BillD16 (Texas)
Posts: 973
Posts: 973
Posted:
Hello all.
A couple of people “F” and “K” have volunteered to serve on our Pool Committee (PC) this year. Both are young and have moved to the neighborhood within the past couple of years. Getting the pool open this year has been a challenge (but at last it did open yesterday).
The question I have deals with committees and budgets. Because [reasons], this year our PC has a budget of $1000. It’s not clear exactly what this money is to be spent on; we already have budget allocations for basic pool maintenance, porter service, etc - frankly, despite our best efforts to implement Committee Charters to help clarify Committee roles and expectations, we don’t have them.
I’m going to push for a meeting between the PC and the Board in hopes of trying to clear up some of this. If this happens, I’d like to clarify our expectations on budget spending. But to do that, I’d like to find out how other HOAs do it, and what is generally considered reasonable.
For better or worse, I’ve tended to look at the various budget figures as best guesses on upcoming expenses. They aren’t targets to be met - they’re estimates that allow us to see how well the HOA is doing as the year rolls by. For instance, if we’ve budgeted $12,000 for electricity for this year, we should expect to have spent about half of it by July 1st.
Budgets for committees are interpreted a bit differently: for example: our Social Committee budget is $6,000/year. Arguably, we should have a Charter, or split up the budget so that it’s clear that we intend 4 events at $1,500 each, or whatever. But we don’t. In the past, the Social Committee has stayed with these unwritten guidelines, treating the budget figure as a maximum, with money being spent over the course of the year.
However, our new PC seems to view their $1,000 budget as a spending target, and they’ve spent or plan to spend it all very quickly. Before the pool was even opened, they’d requested that their budget be amended / doubled to $2,000. I don’t believe anyone is being dishonest. But I suspect that the PC either lacks experience, or has experience (in the for-profit corporate world, maybe) where budgets are handled somewhat differently, or they just see this as “PC gets to spend $1,000 on pool stuff!” and they’re going for it.
At this point I’ll pause to ask: am *I* being unreasonable? Is the PC’s approach to HOA budget spending the norm out there in the real world? What kind of “philosophy of budget” do most HOAs have?
Moving on: an issue I don’t want to address, but I feel like it *needs* addressing, is that a number of the items the PC wants to purchase are redundant (ex: trash cans; we’ve already got enough, and they’re in good shape), and for some items (like pull-out “rope” faucets for the showers) the cost estimate is absurdly low and does not take into account installation and ongoing maintenance costs (ie, we can’t just buy the cheap stuff from Home Depot, and even the expensive stuff is going to break). And there are items that I consider inappropriate, like pool toys. My neighborhood has *zero* kids who are wanting for pool toys.
Complicating matters further is that the PC is 2 young mothers in their late 20s, and I sense that they are not overly open to ‘direction’ from the 3 old retired guys on the Board.
Thoughts? I realize that the pool is a big money-suck, and that a couple of thousand dollars is not much compared to the $50K we’ll spend on it later this year for a new fence. But “it’s *just* a couple of thousand dollars” doesn’t fly with me; it’s just a variant on the old “these $100 cufflinks would look great on you new $3,000 suit!”
Your thoughts?
Bill
A couple of people “F” and “K” have volunteered to serve on our Pool Committee (PC) this year. Both are young and have moved to the neighborhood within the past couple of years. Getting the pool open this year has been a challenge (but at last it did open yesterday).
The question I have deals with committees and budgets. Because [reasons], this year our PC has a budget of $1000. It’s not clear exactly what this money is to be spent on; we already have budget allocations for basic pool maintenance, porter service, etc - frankly, despite our best efforts to implement Committee Charters to help clarify Committee roles and expectations, we don’t have them.
I’m going to push for a meeting between the PC and the Board in hopes of trying to clear up some of this. If this happens, I’d like to clarify our expectations on budget spending. But to do that, I’d like to find out how other HOAs do it, and what is generally considered reasonable.
For better or worse, I’ve tended to look at the various budget figures as best guesses on upcoming expenses. They aren’t targets to be met - they’re estimates that allow us to see how well the HOA is doing as the year rolls by. For instance, if we’ve budgeted $12,000 for electricity for this year, we should expect to have spent about half of it by July 1st.
Budgets for committees are interpreted a bit differently: for example: our Social Committee budget is $6,000/year. Arguably, we should have a Charter, or split up the budget so that it’s clear that we intend 4 events at $1,500 each, or whatever. But we don’t. In the past, the Social Committee has stayed with these unwritten guidelines, treating the budget figure as a maximum, with money being spent over the course of the year.
However, our new PC seems to view their $1,000 budget as a spending target, and they’ve spent or plan to spend it all very quickly. Before the pool was even opened, they’d requested that their budget be amended / doubled to $2,000. I don’t believe anyone is being dishonest. But I suspect that the PC either lacks experience, or has experience (in the for-profit corporate world, maybe) where budgets are handled somewhat differently, or they just see this as “PC gets to spend $1,000 on pool stuff!” and they’re going for it.
At this point I’ll pause to ask: am *I* being unreasonable? Is the PC’s approach to HOA budget spending the norm out there in the real world? What kind of “philosophy of budget” do most HOAs have?
Moving on: an issue I don’t want to address, but I feel like it *needs* addressing, is that a number of the items the PC wants to purchase are redundant (ex: trash cans; we’ve already got enough, and they’re in good shape), and for some items (like pull-out “rope” faucets for the showers) the cost estimate is absurdly low and does not take into account installation and ongoing maintenance costs (ie, we can’t just buy the cheap stuff from Home Depot, and even the expensive stuff is going to break). And there are items that I consider inappropriate, like pool toys. My neighborhood has *zero* kids who are wanting for pool toys.
Complicating matters further is that the PC is 2 young mothers in their late 20s, and I sense that they are not overly open to ‘direction’ from the 3 old retired guys on the Board.
Thoughts? I realize that the pool is a big money-suck, and that a couple of thousand dollars is not much compared to the $50K we’ll spend on it later this year for a new fence. But “it’s *just* a couple of thousand dollars” doesn’t fly with me; it’s just a variant on the old “these $100 cufflinks would look great on you new $3,000 suit!”
Your thoughts?
Bill
HOA Board ex-President
Austin, Texas USA
“You can’t put too much water in a nuclear reactor”
Austin, Texas USA
“You can’t put too much water in a nuclear reactor”
