Disengaged Board Members

What I did was just flat out ask other board members for help with stuff because I was overwhelmed. It worked occasionally, but the quality of the "work product" was variable - as long as you're willing to have "good enough", this may work. Fortunately we had a skilled PM at the time, so the basics got done.

It's not unusual to have one board member who's more capable than the others, due to some combination of temperament, skills, and job experience. But the end result is that this one person will get burned out, which does nobody any good. And it's very, very common.

I wish I had a better answer.

We occasionally kick this around on this forum and have tossed around some possible answers such as paying board members (forbidden by many bylaws) or hiring some form of professional to replace the board ("receivership lite") - but none of them will address the real problem, which is that the board is made up of people whose only qualification is having enough money to buy a home. I'm surprised that the system works as well as it does, since no other corporation I'm aware of chooses to be run by people with so few qualifications - seems to be a recipe for failure.

Not sure why, and I'm not calling out CathyA3 specifically (she's just the most recent person to say one of the things that irks me), but I always take slight offense to the reference that the only qualification required of HOA Board Members is that they are able to purchase a home . . . inferring that aside from doing that, most are total brainless, unethical bozos without any other knowledge, skills, or abilities . . . and by extension that must be what every other homeowner is as well since that's the eligible pool for HOA Board Members. Either that or most other homeowners are smart enough to steer clear of getting on an HOA Board, leaving only the bozos as the ones dumb enough to take the job. But if that's the case, then we all need to question our own existence on an HOA Board.

True, the fact that purchasing a home is what makes an individual a member of the HOA, and that being a member of the HOA is typically the only stated requirement to become a Board Member. But I make the assumption that most people are able to buy a home because they have some level of knowledge, skills, abilities, or competencies that some employer somewhere has decided is worthy of paying them enough money for them to be able to buy a home.

I also assume that most people who become Board Members do have the capacity to be contributing members to that Board and the HOA, but that the voluntary nature of the position typically results in the related activities falling low on the list of all other priorities we have daily. Add to that the different personality types, work ethics/initiative, values/morals, etc. that each Board Members possess which wind up pushing the the Board in separate directions, and opportunities are rarely made/taken to make the changes that are needed to create a unified/cohesive team.

All that said, AnnaJ1, I offer the following thoughts for consideration (copying some of what others have said as well):
- Simply stop doing so much of the work. Prioritize and do only what MUST get done. (Sandwich Board does not. Meeting with County about lawsuit does.)
- Seek help from outside the Board (other neighborhood volunteers) for things that could be delegated. Provide deliberate and meaningful tasks/activities to these volunteers. These folks could be good future Board Members too.
- Continue asking the existing Board Members for help. If they refuse, then find out why they will not assist. Perhaps there is good reason for their refusal to help that might help you adjust how you operate. Perhaps not.
- (As someone mentioned) If they have no good reason, straight-up ask them to resign (but first make sure you have a plan to backfill their Board/Officer positions). And if more than one wants to resign, then do it in an organized manner so your Board is never without quorum needed to appoint new Directors.
- Find out a way to delegate additional tasks to PM. Perhaps they can take on more work. Or perhaps you can pay them more to do additional things.
- Figure out a way to give the Events Committee (and other committees) more autonomy so interfacing with them isn't necessary or becomes less frequent.
- Add more Board Members or Officers. Typically the Board Members are also the Officers, but that typically is not what the documents require. You could very well have a certain number of Board Members and add other non-Board Member Officers. It gets a bit confusing, but is a way to add more people to the HOA leadership team to possibly accomplish more stuff.

Good luck!

The simplest way to find out information is ask.

Ask these board members -on the phone or in person so they can't just ignore you - do you enjoy being on the board? Do you have time to serve? Is there something that would make it easier for you to participate?

Board service is exactly that - service. It's not reasonable to expect people to take on a second job; that's how you get burnout and anger. Minimize the workload for board members and you'll get and keep good members.

My general advice:

1) Have regular meetings. A well run meeting (which is a whole other topic), will accomplish more in one hour than a month's worth of emails.
2) Create policies so that the board doesn't have to make a million decisions. For example, routine budgeted expenses shouldn't require additional board approval beyond the budget itself. I would never seek separate board approval to renew the insurance policy. When you create the budget, you budget for insurance renewal don't you? So why are you out there trying to get approval for an expense that was already approved?
3) Outsource as much as you can to paid services or volunteers. With the caveat that boards that rely on volunteers to save money will find themselves in a bind as soon as volunteers move or simply don't want to do the work anymore. Boards are there to make decisions, let someone else do the legwork and research for whatever thing the board is deciding on.
4) Have realistic expectations. Other people simply may not care as much as you do about what color the pool loungers are or what flowers go at the entrance, etc. That's okay. Empower the person who does care to make those decisions.

Maybe the best thing to do where only one or at most two directors are engaged is ask for the rest of the board to delegate the bulk of the day-to-day tasks to the one or two directors. That way these hard-working unpaid one or two directors might be less likely to burn out and also might be a lot less resentful of those directors not pitching in meaningfully.