Being a Board Member entails more than just attending the occasional meeting and approving various architectural changes. You are entrusted by your neighbors to act in the best interest of your Community, enforce governance, display good judgment, and ensure fiscal responsibility of association funds.
This season is the perfect time for your Board to review and evaluate whether your current management situation is meeting the association’s expectations, and it also shows prudence on the Board’s behalf.
CAI is a national organization which has been the leader in providing education and resources to volunteer homeowners who govern community associations and the professionals who support them. They have identified issues which may indicate management failure:
Signs of Management Failure
CAI is a national organization which has been the leader in providing education and resources to volunteer homeowners who govern community associations and the professionals who support them. They have identified issues which may indicate management failure:
Signs of Management Failure
- An increase in assessment delinquencies that is not due to a poor economy
- An increase, instead of decrease, in the list of action items for management carried over from one Board meeting to another
- An increase in owner attendance at Board meetings and in complaints about poor service
- An increase in the response time for maintenance of common elements or areas
- Contractor or employee performance becomes “sloppy” and employees become “defensive” when questioned
- Board members start resigning for “personal reasons”
- An unusually large number of owners volunteer to run for the Board because they “have an ax to grind”
- An unusually high turnout at a general or annual meeting—which is not related to some other issue
Individually, these bulleted points may or may not indicate there is trouble on the horizon, but collectively when situations such as those noted begin popping up—Investigate, Investigate, Investigate (and do so objectively)!
Part 2 of this post will focus on how to conduct this investigation in a way that does not alienate your neighbors but at the same time produces results.
By Taryn Fant- The Management Trust– Northwest