interesting article on selecting board presidents

many HOA"s will take any candidate with a pulse. I have and it was a mistake. Next time I'm gonna let them attend a couple meetings before I vote for them to be on the board, require ethics contract signed before serving and require they read the docs and the first board meeting will just be reviewing HOA bylaws and FAQ and basics.

it's not exactly a fun position, though I do agree with the article I just don't see it happening in real life in my hoa.

I have observed corporate boards and met some of them in person. I have worked in some big corporate outfits. Corporate boards generally are rubber stamps of the CEO. Not always but usually the CEO is on the board. The board ideally should be managing the president but that does not happen in corporate America. Some exceptions which are few and far between. I think this thread is really hitting upon a bigger issues with all CIC's and is this creation really worth it? There are enough gigantic cracks that show this is too much of a problematic entity that is it really viable. My motto "I am moving to an island" is from this silly setup. I love the handle of one our posters "Escaped treasurer from a self-managed condo" or something like that. I will in the future really have to think if I should live in a condo ever again. The younger generation are having less common sense on how things work in a facility perspective. Everyone is time constrained. I think the developers will keep on churning out condos and issues will keep on escalating and then we get more and more legislation to keep a lid on the boiling pot.

The big difference between for-profit CEOs & HOAs' Board presidents, is that HOAs are (almost always) nonprofits. Boards govern non-profits. Boards are the "deciders" and "the boss." NOT the president.

Sheila, based in part on her long Board experience, is right: 'There are many conversations on this website about board presidents who bully, harass and threaten everyone else - and the board goes along with it because they're intimidated, don't see a problem (because they don't pay much attention to anything - they're on the board for the title) or benefit from bad behavior." nd I hafta say that among the 30+ directors I served with over 14 years, only a handful learned much about our gov. docs. all instead relied lot of our full-time on-site PM & their MC.

I've served with about 11 presidents on my HOA Board. 2 were completely ignorant and one was a bully in her ignorance. The otters only lasted a year on the Board. 3 others were well- informed about our governing docs & some states statutes. BUT one of those was an abusive, secretive President--an attorney-- who turned the Board into the same. Most were willing to serve. But I had to be prez one year when no other directors would serve tho' I was otherwise always the secretary*.

Our 3 best presidents imo, had come out of the public sector of the economy and seemed to be much more comfortable about getting input from other directors, making sure everyone could present thieeiopinions, being a good listener to owners during open forum. This holds true in my tiny Board sample HOA even thro' one came from a 20 years career in the US Marines and then 20 year a sergeant in a town's police force.

Another BIG reason is directors' sheer IGNORANCE of the HOA's governing documents & relevant state HOA/condo and/or nonprofit corporations codes info. So another is sheer laziness. These directors forget that if a bullying or stupid prez is given authority--informally or formally--to make decisions by a lazy, ignorant or self- interested board of directors, ALL Directors are held responsible are liable, etc.!!

Really like Wendy's idea of as a Board, requiring new directors to show some knowledge of the HOA's governing docs & devotion to a sole meeting to discuss among all board members.

Now, our MC holds a directors workshop every year after an election, but I'm not so sure it helps. There's a lot of emphasis on our complicated financials, which new directors find overwhelming. While our Bylaws are only 18 pages long, our CC&Rs are 77 pages + 2 several page "Exhibits." BUT directors need NOT read every CC&R "Article." In my CC&Rs, only 41 pages are routinely useful. But even within THOSE Articles, there are areas and even Sections to skip.

I don't know th typical nm,aes of C&R Articles,but perhaps they're similar to mine.

E.g. Destruction of Improvements & condemnation"; "Participation & Severabiilty of Interests"; Rights of Motrgagees."

Skimming is sufficient for: Insurance" & "Ownership & Easements."

A VERY important Article is: Definitions: it's by far best if all directors LEARN the language of their documents, which I think was pointed out in the referenced article on CEOs. Ours is 11 pages

Also important, the Article in my CC&Rs called "The Association," which includes the powers & duties of the Association via the Board and its limitations.Next, "Memberships & Voting rights," which shows the power & voting rights of owners. Mine are 8 pp.

The Article on "Assessment"s includes the HOA's ability fine, too, about reserves. 9 pp.

Very important: The Article on "Use Restrictions" has basic rules, i.e., against "nuisances"; use of residence for commercial purposes; rental restrictions; animals; signs & flags; use of exclusive use (limited use) common areas; no mechanics liens; drainage; Deeded Parking Spaces and stowage cages/lockers. toxic & Hazardous matters; An HOA's Rules & Regs often are permitted by this Article to expanded, elaborated on the CC&rRs. 3 pp. It's best, imo, the read your Reuls & Regs with these use restrictions. nd Rules & Regs are easy to read.

Very Important is an Article in my HOA called "Improvements" because if includes the Maintenance obligations of owners and of the Association. This includes things like Damage by Owners; "Wood-destroying Pests." In our 2022 rewrite of our CC&Rs, we included an excellent "Maintenance Matrix" as an Exhibit, which details every exclusive use common area items (which covers our 300 balconies), that might be questionable and also covers basic common areas responsibilities & owners' responsibilities . 5 pages. without reservation, I highly recommend any HOA with significant #s of limited use common areas construct such a matrix as an Exhibit to your CC&Rs. I believe e you can add it so long as it agrees entirely with your CC&Rs and there is no conflict. But check with your HOA attorney.

"Architectural Review." Our high rise HOA CC&Rs requires an ARC & lotsa ARC-type rules, so its duties AND scope are explained in this Article. 5 pp. It refers to our Arch.Guidlines, which in CA is a governing document, which directors should skim if they have an ARC. If not ARC, directors must learn this doc or similar.

Finally "General Provisions," kinda a grab bag of items. e.g., Hierarchy of Docs; Attorney's fees; IDR & ADR (dispute resolutions). It also has this interesting "Section 16.4 VIOLATIONS AS NUISANCE. Every act or omission in violation of the provisions of this Declaration shall constitute a nuisance and, in addition to all other remedies herein set forth, may be abated or enjoined by any Owner, any Member of the Board, the manager, or the Association." 2+ pp.

*Though a Board of 7, our required commercial owners never is president and nowadays, never attends board meetings as stationedin Canada.

I am aware, of course, that for-profit CEOs can be fired by their Boards. Who said they can't? So can HOA presidents. The BIG difference is that the HOA board "governs i.e., makes decisions AS a board in meetings with its votes. Only a stupid or lazy board would provide such power solely to the HOA president.

Why are no-profit charitable even mentioned??

Such directors could possibly be guilty of negligence for NOT fulling their duties as directors of a non-profit corporation: practicing due diligence before making decisions about their HOA; and practicing their duty of loyalty to their corporation, which is impossible, I'll argue if directors do not know their corporations' governing documents.

Elle cn toss around words like "sui generis" all she wants as I'm sure it's a super helpful phrase to most readers here.* But I have no idea why she thinks HOA presidents have enormous skill sets. None of the nearly a dozen I served with did. What about the one or two you served with, Elle?

*Not so sure it was used correctly here.

OMG-- I've never counted the many presidents I observed when always-attending board meetings as a member of my HOA. I'd say that brings my observations up to close to 20. But as an Owner, there was a great deal that I could not see, that only board members can see and directly EXPERIENCE. Tip of the iceberg type of thing. And I'm not just talking executive session matters.

I believe that Elle has served with 1-3(max) presidents at most based on her scattered comments over time as Elle and as Augustine. The worst prez I observed was an "Acting President" who was too ignorant to chair meetings. Sometimes, the PM did, sometime, other directors. She huffily explained to me when I asked about some minor thing outside of a Board meeting. "Because I say so I AM the Board!" (Ala France's Louis the XIV) She was the owner of a small business mainly funded by her wealthy husband.

In my HOA, and perhaps most, the office of president must be held by a director. I do not/have not seen any "huge skill set" from any of our presidents including the 2-3 top-notch ones. The main requirement of an HOA president is to preside over board meetings. Our 3 best presidents were very good at that. Our Bylaws add: follows up on the Board's meeting-decisions directions to management. In other place our Bylaws definition of President includes "subject to the powers & duties prescribed by the Board. . Our bylaws, as do many--permiit the Board to delegate many Board duties to management.

In HOAs that are self-managed, or self-managed except for, say, collecting dues & financial reports, perhaps, There is a much finer assignment of duties, and presumably the entire Board agrees on these. The president does not demand that Aydin do this, Joe does that, Sal does x and Kim does y.

The activity of homemakers who also are in the workforce outside of home are, to me, the ones who possess a "huge skill set."

I disagree. An owner who knows what is what can tell when a board is breaking the law, violating covenants and so on.

But congratulations. I realize I cannot be helpful at this forum given all the thread pollution.

First, thanks to everyone for the comments - not much here to disagree with. Whenever I see articles like this, I like to post the links in hopes they help people think about their role on the board, whether or not they're an officer.

On a broader level. They can also help homeowners think about what kind of community they want to live in and what they can and must do to make that happen. Board members are homeowners and will remain so after they leave the board, so one can only hope it's a better place than how they found it. Ditto for the community at large. It's not about you doing everything - if we all tried to think of the greater good once in a while and did our part, maybe we could avoid at least some of the drama in HOA land

Otherwise this happens: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zlvSVkn09Y4. (Why it always a Florida HOA in these stories???)

Commenters/contributors would likely enjoy the forum more if they didn't continually attempt to control the speech of others or insult persons with a different opinion.

Welcome to social media and message boards. By now everyone should understand they aren't necessarily amen corners and you're likely to see something you don't like. It's easier to ignore those comments rather than raise one's blood pressure. I know I've been salty with some of my comments, and people have stated they disagree just as strongly. Thats OK, but I find it fascinating that it's usually NOT the original poster getting bent out of shape.

Uge, sorry, meant "thread pollution" and, lat sentence, "corporations" codes.

Well said Greg. Let's show our "adult manners" with this post. "If you don't have something nice to say...go take a walk!"