to get one who'll drive over to your HOA at least weekly and inspect the parks and other common areas. Along with the tiny handful of tasks your PM does now you'll add the parks & dealing with their vendors. It sounds like you'll need a new PM.

Will your Board vote to seek a new management company to provide the services your HOA so clearly needs?

Or, as Tim suggests, call for members of your HOA to form a committee that focuses on the parks. Give them the authority to write a report for the Board to review and to write action items for the PM to handle. The Board will need to make their charter every clear and very tight so you don't have rogue members.

You clearly do a lot of work--probably way too much so you're a fine asset to your community. But perhaps there is a tendency to micromanage and to focus on every little detail (missing [empty] poop bags; gratitude bouquet of flowers for some owners). If you're hyper-observant--you "see everything" -- it's hard to focus on the big matters and ignore the smaller ones.

They have a property manager who Jack can't seem to be able to delegate anything to.

I've been thinking, Jack, that since you must hold open board meetings in OR, but you only hold 4 a year with 250+ homes and six parks, that your board needs to hold open meetings monthly. Your PM should attend and take meeting minutes. Say, where DO you hold board meetings???

It seems to me that your owners do not know you or the Board.

Open meetings may be fairly well attended. Some owners may want to play a role. Forming a Parks Committee or even assigning 1-2 owners to each particular park might ease some of the Board's burdens. Such individuals would would need a tight "charter," let's call it, so they don't run amok. But they could be given the authority to send their documented concerns to the PM weekly or monthly and copy the board.

I think Max forgets that your PM only works on your account about 4 hours a week.

I hope Jack considers my advice or parts of it. It's obvious that his HOA'll pay more if they hire a PM to do additional tasks. I don't see how details about my HOA can help Jack one bit.

Sigh. I think you're right, Barbara. Jack's received some positive ideas here and there and just seems to ignore them. I'm now thinking that I have no idea what he's seeking when he asks questions about teensy topics within the context of his large (acre-wise) HOA.

And he seems to ignore some questions. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm wondering if he's trolling us.

Say, Jack do all of these parks have any amenities in them? Does your HOA have any amenities other than the 6 parks? Where does the Board meet? Why not consider a Parks Committee?

I think your response here is a prime example of what many have tried to point out to you . . . your say your parks need attention, yet you spend time and effort exploring the intricacies of whether or not you should have a little free library and how to do it.

Since you are the main (only?) BOD Member doing things and your PM does not meet expectations (unsure if expectations are realistic given contract terms), you need to prioritize your tasks and focus your efforts on ONLY the top priority. Delegate other tasks that still must get done (other BOD, Officers, Committees, members, and/or hired contractors). And ignore everything else (e.g., little free libraries . . . as I'm sure your CCRs don't indicate the HOA is responsible for that).

Additionally, if you only meet 4x/year and you cannot unanimously come to agreement on things via email between meetings (if even allowed per state HOA law and CCRs), then YES, things will take you a painfully-long amount of time to accomplish. However, if you meet more frequently, perhaps things could get accomplished more quickly . . . but you still need to prioritize and delegate or ensure you have some help.