HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - February 9, 2018
Published: Fri, 02/09/18
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Be Nice! It’s Key to Keeping Your HOA’s Volunteers Happy
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We’re helping you give credit where it’s due in this week’s tip.
An important part of successful management of your condo or HOA is encouraging and thanking volunteers for their work, but also politely offering feedback if their work isn’t what you need.
The risk is that you can lose a volunteer forever if a discussion goes sideways. Here’s what to know to keep volunteers on the right track and feeling motivated to keep pitching in.
The first step in ensuring you retain good volunteers is helping them understand the process before they lift a finger on your association’s behalf, advises Alex Noland, CCAL, founder of Noland Law in San Francisco, which represents about 100 community associations throughout California.
“In my experience, you’re usually a volunteer as a board member or on a committee,” he says. “Having volunteers floating out there not on either isn’t a good idea.
“There needs to be a charter that sets forth the purpose, the powers, and the goals of any committee,” he explains. “Associations do annual board member training, so there should be annual committee training, too.
“Maybe you have one committee, like an architectural committee, which takes action only once in a while, and in that case, maybe that’s overkill,” admits Noland. “But if you’re a bigger association with many committees, you should have a formal program in place. It could be with the board or a separate training with all the committee chairs or members.”
What to cover? Noland suggests having a code of conduct with expectations, aspirations, and goals on how committee members will interact with each other, the board, and owners. That way, volunteers have some kind of measure against which to check their behavior.
“Sometimes people get involved, and their experience isn’t what they wanted, so they don’t stay involved,” notes Noland. “That happens. But you should set people up for success.”
Barbara Holland, CPM, regional manager for FirstService Residential in Las Vegas, agrees. “I’ve seen volunteers get so involved in what they’re doing; they create a proposal, which then goes to the board,” she explains. “Then if the board doesn’t accept it, they get personally offended and say they won’t participate anymore. The board needs to explain in advance things like: Just because you’re being a fact gatherer, it’s not guaranteed your recommendations will be adopted.”
Be specific before volunteers begin any project you’re assigning. “The board needs to shape the assignment and how volunteers will work,” recommends Holland. “You just don’t say to a committee: We want you to take care of the problem.”
If there hasn’t been enough guidance on the front end, you may have to calm tensions afterwards. “This is where the manager can help in terms of soothing feelings after a meeting,” says Holland. “If you don’t have a manager, be observant. If you see volunteers becoming really unhappy, find out why, and try to give them constructive criticism.”
Find out more about How You May be Pushing Away Your HOA’s Volunteers in our new article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/3678.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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How You May be Pushing Away Your HOA's Volunteers
An important part of successful management of your condo or HOA is encouraging and thanking volunteers for their work, but also politely offering feedback if their work isn't what you need.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/How-You-May-be-Pushing-Away-Your-HOAs-Volunteers.cfm
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How Not to Throw New Condo/HOA Board Members to the Wolves
In this week's tip, we lead you to a deep reservoir of information on how to get your new board members up to speed quickly and effectively.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/How-Not-Throw-New-CondoHOA-Board-Members-Wolves.cfm
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How to Train Your Condo or HOA's Newest Board Members
The good news is that new blood on your board nearly always means fresh ideas and stretched thinking.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/How-Train-Your-Condo-or-HOAs-Newest-Board-Members.cfm
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When Your Condo or HOA Might Need Management Help
Lots of associations don't hire managers, and they're perfectly happy with that decision. Others, however, would actually be better operated with management help.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/When-Your-Condo-or-HOA-Might-Need-Management-Help.cfm
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HOA Slips and Falls and the Lawsuits That Follow: How to Prevent Both
Yes, some people falsely claim to have been injured on HOA property, hoping for a quick and easy payout. But others have truly been harmed. Either way, slips and falls can do serious damage to your HOA or condo budget.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/HOA-Slips-Falls-Lawsuits-That-Follow-How-Prevent-Both.cfm
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