Open Question to SteveH

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

SteveH is a newcomers to this thread and sure has a lot of opinions about HOAs, which he calls CICs.

Curiosity: I don't believe you have told us what your relation to HOAs is. Can you please share it with us? Are you a current board member, former board member, property manager, etc? IF you are a board member, are you also an officer and if so what position?

ThadC2 (Florida)
Posts: 820

Posted:

why does it matter, he gives a lot of good content and I'm glad to have him. I personally dont' like it when people ask me those kind of questions as if they are measuring and judging you based on them.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ThadC2 on 06/11/2022 5:12 PM
why does it matter, he gives a lot of good content and I'm glad to have him. I personally dont' like it when people ask me those kind of questions as if they are measuring and judging you based on them.

SteveH has a lot of good opinions that are based in popular culture regarding HOAs. However, he doesn't always base his opinions on state law and CC&Rs which is unfortuante.

AugustinD, who doesn't seem to be posting at the moment, always based his opinions on state law which was nice.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

I expect you mean SteveH35 identified from Washington and not SteveH identified from NC.

My understanding is that SteveH35 runs a management company.

SteveH from NC hasn't posted since 2006

SteveH35 (Washington)
Posts: 339

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/11/2022 4:32 PM
SteveH is a newcomers to this thread and sure has a lot of opinions about HOAs, which he calls CICs.

Curiosity: I don't believe you have told us what your relation to HOAs is. Can you please share it with us? Are you a current board member, former board member, property manager, etc? IF you are a board member, are you also an officer and if so what position?

Michael, I do everything, but that's irrelevant on a forum where anyone can spew anything at any time. I'm not here to prove anything. I'm here to share wisdom.

A self-proclaimed "CEO" whose ego and arrogance knows no bounds surely has more pressing concerns than to start a urinating contest on this forum with threads like this. "My dad can beat up your dad" is so 1990's.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SteveH35 on 06/12/2022 5:32 AM

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/11/2022 4:32 PM
SteveH is a newcomers to this thread and sure has a lot of opinions about HOAs, which he calls CICs.

Curiosity: I don't believe you have told us what your relation to HOAs is. Can you please share it with us? Are you a current board member, former board member, property manager, etc? IF you are a board member, are you also an officer and if so what position?

Michael, I do everything, but that's irrelevant on a forum where anyone can spew anything at any time. I'm not here to prove anything. I'm here to share wisdom.

A self-proclaimed "CEO" whose ego and arrogance knows no bounds surely has more pressing concerns than to start a urinating contest on this forum with threads like this. "My dad can beat up your dad" is so 1990's.

Steve, with regard to the CEO comment:

I am pretty confident that your experience with CICs is through condos, hence, the name of your website (condo connection). I believe that large highrise towers like those found in Seattle and Bellevue has enormous budgets and strong on site property management professionals. I would not expect that a Board member to oversee the day to day operations of a complex tower.

On the other hand, our Association is not as complex as a big condo tower, and thus, we don't have on site personnel. I just read out management contract and there are a couple interesting nuggets that I will share with you, that further indicate that one of the Board members acts as the CEO and the property manager is the paid staff that report to that CEO:

"Association shall designate a single individual who shall be authorized to deal with the Agent on any matter relating to management of the Association, hereinafter called the "Board Liaison". The Property Manager is directed not to accept directiosn or instructiosn with regard to management of the Association from anyone else.....In the absence of any other designation by the Association, the President of the Board shall have the authority to act as Board liaison."

Per our contract with our property management company, the Board President also serves at the single person to direct the Property Management company to do their work. Being the single person providing direction to the property management company sounds a lot like being....CEO of a small company.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/12/2022 6:47 AM

"Association shall designate a single individual who shall be authorized to deal with the Agent on any matter relating to management of the Association, hereinafter called the "Board Liaison". The Property Manager is directed not to accept directiosn or instructiosn with regard to management of the Association from anyone else.....In the absence of any other designation by the Association, the President of the Board shall have the authority to act as Board liaison."

Per our contract with our property management company, the Board President also serves at the single person to direct the Property Management company to do their work. Being the single person providing direction to the property management company sounds a lot like being....CEO of a small company.

Reread that section. It states that the Board (i.e. those elected to make the decisions of the Association) is to identify an individual to act as liaison. It doesn't have to be the President. However, if the Board fails to do it's duties, the management company will only deal with the individual identified as the President, as they are considered the face and voice of the Association (regardless of who really is) and will be the one tossed under the bus by the members.

A CEO typically has authority to make policy and decisions as they would see fit.

However, typical structure of an HOA is that the Board makes the decisions and the Offices implement those decisions. The Officers (who do not always need to be board members) will also handle the day to day tasks (correspondence, collect mail, make deposits, pay bills, etc.). The President typically only has the authority to make the agenda, run the meetings and be a co-signer of the checks. That's it.

You have specified in other threads that your governing documents specify, and use, the term CEO. So you hold three positions - A Director, the office of President and CEO.

However, the rest of the word, especially those who have never served on their Associations board, will likely just laugh at the thought of the Association having a CEO.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By TimB4 on 06/12/2022 8:55 AM

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/12/2022 6:47 AM

"Association shall designate a single individual who shall be authorized to deal with the Agent on any matter relating to management of the Association, hereinafter called the "Board Liaison". The Property Manager is directed not to accept directiosn or instructiosn with regard to management of the Association from anyone else.....In the absence of any other designation by the Association, the President of the Board shall have the authority to act as Board liaison."

Per our contract with our property management company, the Board President also serves at the single person to direct the Property Management company to do their work. Being the single person providing direction to the property management company sounds a lot like being....CEO of a small company.

Reread that section. It states that the Board (i.e. those elected to make the decisions of the Association) is to identify an individual to act as liaison. It doesn't have to be the President. However, if the Board fails to do it's duties, the management company will only deal with the individual identified as the President, as they are considered the face and voice of the Association (regardless of who really is) and will be the one tossed under the bus by the members.

A CEO typically has authority to make policy and decisions as they would see fit.

However, typical structure of an HOA is that the Board makes the decisions and the Offices implement those decisions. The Officers (who do not always need to be board members) will also handle the day to day tasks (correspondence, collect mail, make deposits, pay bills, etc.). The President typically only has the authority to make the agenda, run the meetings and be a co-signer of the checks. That's it.

You have specified in other threads that your governing documents specify, and use, the term CEO. So you hold three positions - A Director, the office of President and CEO.

However, the rest of the word, especially those who have never served on their Associations board, will likely just laugh at the thought of the Association having a CEO.

Tim, I agree with you that many will laugh at the title of CEO. I don't use it in my day to day life. Not with communication with homeowners, not with the property manager, and not with vendors. The only place I publicly reference it is on my resume, and can back up examples of how I am the CEO if asked during an interview.

I also post it here in large part because I know it bugs a couple of longtime posters....

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

I put down that I was President of my HOA as a "Hobby" not as a work experience. It shows that you have the ability to organize and understand budgets. It is more of an example of your abilities than a "job". It' like writing down you volunteer for like Habitat.

Will say that I did get some college credit for my experience as a HOA President. It pertained to my Project Management course. We had to show the ability to run a project. The HOA counted like a "Project" experience.

You work really hard as being part of an HOA board. However, it doesn't necessarily apply to the "real world". Now that did not prevent me from printing my own business cards. They were for vendors when collecting bids. Once and awhile I'd put them in a "fish bowl" at a restaurant that collected them to win a "free meal".

I would not call myself as "CEO". It was President as defined in the documents. Official documents signed with Corporate Seal and President of HOA as signer identifier. That is about as far as official went.

Former HOA President

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

We do have CCOs. Chief Complaining Officers. Better then calling them ankle biters.

BillD16 (Texas)
Posts: 974

Posted:

> hence, the name of your website (condo connection).

All this time I’ve been reading it as “condor connection”!

Thanks for clearing that up.

BillD

HOA Board ex-President
Austin, Texas USA

“You can’t put too much water in a nuclear reactor”

BillD16 (Texas)
Posts: 974

Posted:

When I was much younger, I would fill in anything that had a ‘title’ field with “Emperor of the Known Universe”. And it was very interesting to observe just how many people were okay with it.

I’ve mellowed considerably with age, so y’all can just call me

BillD

HOA Board ex-President
Austin, Texas USA

“You can’t put too much water in a nuclear reactor”

SteveH35 (Washington)
Posts: 339

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BillD16 on 06/12/2022 11:51 AM
> hence, the name of your website (condo connection).

All this time I’ve been reading it as “condor connection”!

Thanks for clearing that up.

Condors could nest on a condo, so sure, we can connect with them as well.