association member wants to be paid for lost wages

An association member wants to be paid for lost wages because he had taken a day off from work to attend a training session for the association ? Is this considered lost wages? Or is it consider something else?

RobertL, If your association had some sort of agreement with an owner that he would be re-imbursed for travel expenses and the cost of the course,unless it is writing signed by the president, he can just consider his attendence to what-ever a learning experience and be thankful if he learns something. If the president would sign for this kind of expenditure, he should be made to justify it, and in an HOA there is no justification. I just hope this is not a practice that happens all the time. Stop it now, if it is, and if possible get your money back. Most documents strictly forbid owners being paid for associations business. The only exception I know of is the board can approve travels expenses for members of the board it is an extraordinary reason, certainly not to attend regular meetings. All boards should have teleconference capabilities anyway. Our's does but the board won't notify owners ahead of time for them to be able to use this modern capability. Our board is and has been making this huge mistake having regular Board Meetings closed.

Any owners attendence to attend to any association business is a benefit to him as much as it should be to his fellow owners. Do not, even come close to trying to do this.

Robert:

He is a volunteer, he volunteered his time. He wasn't required to do this. He didn't have to volunteer. Don't open that can of worms, because then you will have people saying they had to take off of work to attend a meeting, etc.

Michele,
It is a bizarre situation as described, I agree.

RobertL6,
First, lets get this said and done. We, responding to your post, are just giving opinions, and hopefully the more information we have to base this opinions on, the better we can respond.

There is a huge gap in your information first provided than what you are suggesting now. It makes a difference.

Apparently, your association is acting as a public utility, providing water to a specific group of people. I have no idea how your state views this, or your county or if there are provisions in your documents. You are charged with responsibility to maintain this system as required? I take it that somehow your association is, and would believe along with their actions, another is liability. I don't know how this is handled, and also suggest I am not telling you how to run your business. Strong reaction to what I think I believe I know is :
Answer to your question about reimbursing owners for anything, whether it be work or training or lost wages or travel is avoid this complication and LIABILITY if at all possible. If you feel you must, detailed receipts, authorization by the board to spend the money, a detailed reason to spend the money..........at this point in your situation, you are placing all your members under the gun to get sued big time. You have to admit cupability, not a good thing in any case. Not only is your board charged with watching the store, they are equally charged with justifing their decisions.
Our documents would not allow any part of this kind of arrangement. I suggest you re-think what you have got yourselve into.

Susan,
Is she bonded and idemnified under your insurance policies?

I understand she might do this cheaper and maybe do a better job. Does she have a company? She may be certified to do the work but maybe only under a Professional Company.

I am not trying to tell you what to do and it apparently works for you and that is great. Would not work here. We have owners that offer professional opinions, but they don't charge us for this nor are they liable, the Board is. Does anyone have a lawyer that serves as the paid consultant to the board, and is an owner? How's that working for you?

Yes, she is bonded and under our indemnification policy.
Yes, she has her own company. She is one of few certified people in our entire county!

By the way, it is NOT illegal or unusual to hire members, even Board members. As long as the bidding process is fulfilled, members can bid on jobs that need to be done, as well as outsiders. We hold "blind" bids (to hide the names of bidders), require references, insurance and that the bidders be professional companies.

The importaint thing is to never appear that the Board is creating "Work" for itself, or indivudual members will "self-benefit."

For example, I know of a printer who wanted to sit on Boards because he thought he would get the organization's printing contracts. He was surprised at the bidding requirements, had to abstain from voting on contracts, and lost out. He was wrong to join a Board because he thought it would benefit him.

Of course, the indivudual bylaws and other documents supercede any of the above.

Robert:

My point was that this member of the association is a volunteer, unless there is more information than what was contained in the original post no one required this person to do this. Therefore his claim of lost wages is bogus because he did it on his own. People work all kinds of hours, I often work in the evenings. If I am a member of our BOD and a meeting is scheduled at night can I claim lost wages? We have had many BOD members that have had to choose between work and our meetings. That is what I meant by a can of worms, if you start then you can expect more to come.

This person probably took vacation from work to attend this training session so in essence they would be double dipping. They are a volunteer.

Sorry guys - but I believe that ANY time the Board sends a member to represent them at an organized, educational function, where there is training for a specific task that benefits the organization, that member should be reimbursed ALL costs or given a per diem.

What is a Board Member due to there availablity is asked to do odd jobs around the Common Area when no one in the area will take on the job, or knows something about trimming trees? Should they be allowed to do the work? And can they be reimbursed by the Association? It this a conflict of interest?

Brad,
Our doc don't allow it. Have we done it? Sure. It can get sticky. Suppose you have two owners that feel qualified to do the job and the Board, in their widsom, considers only one is qualified?

Do you pay your lawyer or Judge owners for advice they offer?

In our place if you ask most owners to do something they just don't volunteer. A two edged sword I suppose. I think a very beneficial action is to have a landscape committee made up of owners willing to get their hands dirty, save a lot of money that way, if the manager gives them free hand and the Board give them some money, and this committee should be empowered to give orders and talk contract with any outside landscapers. In other words, manage a budget.

I'm not sure which side of this issue you are on, but an employee's vacation time ie earned time so it would not be "double dipping" to be paid for doing work for someone else during this time.

I believe what your association is doing is a bad idea. You (they) would be far better off having the wells maintained by licensed, insured professionals. There would be no issues on "training session" pay, no licensing issues, all the association has to do is bid the services and pay the winning bidder. When you divide the cost among the homeowners, it's not that much.

I recently "refurbushed" my wooden mailbox post. Tightened the arm, filled the cracks caused by weathering, primed and repainted it with the approved color. My neighbor saw what I did and suggested that I go around the neighborhood charging people $10.00 to do theirs.

Notwithstanding the fact that I think my work was worth far more than $10.00, wouldn't it be a conflict of interest when I am in a position to write people letters requiring that they paint their mailbox post and then offer my services (for profit) to do so?

Once we put ourselves in a position to spend other people's money, we must be very careful how we do it. We sometimes need to hold ourselves to a higher standard.