HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - October 13, 2012
Published: Sat, 10/13/12
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What to Do When HOA Board Members Skip Too Many Meetings
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It's hard enough to get owners to agree to serve as board members.
Once you've cleared that hurdle, you shouldn't have to be a
babysitter to ensure they actually attend meetings. In this week's
tip, we offer suggestions to an HOAleader.com reader who can't get
one of his fellow board members to darken the door of his HOA's
meeting room.
So what if a board member misses a few meetings? What's the beef?
"Boards are limited by their governing documents, and if it's a
three-member board and two don't show up, you don't have a quorum
and can't do any business," explains Steven Parker, president of
RMI Management in Las Vegas, which manages 286 community
associations. "The board would be forced to wait until the next
election to get a replacement so it could do any business."
Even when you can still generate a quorum, it's still not
cool--that's a technical HOA term--for board members to shirk
their duties. However, when board members do disappear, don't
attack first and ask questions later.
"You've got to first find out whether the board member's sick or
if something has happened in his life that's removed him from
meetings for a couple of months," suggests Brad van Rooyen, a
partner at Home Encounter, a Tampa, Fla., company that manages 15
community associations totaling about 3,000 owners. "If it's been
a couple of months and there's a legitimate reason, most people
can understand it. This is a volunteer position."
"Every once in a while, it happens," agrees Parker. "Usually, it's
resolved by having a conversation and saying, 'Are you interested
in being on the board?' In most cases, something's come into the
board member's life that's prevented her from serving, and she
resigns."
What if there's no good reason for a board member's vanishing act
and no voluntary resignation? Start with a stern discussion. "The
member not showing up should be reminded of his fiduciary
responsibility to act in good faith for the community," says van
Rooyen. "If one or two board members are running the show and the
others aren't being there and are allowing the others to vote for
them, those not showing up need to be reminded that they could be
held responsible for the overall direction of the HOA. If
something goes wrong, they can't claim they didn't know something
had happened or was going on."
That's just your first step. You've got other options for fixing
the problem of an MIA board member. Read about those options, and
get an answer on our reader's additional question of whether a
board member can give another board member a proxy, in our new
article, How to Handle an AWOL HOA Board Member:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/765.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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