Projectors (computer accessory)

How many of your associations own projectors?

I just put a pitch in for to buy one - I'm the board president and create detailed powerpoint presentations full of community pictures and project plans - for my use when running meetings. The idea seemed to fall flat, one person suggested that I just borrow one from other homeowners in the community.

We have a bunch of money left to spend this year (tens of thousands of dollars) and no great ideas of what to spend it on, so I thought an inexpensive projector would be beneficial. I don't have any desire to go around and borrow other people's equipment to run our HOA meetings.

I'll be honest - for me to run a meeting (board meetings, budget ratification meetings, and annual meetings), having a screen that everyone can see and I can present powerpoint presentations or other use is essential. If they don't want to buy a projector for my use, we'll have to use Zoom instead. And Zoom of course is not free either unless we "borrow" a work account.

Anyways, just wondering if other HOAs own projectors for use during meetings.

We did buy one and use it for:

1.) Board meetings.
2.) Roughly once a month the Board meets alone and we use it to show educational videos related to HOA's. This has been a tremendous help to educate Board members on various topics.
3.) Occasionally we have movie night at the clubhouse.

We also have a pull down screen.

A modern flat screen TV would be great, but we don't have a clubhouse. Our board meetings are either held at the firehouse, the library, or a board members home. We can easily take a projector from one location to another but cannot move around a modern flatpanel TV.

With that said, I am in concurrence that projectors are a bit dated.

Good question.

The current logical home to have a board meeting does not have a TV in the room. The firehouse and the library do not have projectors or TVs either. They are BYOE (bring your own equipment) environments.

The projector is $600, or roughly $2/homeowner, and will last for many years.

I convinced my penny-pinching Board to purchase one for our HOA years ago with primary purpose of hosting community movie nights in common space. The event was always a big hit . . . money well spent IMO! We used it for all things you and others listed as well.

I say let the idea stew with your Board and revisit it next meeting with possibly more and better explanation as to why having one would be beneficial.

An inexpensive projector is much more convenient than an external monitor/TV screen and the best solution for your needs.

You seem to be going above and beyond in your role as president and what you're doing sounds awesome and very thorough. Not getting support from your Board to the tune of a measly $600 is ridiculous.

Keep working at it, they'll support the purchase if they know what's good for them, the Board, and the HOA.

I agree a sufficient one can be had for less then $100.00

There is when you have a small clubhouse and you don't have the space for large TV. Also, the cost of a projector and a pull down screen mounted in the ceiling is just as cost effective as buying a TV.

True they exist, but if you spend $100 on a projector, you'll get a generic piece of junk with poor image quality/brightness and capability only for small rooms/meetings that you'll likely have to replace in short term (eventually spending close to what you propose to spend now on a better projector).

BUT . . . if you spend only a little bit more (like the $600 projectors you are looking at), you can get a name-brand projector with significantly better specs that could be utilized for much more than a small meeting in a small room . . . like movie nights, sporting events, homeowner meetings in a large space, etc.

It's $600 for a community that sounds like they have gobs of money. It will be money well spent to help an obviously interested, involved, dedicated Officer/Board Member conduct business more efficiently, professionally, thoroughly, and engagingly.

You don't need to spend significant time and effort generating policies; doing ROI and cost comparison studies; and researching warranties and maintenance & repair plans/contracts. Just keep accountability of the projector and make sure it doesn't end up on ebay by some future unethical Board Member.

$0.33/home for a $100 crap projector or $2/home for a $600 decent projector . . . pfffft. An expense easily justifiable to the community (if it ever comes to that, which I doubt it ever will) when they see it in action at the next annual meeting.

Or the Board can continue to be tightwads and eventually lose you as an Officer/Board Member because you get fed up putting in tons of work only to have the rest of them tune out while you try to display things from your laptop screen and reference emails, documents, and digital presentations that they've never bothered to read or look at . . . sorry this hits a bit close to home for me! Haha good luck!

Again, I suggest you let it stew with them, refocus your proposal, and try again next meeting if you are truly passionate about getting a projector. But don't directly outwardly accuse them of being unsupportive, disinterested tightwads . . . that won't get you support.

If your initial presentation of "we need a projector" was the first they've heard of this idea, then I think their response is appropriately cautious and questioning. They've not been thinking of the various benefits for as long or as thoroughly as you have. But in time, I think you can convince them that this is an appropriate, valuable, and reasonable investment.

And (honestly) most other Board Members likely do not totally value your time and efforts. While it's a tough reality, it's ok in my opinion. It's the way you operate best and arrive at your decision-making, you get value out of it, and it is certainly an efficiency and value-added activity for your HOA and Board whether they fully understand that or not. You take pride in what you do and that should be enough motivation for you.

When/if they no longer have your thorough presentation and decision-making as part of the HOA/Board, then the $600 saved by not buying a projector will be spent many, many times over as, for example, they make hasty and uninformed decisions on inflated contracts, fail to appropriately keep up with maintenance & repair and have to prematurely replace expensive reserve items, and other similar scenarios that come with not being smart, informed and thorough in decision-making.

But I encourage you to not lose hope.

How about emailing everyone in attendance the .ppt file and they can all follow along on their personal devices, kind of like making paper copies.