Getting New Board Members Up To Speed

When I joined are Board I was sort of left to get myself up to speed. Now I'm the Chair I'd like to do a better job. We are a 95 house town home community with most families still in the working phase of their lives. I hesitate to push generic training, unless they express an interest, but I do want to push getting them on board with our issues and way of running things (CCRs and Byelaws etc.). Do any of you hold annual training meetings for Board members only? Sue

Getting up to speed will involve both training and experience. What I found very helpful were the sessions provided by our association attorney. They offered annual "boot camp" sessions for new board members plus quarterly training sessions on particular topics. Among other things, you'll find out where the landmines and quicksand are. The rest of it will be on-the-job training, and that's just going to take time.

Newbie board members need to discover just how little they know. If they run around in a mild panic that first year, that's a good sign. If they don't, then they really aren't newbies or they're not going to be very good at the job because they think they already know everything.

Board members also need to develop a thick skin and soft skills.

Serving on the board can be challenging, thankless, and a real eye-opener. And every board member is going to mess up at some point or make a decision that they regret later on. 'Tis the nature of the beast.

There are training materials available on the web. I think you get what you pay for, unfortunately - and many newly elected people may feel that they're already volunteering a lot of their free time, why should they shell out their own money on top of it?

Susan,

In my last association I developed binders. Basically showing the minimum that had to be done to run the association for that specific position.

Each officer position had one.
The Architectural committee chair had one.

After a general write up, the binder went into specifics.

Things that were included (in different dividers):

An annual calendar for the position, the president had all of the calendars combined.
Sample agendas (one for the first meeting/turn over from old board to new).
Explanation how to write minutes.
Explanation how to balance a check book.
Explanation how to make deposits (one thing was to include the lot number for each item deposited - this way, records could be rebuilt if need be).
How to get to the post office and check the mail.
What articles should run in the newsletter.
Quorum and notice requirements in a single page sheet.
Sample RFP for various contracts
The reserve study
Every binder had a copy of the governing documents
How to order new checks.
Sample letters (appointments, reports, etc.)
etc.

Every binder was on a flash drive included with the binder (along with other records the position needed).

Yep, a lot of it seems to be common sense.
However, I wanted it written for someone who had never done that type of work before.

This way, the new board isn't in a discovery mode.

PS:
Your reserves specialist will meet with your board at no cost to explain reserves, etc. It’s even better if the specialist meets with the Board and members in a Town Hall-type setting.

If you can, as with Cathy’s HOA, see if your HOA attorney will put together a seminar for your Board.

Please note per Calif. Corps Code, that you now are "president." Your Bylaws might say, as mine do, when they list the duties of the president that board presidents do chair meetings.

What would be wrong with inviting the rest of the members? I think it would be good to just have a "HOA meeting" in terms of education/training. It is NOT one where money or projects are decided. It is one where you tackle on HOA topic. Example: Where does one get the HOA documents? Who is responsible for providing them in your state? The answer may surprise everyone. (Hint it is NOT the HOA except the bylaws...)

The more educated the membership is, the more likely you can gather replacement board members from that group. It's like building a group of potential board members for the future.

I don't know the specifics for CA, but in Florida this is the criteria for a board meeting: "A meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs whenever a quorum of the board gathers to conduct association business".

When 4 of 5 board members went to a training session we did not consider it a board meeting requiring notice, and made sure not to "conduct association business". You'd need to check CA law to see the exact requirements there.

echo-ca.com has a lot of good online live programs.