Angry Board Emails Return AGAIN! ?? What can one do?

Noelle:

Slinging mud when? Durning meetings or though emails? What postion do you hold, what position do they hold? It is not only unprofessioanl to speak like that it never gets anything done.

Time to move on to postive reinforcement, speak with them and tell them how you feel. An Agenda should be given at a meeting to stay on target. The purpose of the meeting is to conduct association business, not time to sling mud.

There are 5 board members and 4 out of 5 are slinging mu\d. To be specific we have a pending damage claim to a car that was in our garage during some cable installation.

1 board member insisted on "taking care of the cable installation" on his own.. which he did and wow were we sorry. ( he authorized work to be done as late as 11pm without the boards knowlege and police were called.. ect. )
One issue is that one homeowner claims there is clear damage to her $80,000 BMW You can see a scratch from the top of the car and it runs down her door. It is coincidently right below one of the cable boxes that was installed.. and no notices were given to people to move their cars. So we have a car that is not driven during the week that was worked around by our vendors. The car owner reported this lets say February 25th.

On March 5th we had a board meeting. The damaged car was mentioned in executive session, but only mentioned that there was a pending estimate on damages. All board members were present including Mr. Needs to be in charge of it all. Nothing was mentioned about details of the care etc.

On March 13 the gals car estimate came back at just over $1800 not bad for a BMW. That message was sent to us all and I responded with the question of who is liable us or the vendors? This is on email format. At that time on March 13th I recieved an email from Mr. IN CHARGE ( it was cc'd to the whole board and management company) the the cars damage was pre exisiting and he verified that on a walk through before the workers started. THIS WAS THE FIRST THE BOARD HEARD OF THIS..... That alone made issues about credibility, the fact the MR IN CHARGE spent hundreds of dollars on buying the workers lunch and attempted to expend it to the HOA... mud slinging material.

My own car which is a dark blue sits below one of these boxes.. and guess what? There were clear marks on the car where they laid cables on it... more ammunition for mud slinging.

I myself have a huge issue with MR IN CHARGES credibility, as does another board member, our pres supports the guy and feels he is the victim here.. You can see the drama and every day emails are going back and forth.

As stated the most recent email was from our President stating she does not view my opinion of the current situation or the other individual's as valid and feels we are wrong for supporting our concerns about the liability of the rouge board member.

These hate emails are being tossed back and forth... the managment company has done nothing.

I still don't know what to tell you.

I don't see these as hate emails, though, as much as simply polar opposite opinions bantyed about outside of session. Are they appropriate? Probably not, but they still only reflect on the person sending them, not you.

I don't believe for one minute that the Mr. In Charge can prove to an insurance company's satisfaction that his "walk through" revealed damage to the vehicle prior to their working, or he would have - or SHOULD have - documented it with a real neat thing they have nowadays called a "cam-er-a."

If it is the type of mark he could notice that well in a walk through and he knew they were going to be doing work above the cars there, it was not very responsible of him not to document it.

Oh well. All you can do is maintain your position. If you guys gotta pay, it's only fair.

If I were you I would go on record as not supporting the version told by the other member and then let the chips fall where they may.

But I would only do it in session, and not in email dialog.

By the way, the habit they all have of cc'ing everyone and their brother on emails is a common practice among folks who practice CYA management. You just need to ignore it because you cannot ever stop such a person from doing that sort of thing. It's usually a toxic person who often needs to have his/her actions/comments CYA'd.

NoelleC: It is time for you to rise above the mud and mire, and move on. You are running for a seat on the Board, and all you should be focusing on is the positive contribution you intend to make if you are elected to the Board. All these negative messages being communicated by others are only because they are unsure of their own position/s.
There is no law against mud slinging. Granted, its not nice, not ethical, and
not professional, and its really of no use to involve the mgmt. company for them to take a stand. It is not their place. No one, if they had their choice, would want to work under it. However, for right now that is the situation here.

You are seeking input from others to fight the naysayers on their level, but why lower your standards and waste your time and effort? Rather, take a different stand. Its THE perfect opportunity for you to rise above, to prove your capabilities as one who can act professional in the midst of turmoil and move forward for the good of the community. People are not dumb; give them some credit for observing actions of others, and the ability to form their own
conclusions. This is just a wrinkle in the whole picture of HOA management. Think about it and use your energy wisely and for the long term. If you do, it will come back to you in a positive way.

Paul,
Exactly right on this. I posted on Noelle's earlier post to stop focusing on this, ignore it, rise above it and move about her business. This never ends if the participants keep stoking the fire. Enough is enough. As long as they get a reaction, it will conntinue. Such a wate of time on everyone's part.

It sounds like part of your problem is that the board is dysfunctional. Actions should be authorized by approval of a motion after discussion and understanding by the board members. Too many items are discussed in closed session that clearly should be in open session.

Request that the next meeting agenda includes a topic on functioning of the board. Do some research on the attributes of effective board meetings. Much is available on the internet. Provide the best of the best to the other board members well in advance of the meeting.

The email where the Mr. IN Charge states he was aware of previous damage on a car prior to the claim will be submitted to court. Along with everyone elses saying this is the the first time the board new of Mr. IN Charge's alleged walk through and knowing of a claim.

Glen, that is HILARIOUS!

Annoying, to be sure, but hilarious!