HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - October 31, 2025
Published: Fri, 10/31/25
Updated: Thu, 11/06/25
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - October 31, 2025
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In this week's tip, we help out a reader who responded to our tip of the week about the conflicts between generations on condo and HOA boards. Our reader asked for more tips on people skills.
Can do!
First, let's say our reader shouldn't be ashamed to ask for help in improving these skills. “I see some boards, but very few, with good people skills,” reports Gregory R. Eisinger, a partner at Eisinger Law who represents condos and HOAs throughout the state and who also teaches a course on condo law at Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad College of Law, in addition to Florida state-approved condominium and HOA board certification courses. “I think it's very difficult.
“I also don't think the problem is necessarily that some board members lack people skills,” he adds. “Problems often stem from the way this industry is set up. Unpaid volunteers are harassed about what they're trying to do when 90 percent of board members are in it for the right reasons. Those board members then get frustrated when owners don't respect that.”
Our experts have seen great boards use seven qualities and tactics:
1. Practice your political skills. “Being a board member is a political position,” says Eisinger. “You really need that personality of: ‘People are going to say nasty things about me and they'll yell at me.'
“We're talking about people's homes, and they get passionate,” he adds. “They might get a demand letter, or maybe they can't afford the assessments. There's high tension in communities, and board members really need to act like politicians and remain neutral, calm, and respectful of people.”
Thomas W. Chaffee, a partner at O'Toole Rogers LLP in Lafayette, Calif., who, after he became the president of his own HOA, began to focus more on community association work in his legal practice, agrees. “You're a politician, and these are your constituents,” he says. “Even when they're attacking you, you have to be respectful.
“I've been at open forums where boards get yelled at,” notes Chaffee. “I tell them: ‘You're the school board or the city council. When that happens to them, the chair says, “Thank you. Your time has expired.” That's what you need to do.'
“It takes practice, and sometimes we role play getting yelled at,” he states. “But you can't respond. You're a politician, and you don't want to stoop to their level. “I have board members who say they have to respond to owners yelling at them. We say, ‘No, you don't. We stay above the fray.'”
Read all 7 Ways Your Condo/HOA Board Can Build Better People Skills in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/5196.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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