Board without a president

We have an established board of 6 members in our condominium association, and we work closely with our property manager. Our newly-elected president, who was elected for a
3-year term, recently informed us that she will be unable to continue as board president; however, she still wants to remain on the board in a capacity with less responsibility. The problem is no one wants to be president...not a volunteer from our association and not the current vice president, who will only able to step in for a month or so. Our governing documents state the usual. Has anyone experienced this kind of situation before? Are there any "out-of-the-box" solutions for this? Thank you for your ideas!

Annie

Yes, there is more to the story. Recently the board has experienced very loud vocal harassment by a small number of homeowners, and the position of president has been in the line of fire. The president has decided this is more stress than she wishes to deal with, and the presidency is not worth it. It has never been easy for us to get anyone to volunteer to be on the board. When this fine person did come along and volunteer to be on the board, the only position open was vice-president. She made it very clear to us that she never would want to be president. This was accepted by all of us, never believing we would find ourselves in this predicament. Here we are.

In answer to your other question, our board members are the officers of our corporation, plus there are 2 members-at-large. Our condo association is relatively small.

Any VP should know that he/she may be called up into the president position AT ANY TIME. That is the main job description.

Your president has resigned from the that position. So put your VP into the president's position, then you have a vacancy in the VP. Fill that appointment with a person who knows that he/she will be put into the presidency within a few months. There may be some shuffling around and the former president MAY have to resign from the board if the bylaws limit the number of people on the board to a certain number.

Sounds like your board needs to educate the members about acceptable behavior when dealing with ANY board member. That members are being harassed and stressed out tells me that meetings are out of control OR the association needs an answering machine to deal with callers who must vent. As someone said before, you might consider filling the president's post with a strong leader or consultant, even a non-member, if your bylaws permit.

The way I became President was everyone was sitting on their hands for 10 minutes when the sitting President announced he was not going to volunteer again. Period. Nobody moved. Finally, out of a pert near molecular sense of responsibility I volunteered. I am going on my third year, and have been cried in front of, called cold and heartless, yelled at by someone who hadn't read the covenants. But more than that, I have been thanked over and over again for paying attention to the 'hood. Board President, Vice-President, Treasurer are positions of leadership. I think there are far less leaders than followers, so incentives to change skins rarely work. So, Annie, are you up for it?

Dorothy

Annie,
Is your association run by a management company as well? Ours is not, and when the paralysis sets in I like to spin out the whole scenario of what happens when "we the people" (has a nice ring to it doesn't it?) don't step up, from the loss of control once a management company takes over to the true nightmare of disbanding a non-functioning association. I especially like to threaten them with "Don't think the city will take over our precious private park. They won't want it. So just imagine it open to the public, not being maintained, and us having no control over it anymore at all." Sometimes when inertia has become pathological a wicked, juicy, blow of awareness is just what the folks at home need. Fear is typically not an effective motivator, but deeper than the fear is self-interest, and THAT is a great motivator! On behalf of HOA's everywhere, thank you for your three years of service.

Dorothy