I want to resign. Are there supposed to be so many emails? Overwhelmed.

KathyK11 (California)
Posts: 1

Posted:

I was elected President in February. Frankly I’ve been so overwhelmed the past few months. There are so many emails I’m copied on, so many items I have to keep track, weekly meetings with the PM, monthly board meetings, agenda to assemble.

Our HOA has so many projects coming up. We are trying get owners to start committees. My other board directors don’t really want to be on committees.

Previously I served as director. I read the packets before each monthly meeting and voted.

Now as president I feel like I have to read emails every night but it never stops. There’s only more and more emails. I have a job, I work from 8-5. I feel this dread every night knowing there’s all these emails and responses needed from me

Is this growing pains and I will get used to it?

Are there ways I can decrease the emails?

ThadC2 (Florida)
Posts: 820

Posted:

yeah, delete yoru email address and only allow phone calls, or paper letters.
get more board members
many emails, especially ones you are copied on are a waste.

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

KathyK11, who is sending these emails? Complaining owners? The manager? Other directors? All of the above?

If you indicate the source, I think this forum can better assist you in how to proceed.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KathyK11 on 05/08/2022 10:09 AM
I was elected President in February. Frankly I’ve been so overwhelmed the past few months. There are so many emails I’m copied on, so many items I have to keep track, weekly meetings with the PM, monthly board meetings, agenda to assemble.

Our HOA has so many projects coming up. We are trying get owners to start committees. My other board directors don’t really want to be on committees.

Previously I served as director. I read the packets before each monthly meeting and voted.

Now as president I feel like I have to read emails every night but it never stops. There’s only more and more emails. I have a job, I work from 8-5. I feel this dread every night knowing there’s all these emails and responses needed from me

Is this growing pains and I will get used to it?

Are there ways I can decrease the emails?

A while back, I was talking with someone who declared "e-mail bankruptcy". He simply deleted all past e-mails and started over. Yes, we all get too much e-mails. Here are my suggestions on reducing Board workload:

1) Hold monthly meetings and make decisions at the meeting. This is huge in accomplishing a lot and reducing e-mail volume.

2) Do not hold votes via e-mail unless an emergency. Make the decision and discussion happen at the meeting rather than via e-mail.

3) Cancel weekly meetings with the PM. I don't have them.

4) Ask the PM to only respond to your e-mail if he/she needs to. After I took a new job, I asked the PM to help reduce my workload and then magically 1/2 of the e-mails I used to receive went away, and things are still humming along.

5) My opinion - committees take more time than they save, so I would abandon committees. They require time to create, time to maintain, e-mails to coordinate, etc. You clearly don't have time for that, so just say no. if other board members are proponents of committees, they can head up the committee and run with it.

Those are my thoughts. feel free to write back and I can share more based on any further information you may have.

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

To add onto Augustin's suggestion:

If you have a property manager, every email related to maintenance requests, exterior change requests, when 5he next board needing will be held and so on can be forwarded to him or her for follow-up. Hopefully that takes care of at least half of the emails.

Emails concerning issues that should be addressed to the entire board should be forwarded to your colleagues- tell them they will be addressed at the next meeting, as they should be. They should read them carefully, as some may address the same issue. That can save time on the agenda.

During that meeting, there should also be a discussion on establishing an email for the entire board. This way everyone knows what's going on and no one person will prompted to speak for the entire board - you may be president, but you only have one vote like the others and you're not God.

There should be two emails, one for the board and the other for the property manager. Everyone should know who should be contacted about what - effective immediately, do not answer individual emails regarding association business. Change your personal address if necessary. It may take a few months before things quiet down, but once people get the message you'll be fine. On, if people try to call you, tell them the same thing, wish them a good day or evening and hang up.

People will be pissed, but they need to understand board members have a life outside the association. They may threaten to vote you out as president (only the board can do that), but that will mean someone else will have to take over - if your colleagues already act like all the want to do is vote on how to spend money, they won't be inclined to line up for the job. Good luck!

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Is your HOA self-managed, or do you have a property manager? And how big is your community?

I think it's common to be overwhelmed if your a new board member, but in my experience there wasn't all that much difference between being the president and being the secretary in terms of volume of work.

If you're functioning as the property manager as well as the board president, I'm not surprised you'd get a lot of emails. If you're that busy, then your community probably needs a PM.

Since you're in California, discussions must talk place at properly noticed board meetings unless (( think) you're dealing with an emergency. In other words, they shouldn't be happening in emails.

I agree with others' recommendation of having a single HOA email address where everything can go. However, our board email auto-forwards to all of the directors as well as the PM, so this won't cut down on the number of emails. Perhaps you can tweak your email settings to get a single daily digest rather than individual emails. However, this won't work for emergency notifications.

In short, a board president shouldn't be getting piles of emails unless there is something unusual going on that needs prompt attention. It shouldn't be a constant thing.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

I don't agree with Shelia that the Board should have a Board e-mail account. We don't have one and don't need one. Everything to the Board as a whole is sent to the PM, who then forwards it to us at our individual e-mails.

However, our PM recommends that each Board member setup a special e-mail only used for Board business. Then they can check that on the schedule that they have. For example, you might be interested in doing HOA stuff on Thursday nights between 7pm and 9pm, and then you check that e-mail once per week, get as much work done as you can, and then let everything else slide to the next time.

Being President does take time, unfortunately.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

My BOD has an address HOA name @ Gmail.com. Any mail sent to this address automatically gets distributed to each BOD Member so we all know what is happening. While we encourage owners to contact our PM, quite often our PM does not have the answer and needs to have the BOD make the final decision.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MichaelT21 on 05/08/2022 12:15 PM
I don't agree with Shelia that the Board should have a Board e-mail account. We don't have one and don't need one. Everything to the Board as a whole is sent to the PM, who then forwards it to us at our individual e-mails.

... snip ....

Or so you believe... :-)

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

The decision is yours but you may want to look at a different way of managing things. Plus know your CC&R's, By-laws, and Articles of Incorporation backwards and forwards. Bring a copy to each meeting to reference and be available. Also if you do not know the answer just say " I will consult the rules and get back with you". NOTHING says you MUST provide a response immediately. Plus any decisions made are NOT your decisions alone. They have to go through the board as well.

So STOP replying to emails immediately unless it's between board members in an official discussion of a decision being made by the board. Individuals just need to submit their issue and let the board do the work after. I always told my people that if you had an issue you must submit the issue AND a resolution. Otherwise your going to get OUR resolution and not necessarily the one YOU want.

One thing I learned in being a manager is that if you can't walk away to play a game of "golf" then you may not be doing your job as manager. Your job is to fascilitate the people around you in their needs. It's not to provide with all the answers. If my neighborhood wanted the streets painted "red" my job was to get the vote required, supplies, budget money, and get a contractor to do it. It wasn't whether or not I agreed to the idea of red streets.

When I was President, I was working 1 fulltime job. 1 part time job. Volunteering for Habitat and a few other groups. Plus going to college part time. Needless to say, I'd get 4 hours of sleep a night if I was lucky. I learned how to manage and not react.

Start by putting in a few procedures like no response from email until reviewed by the board. Which will happen after the next meeting. Start putting some boundaries up or they will eat you alive.

Former HOA President

GeorgeB11 (Illinois)
Posts: 6

Posted:

This:

Quote:

Posted By AugustinD on 05/08/2022 11:10 AM
KathyK11, who is sending these emails? Complaining owners? The manager? Other directors? All of the above?

If you indicate the source, I think this forum can better assist you in how to proceed.

MaxB4
Posts: 3,513

Posted:

As a property manager, when a new account is taken on, two forwarding email accounts are setup through our company, one for the board and PM, and one just for the board. There are times that an owner or vendor may want to bypass the PM and we don't stand in their way. We recommend that each board member set up an specific HOA email address, but that is on their own.

Since you have a PM, the emails you receive should be keep to a minimum. I might send a half dozen emails per month to board members of an association. As much as you might hate receiving them, PM's hate sending them. I do it for 62 HOA's.

I will have disagreements with folks here who state that discussions must only be done at properly noticed meetings. We have legal opinions and advice from several lawyers to uphold our position.

Having been a president of a rather large HOA, I do understand the frustrations of having a lot on the plate. I was fortunate to have had a pretty good Board I could delegate tasks to. Our problems were caused by a bad and unethical management company and far worse legal counsel. Certain headaches no one needs.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MaxB4 on 05/08/2022 2:12 PM

I will have disagreements with folks here who state that discussions must only be done at properly noticed meetings. We have legal opinions and advice from several lawyers to uphold our position.

I'm not sure who you disagree with, but I will say that discussions at meetings only is a convenience factor and not a requirement. Our attorneys say that we can discuss by e-mail and take e-mail votes but only if the decision by e-mail is unanimous. A split decision, per our attorneys, must be done via in person (virtual) meetings after discussion.

For the OP, from a practical standpoint, it's way more efficient to have more meetings and less e-mail. My workload was cut enormously when we started holding monthly meetings and making decisions only at meetings. It still takes time to prepare for each meeting but I usually can do that on my own schedule.

SteveH35 (Washington)
Posts: 339

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KathyK11 on 05/08/2022 10:09 AM
I was elected President in February. Frankly I’ve been so overwhelmed the past few months. There are so many emails I’m copied on, so many items I have to keep track, weekly meetings with the PM, monthly board meetings, agenda to assemble.

Our HOA has so many projects coming up. We are trying get owners to start committees. My other board directors don’t really want to be on committees.

Previously I served as director. I read the packets before each monthly meeting and voted.

Now as president I feel like I have to read emails every night but it never stops. There’s only more and more emails. I have a job, I work from 8-5. I feel this dread every night knowing there’s all these emails and responses needed from me

Is this growing pains and I will get used to it?

Are there ways I can decrease the emails?

Kathy,

Email is still the overwhelmingly most common form of communication and exchange of documents (https://www.(LINK-NOT-ALLOWED-PER-POSTING-RULES)/surveys/DocumentManagement). Perhaps this is little solace, but you're part of the majority of CIC volunteers who perceive their personal time commitment as too much (https://www.(LINK-NOT-ALLOWED-PER-POSTING-RULES)/surveys/volunteerism).

A Board President is not supposed to do all the work. Have you discussed strategies with your Board to spread the load? Does your CIC have any committees to assist (or could you stand up a committee or two)? You have options, but doing all the work yourself isn't the answer.

Regards,
Steve

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By CathyA3 on 05/08/2022 12:36 PM

Posted By MichaelT21 on 05/08/2022 12:15 PM
I don't agree with Shelia that the Board should have a Board e-mail account. We don't have one and don't need one. Everything to the Board as a whole is sent to the PM, who then forwards it to us at our individual e-mails.

... snip ....

Or so you believe... :-)

Not only that, but you'd better pray your association never gets sued and the plaintiff's attorney asks for all emails related to the issue or issues. You send this stuff to your individual email, that will require than you hand over the computer hard drive so your entire in-box can be searched for those emails. That means they may see your correspondence from ESPN, Playboy and who knows what else.

But hey, do you. And then you'll come back here complaining about something else your board colleagues won't do and wonder why can't you just make the decisions because you're the president and therefore you are......

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SheliaH on 05/09/2022 9:43 AM

Posted By CathyA3 on 05/08/2022 12:36 PM

Posted By MichaelT21 on 05/08/2022 12:15 PM
I don't agree with Shelia that the Board should have a Board e-mail account. We don't have one and don't need one. Everything to the Board as a whole is sent to the PM, who then forwards it to us at our individual e-mails.

... snip ....

Or so you believe... :-)

Not only that, but you'd better pray your association never gets sued and the plaintiff's attorney asks for all emails related to the issue or issues. You send this stuff to your individual email, that will require than you hand over the computer hard drive so your entire in-box can be searched for those emails. That means they may see your correspondence from ESPN, Playboy and who knows what else.

But hey, do you. And then you'll come back here complaining about something else your board colleagues won't do and wonder why can't you just make the decisions because you're the president and therefore you are......

Shelia,

I don't think you are listening to me. I have made many statements on here that our Board makes all decisions at meetings, after discussion, with a qorum of directors present. I do not make decisions on my own, never have, and never will.

Now, there is mundane stuff that we do not decide as a Board. For example, I was asked by the PM whether to send out a particular mailing in color or black and white. In theory, that could be considered a decision. But we don't have time to deal with minutia like that as a Board, so I made the decision to send out the document in color and that was that. Someone had to make that decision, and it fell to me as the most active board member.

Decisions like authorizing significant spending of money, filing foreclosure lawsuits, modifying the parks, etc, are made at meetings by a quorum of directors.