Scholarship for high school senior in neighborhood?

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

I would like to offer a $1000 scholarship to a high school student who lives in our neighborhood to go to college. I would like to see this year after year to recognize outstanding high school students in our neighborhood.

We have a ton of pre-college kids in our neighborhood, and it would be great to recognize one per year for many years to come.

Has any other HOA offered a scholarship to seniors going on to college? Is this an appropriate use of HOA funds? Other considerations?

I would love to do this.

MaxB4
Posts: 3,513

Posted:

Holy crap, just when I thought we heard it all.

LisaB21 (Texas)
Posts: 97

Posted:

NOT an appropriate use of HOA funds.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Agree that it's not appropriate. A way to know this is to read your CC&Rs to see what the purpose of your HOA is. I can't imagine you'll see anything that supports your idea.

In my HOA, our purpose is actually better articulated in our Articles of Incorporation, so maybe take a look there.

Btw, let us know if anything says the purpose it to protect property values. Ours don't ,and I think it was Steve who also wrote that that is not the purpose although many owners and board members believe it is.

JohnT38 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,631

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/24/2022 6:30 PM
I would like to offer a $1000 scholarship to a high school student who lives in our neighborhood to go to college. I would like to see this year after year to recognize outstanding high school students in our neighborhood.

We have a ton of pre-college kids in our neighborhood, and it would be great to recognize one per year for many years to come.

Has any other HOA offered a scholarship to seniors going on to college? Is this an appropriate use of HOA funds? Other considerations?

I would love to do this.

Tell me exactly where your governing documents state that you can use HOA funds to provide scholarships? I have to believe you are just messing with us on this one. If not, you need to resign before you do some real damage to your community.

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

As others have said, it's not an appropriate use of HOA money - the prime directive is to use it to maintain and improve the common areas. Your heart's in the right place, but some things work better than others -keep the ideas coming because you will but upon something that will work.

If you'd like to recognize graduates, why not post something in the newsletter or website (preferably both) where you could cover all the high school and college graduates, listing their biographies, awards, future plans, etc. Perhaps sponsor a reception where the parents could get together and provide light refreshments. That would be a nice way for college or trade school alumni to meet incoming students to network.

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:

OT for HOAs, but people who are interested in providing scholarship money can contact the local high school. The school itself or its alumni group may be interested in something like this.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Why does the HOA have to pay for it? If it's that great of an idea then it should come from the HOA members direct pockets not their dues...

Former HOA President

SteveH35 (Washington)
Posts: 339

Posted:

Rogue ideas like these are completely out of bounds for CICs that direct the purposes to which common funds can be applied. The real treat is asking vendors to sponsor an event and then turning around with this.

BillD16 (Texas)
Posts: 971

Posted:

I think this is a great idea! Maybe it should be offered to students who show promise in the area of cyber-security? You could get a cyber-security expert like Melissa to help you choose the lucky winner.

But seriously, folks: if you want to do this, fund it out of your own pocket. I mean, face reality Michael: you’re not going to want anyone ‘helping’ you select a candidate. That’s not intended as a burn - some people are simply like that, and insofar as I can tell via this forum, you’re one of them.

Finally, having put a couple of kids through college myself, $1000 today is not the princely sum it might have been when you were in college. You might want to consider $10,000?

BillD

HOA Board ex-President
Austin, Texas USA

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

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnT38 on 06/25/2022 3:09 AM

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/24/2022 6:30 PM
I would like to offer a $1000 scholarship to a high school student who lives in our neighborhood to go to college. I would like to see this year after year to recognize outstanding high school students in our neighborhood.

We have a ton of pre-college kids in our neighborhood, and it would be great to recognize one per year for many years to come.

Has any other HOA offered a scholarship to seniors going on to college? Is this an appropriate use of HOA funds? Other considerations?

I would love to do this.

Tell me exactly where your governing documents state that you can use HOA funds to provide scholarships? I have to believe you are just messing with us on this one. If not, you need to resign before you do some real damage to your community.

I agree.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

You would get sued into oblivion by the owners, Nice gesture, not with HOA funds tho.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Does your idea agree with your CC&Rs' wording on the purpose of your HOA, Michael?

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Earlier, there is a question about whether our CC&Rs say protecting property values is part of our role. In our association, it is. The exact wording says:

Declarant intends by this declaration to: .... easements, covenants, conditions, and restrictions to protect the value and desirability of the real estate property subject to this declaration."

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

As far as paying for the scholarship, I agree that we cannot use assessments to pay for the scholarship. That wouldn't be right.

I'm less clear about whether we could use late fees and fine revenue collected by the HOA to pay for a scholarship. I see no prohibition of what we use fine revenue for in our HOA.

I definitely think we could use collected donations to provide for a scholarship.

I think overall that if we did a scholarship, we'd want to tie it back to the HOA through rewarding a student in our neighborhood who had made contributions to our community.

Overall I agree it's a non-starter. It would be fun though.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BillD16 on 06/25/2022 9:53 AM
I think this is a great idea! Maybe it should be offered to students who show promise in the area of cyber-security? You could get a cyber-security expert like Melissa to help you choose the lucky winner.

But seriously, folks: if you want to do this, fund it out of your own pocket. I mean, face reality Michael: you’re not going to want anyone ‘helping’ you select a candidate. That’s not intended as a burn - some people are simply like that, and insofar as I can tell via this forum, you’re one of them.

BillD

Bill,

No, I'm not controlling or overbearing in real life. We make all decisions as a group at our Board meetings that we have one per month. I present a topic, call for discussion, and then we as a board make a decision as to what we're going to do.

Between meetings, Board volunteers execute the decisions that we make. At the moment, I'm just about the only board member who helps execute the decisions, and we get little support from our property manager. Thus, I use hte pronoun "I" here frequently because it is a singular person carrying out the decision. But the decision is made as a group, with discussion, and often my idea is not agreed as what we want to do as a HOA.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

I like Michael's ideas too. Shelia has some good thoughts.

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Thanks Kerry.

I read over Shelia's post again and think she is spot on. I can solicit for the names and bio information of seniors in our monthly e-mail blasts* and then post information about them in a following e-mail blast. That would cost us nothing and be interesting to our homeowers. I think I will do that.

* Keep in mind that other board members think it is a good idea to blast the zoom link to our homeowners each month despite lack of homeowner attendance or interest. To try to keep the e-mails purposeful, I try to include community related content each month. A list of students graduating high school would be a great addition to the spring e-mail blast. This would work in lieu of a scholarship and cost the association nothing.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Hope, too, you'll really consider Shelia's suggestion to acknowledge trade school and community college achievers. One unanticipated outcome of the pandemic is that more and more employers are realizing that the content of many of their job offering does not actually require a college degree. About time!

MichaelS56 (Minnesota)
Posts: 859

Posted:

Michael, this is not a good idea at all. This idea is not what an HOA should be using the money for.

BillD16 (Texas)
Posts: 971

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/25/2022 4:18 PM

Bill,

No, I'm not controlling or overbearing in real life. We make all decisions as a group at our Board meetings that we have one per month. I present a topic, call for discussion, and then we as a board make a decision as to what we're going to do.

Between meetings, Board volunteers execute the decisions that we make. At the moment, I'm just about the only board member who helps execute the decisions, and we get little support from our property manager. Thus, I use hte pronoun "I" here frequently because it is a singular person carrying out the decision. But the decision is made as a group, with discussion, and often my idea is not agreed as what we want to do as a HOA.

Didn’t mean to make you defensive, Michael. But you’re a textbook example of a micromanager. It’s not necessarily a bad thing and if you’ve made it work for you, then run with it. In all of my years in Corporate, what I noticed was that when someone complained that a manager was a “micromanager”, or a “psychopath”, or a sociopath” etc (we had ‘em all), usually what they really meant was that the manager wasn’t good at their job, ie: “Art is a micromanager and he sucks.” “But Bob and Carol and Dave and Ed and Fran are all micromanagers, too, and you work well with them.” “Yes, but … they don’t suck.”

BillD

HOA Board ex-President
Austin, Texas USA

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

MichaelT21 (Arkansas)
Posts: 501

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BillD16 on 06/26/2022 9:25 AM

Posted By MichaelT21 on 06/25/2022 4:18 PM

Bill,

No, I'm not controlling or overbearing in real life. We make all decisions as a group at our Board meetings that we have one per month. I present a topic, call for discussion, and then we as a board make a decision as to what we're going to do.

Between meetings, Board volunteers execute the decisions that we make. At the moment, I'm just about the only board member who helps execute the decisions, and we get little support from our property manager. Thus, I use hte pronoun "I" here frequently because it is a singular person carrying out the decision. But the decision is made as a group, with discussion, and often my idea is not agreed as what we want to do as a HOA.

Didn’t mean to make you defensive, Michael. But you’re a textbook example of a micromanager. It’s not necessarily a bad thing and if you’ve made it work for you, then run with it. In all of my years in Corporate, what I noticed was that when someone complained that a manager was a “micromanager”, or a “psychopath”, or a sociopath” etc (we had ‘em all), usually what they really meant was that the manager wasn’t good at their job, ie: “Art is a micromanager and he sucks.” “But Bob and Carol and Dave and Ed and Fran are all micromanagers, too, and you work well with them.” “Yes, but … they don’t suck.”

BillD

No, I'm not a micromanager. The thing is, I have no one to manage. Our property manager is very good at administrative tasks but if anything requires decision making, she kicks it back to the Board. I've had Board members quite because the perception of the workload is high, so I take great care not to overload the other Board members with work. This, after all, is a volunteer gig. So I end up doing most of the work myself. If I had an onsite property manager, or if I had other active Board members who wanted to volunteer more, I'd share the workload.

So no, I'm not a micromanager since I manage no one. I'm simply a fired up individual contributor.