Knowing when to retire

At the Board training session, our property manager company owner said that "good board members know when to retire". Wondering what this means to you? How does one know it is time to retire?

She indicated that 10 - 20 years was too long on the Board.

Your thoughts?

Micheal, Your concern/question seems totally appropriate and perhaps timely for many on this site. It gave me a chuckle which is seriously appreciated. I await the responses.

This is jabberwocky and a symptom of questionable competence (because she is spewing bs and pretending what she spews has meaning). As long as a HOA director wants to serve; is following the covenants and law; and is elected year after year, they should serve as long as they want.

While I fervently disagree with the abuse of the word "Jabberwocky"[1], I completely agree with everything else ÆlleN says. I think it's a commonly-held belief that people in power inevitably become corrupt, but I don't believe it is true[2]. Frankly, based on what I've read about this "training session" ('dues reduction' as a personal agenda), it sounds like it was rather worthless.

Bill

[1] It's a lovely poem that I memorized as a teenager and I can still recite it perfectly and in it's entirety.

[2] On the contrary, I believe that those people who are prone to corruption by power tend to succumb to it very very quickly.

I think that Michele is miscitng he manager. IN the CAI (Comm. Assoc. Inst.) Board Member Toolkit document, there are behavior patters that suggest it's time to "retire." This will depend a lot, the way I see it, on how demanding the Board work is, how many meetings a month (if that many) the board needs, how many big projects have occurred in the recent past.

In Maichael's case, there are 270+ detached homes, lotsa parks that seems to require quite a lot of attention. His Board members -- 5 -- never seem to have useful proposals or much participation. They, according to MichaelT, don't follow through when they do have assignments. Their property manager only works for his HOA about 4-6 hours a week and has no onsite office. There is no onsite meeting room.

I'd say even if his board was much more active, HOA-educated and helpful, there simply is too much to do without more hours/week from management. Based on his situation, I can't see a board member AS ACTIVE AS MichaelT is lasting more than 6-8 years. There will be burnout.

We've had a few directors over the 14 years I served who were merely bench warmers, had no ideas, learned nothing about HOAs, did not learn our governing docs, did attend meetings and 2nd motions. A couple of them served 6 years but coulda served 30 if they hadn't been defeated in elections.

You have a very good memory of my community, Kerry. Spot on.