BOARD TRAINING 101
If you’re on the board or a committee of your condominium or homeowner’s association, you’ve got a big responsibility. Find the answers to the most common questions posed by volunteer leaders like you:
- What’s expected of board members—the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer?
- How do presidents prepare for and conduct productive board meetings?
- How do boards establish committees and choose the best members?
- What’s expected of committee members?
- What are the most common committees and what do they do?
- What’s fiduciary duty and how do volunteers honor it?
- How can board members avoid conflicts of interest?
Learn Answers to these questions by selecting helpful articles below:
Annual Meeting Speaking Tips
Nine Tips for Public Speaking from Presentation Plus by David Peoples 1. Memorize the first two minutes of your presentation 2. Preplan the first 3 to 5 words 3. Create cheat sheets 4. Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse 5. Arrive 30 minutes [...]
Before Appointing New Board Members
Onboarding a new board member is much like interviewing a new employee for a job. How do you intend to weed out the good from the bad? The people you place into leadership roles are a direct reflection of your [...]
Board Education
Educated boards make better decisions than well-meaning, but uninformed, volunteers. Considering the value of the resources boards control—often millions of dollars—education for volunteer leaders shouldn’t be optional. All community associations should invest in training and educating board members and [...]
Board Meeting Agenda
Board Meeting Agendas HOA meetings can be a source of frustration for the members of the board. Perhaps the meetings are disorganized with far too much time spent on unimportant issues, or maybe your meetings feel like a three- [...]
Committees
Committees are the backbone of the association Committees focus on topics ranging from finance to architecture. Committee reports help the board to make informed decisions. If committee members don’t do their jobs, the whole community suffers. Most associations [...]
Communications Committee
Good communication with association residents contributes more to peace and harmony than just about anything else the board does. Especially in large communities, communications and a communications committee should be high priorities. The communications committee advises and assists the board [...]
Conflicts of Interest
Board or committee members who have a personal stake in the outcome of a decision or recommendation may face a conflict of interest. For example, the vice president’s brother works for one of the landscapers bidding on a contract [...]
Covenants or Architectural Control Committee
Pink or beige? That is the question faced by many association architectural control committees. These committees are responsible for establishing and preserving curb appeal for the community and protecting property values. The controls established by this committee will enhance [...]
Fiduciary Duty
Owners invest heavily in their property. Many save for years for a place of their own and many others spend their savings for renovations. None of these owners would appreciate a negligent board whose actions—or inaction—diminished their investment. Fewer still [...]
Finance Committee
Associations depend on their finance committee to work with the treasurer to keep community funds in order. To do this, the committee should:Review and analyze the annual budget.Make recommendations regarding financial controls, budget procedures and accountability.Review and analyze monthly financial [...]
Governing Documents
Few people like fine print or red tape, but there are several important documents board members need to be familiar and comfortable with. Collectively, they’re called governing documents. Depending on the type of association you live in, individual documents [...]
Landscape or Maintenance Committee
Maintenance committees preserve and enhance the physical environment of all common areas, including landscaping. They may select and maintain community exterior features like fountains, benches or parklands as well as flowers, shrubs, trees and grass. This committee’s work depends [...]
Social Committee
A warm welcome from a social committee can boost new residents’ morale and get them off to a good start with the association, and regular social functions can bring a community together. Social committee members are often outgoing and organized [...]
The Board as a Corporate Body
Many of the board’s responsibilities involve conducting the business of the association—selecting contractors, working with a professional manager, deciding when repairs are needed and managing assets. The law doesn’t expect boards to know everything. So the business judgment rule suggests [...]
The Board as a Governing Body
The association board acts as the governing body for the community. This role may impose a variety of responsibilities on the board, including enforcing rules and architectural covenants, ensuring due process, collecting assessments, managing resources responsibly, amending documents and conducting [...]
The Role of Each Board Position
The Role of the Board An association board is a group of owner volunteers elected by all owners. Its scope of responsibility and authority depends on state statute and the association’s governing documents. Some documents invest a board [...]
Training Tips for New HOA Board Members
Get to know vocabulary & roles The governing documents of any homeowners association are packed with legal jargon and industry terms. The sooner you familiarize yourself with this terminology, the easier time you’ll have. You’ll need to know things [...]
Wrongful Acts, Negligence, Damage or Injury
It isn’t unusual for volunteer leaders to wonder—because they have so much responsibility—if they might find themselves facing a lawsuit when things go wrong. Indeed, they might; but, there are protections granted by the law, which recognizes that without protections, [...]