Clubhouse

Hi All,
I am new to the forum and I serve on our board as the VP. I looked through the previous discussions, but I did not see an existing discussion thread on an issue that I am concerned about in our neighborhood and HOA. It revolves around our neighborhood clubhouse. Our clubhouse is a nice place, and everyone who lives in the neighborhood pays their dues to support it, however the only time that residents in the neighborhood get to use it is if they rent it for a function, or the occasional homeowners meeting, so what happens is it sits empty and unused 95% of the time. I have tried to see if my fellow board members would be open to putting it to better and more productive uses, however the argument I have gotten back from several of my fellow board members is that they do not want just anyone in the neighborhood to have access to the building because they might leave a mess or interfere with an on-going rental. I however see it differently. It seems to me that since it’s an amenity that everyone is already paying for, why should the only time they get to use it is when they pay for it again? My idea is to maybe we could use it some as a place where people can have book club meetings, coffee discussions, story-time for the kids, etc. If you have some experience or guidance on how to handle this particular issue, I would appreciate it if you could share your thoughts and experiences.
Thanks in advance,
Brian

BrianE, We do have a community suite in one of the condo building that our association maintains. It can be reserved for any owner to do what they care to do. We have restrictions posted in the room, the owner is responsible for clean-up (a complete housekeeping. There is no charge for the room. This has worked for years and supervision by management is firm. An owner can reserve the room for a renters activity but the Owner must be there and is totally responsible. Owners use for renters is minimal because of the regulations.

For you Brian, you need to comb your association documents for past resolutions by board regarding control of the Clubhouse. You need a written Board Policy and I would strongly suggest a reference in your CC&R's describing Standard controls. It can be a Board decision as far as day to day operation but covenants about the Clubhouse should be in your documents. There is nothing wrong with a policy to charge for the use of the room to insure protection of the property. It is a amenity that the Board must budget for every year and this cost to make the facility available to all owners should be born by all owners, as I am sure yours does. Any routine scheduling of the place should be resolved on an individual case, just keep fairness in mind. Any expenditure of funds for maintenance and repair comes out of budgeted money. Any money from rental received can be by Board decision unless documents say different. My opinion. The charge for the use of the room depends on who is using the room and for what purpose. A bridge night by owners or porker night by owners must insure the property is taken care of. How you do this is the Board's direction. It may work to have a Clubhouse committee under direction of the Board. As you know, this Clubhouse has to be treated as common property, owned by the owners but protected by the Board. Don't shoot for a huge change Brian, just take an interest, as you are and let your influence slowly swing things back to a more rational, agreeable operation.

We don't have a clubhouse for our current community but the previous one we lived at rented it out to homeowners for $75 and required a deposit as a cleanup fee in case the renter didn't clean up after themselves.

If you have an Events committee, I see no reason why you couldn't schedule a movie night, card games, bunko, book clubs, prayer groups, etc... with each having a specific night and time slot scheduled. Rentals would obviously bump these activities but most rentals are on weekends (bday parties, anniversary parties, bridal showers, etc...)

Someone for each group could be the responsible party to ensure cleanup takes place, etc...