Ideas for Forming New Committees > HOA Forum

Unanswered

Active Topics

Forums

Forums > Homeowner Association > HOA Discussions

Subject: Ideas for Forming New Committees

Prev Next

You are not authorized to post a reply.

Author

Messages

KimB9
(Florida)

Posts:11

02/19/2008 10:34 AM
See! I'm moving on from my toxic past President topic ... The main reason I joined the Board of Directors of my HOA, was to try to possibly instill a sense of community in my neighborhood. I broached the idea of creating some committees at the last Board meeting and was met with some enthusiasm. I now want to have a get-together to discuss what types of committees, such as Neighborhood Watch, Welcoming, Events, etc. I'm afraid that the meeting will just be a lot of talking, instead of implementing. How best to go about this? Any ideas?

RayB5
(Florida)

Posts:8

02/19/2008 3:28 PM
Good evening Kim: I am in the same position. When you find out the answer to your question would you be some kind to share them with me, I will do the same on my end. Many thanks. Ray

SusanW1
(Michigan)

Posts:2115

02/19/2008 8:44 PM
Committees can only be established as outlined in the bylaws. Usually, the Board establishes or "forms" a committee, "charges" it with a job or task, or the president appoints the chair, and that chair finds members to be on the committee from the general membership. Go ahead and have your gathering. It will NOT be an official "meeting", rather what is called a mass meeting of interested people. Formulate some suggestions to take back to the Board for approval. Then present to the Board the need, ideas and role of the committee(s,) volunteers who will carry out the committee's job, formulate a prpoosed budget for this committee, and have the Board officially establish it. The Committee should meet on its own and report its progress back to the Board.

JoeK1
(Michigan)

Posts:30

02/20/2008 5:56 AM
In order to prevent an endless discussion without some type of closure, you will have to do your homework prior to the meeting. You should present your ideas AND RECOMMENDATION in the form of a written proposal. This describes what you are asking the Board to approve. I would recommend that you consider the following committees to serve as the foundation for your committee structure; • Activities and Welcoming Committee • Architectural Review Committee • Budget Committee • Landscaping Committee • Maintenance and Repair Committee The existence of volunteer committees to support an association's board of directors can be essential to the success of a productive board and may also serve as the training ground for new and future board members. However, it is the Board’s responsibility to establish the purpose of the committee as well as the parameters with which the committee will operate. This written document is called a committee’s “charter.” Therefore, besides recommending what committees you feel are necessary, you also have to develop the proposed charter for each committee. Once you have developed this written proposal, you should distribute it to the BoD members prior to the meeting for them to review. Now, at your BoD meeting, you have a concrete proposal to discuss and eventually approve, modify, or reject. What I have just described is a small part of the management system and infrastructure that should be established for your BoD to make timely decisions. Visit www.condopresident.com under the Contents section to see a comprehensive list of things your Board should be doing now or in the future, to make an effective one. Good Luck JoeK

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2065

02/20/2008 6:17 AM
Just a suggestion: It may work for you to appoint a single owner to head up a committee and then direct them to form a 3 or four or whatever committee. I see no reason the Board has to appoint all committee members. If this works have the leaders of each group make a proposal on money needs and what they plan to do, why and how. I believe an effort should be made to stay away from strick rules. These folks are owners just like the Board, have the same responsibilities to the association and should have control of their efforts. Then at board meetings, left the committe leader give a report, for discussion by the Board, if needed.

SusanW1
(Michigan)

Posts:2115

02/20/2008 6:52 AM
Still, no one can "create" committees. The Board must vote to establish every one of them, or they are listed in the bylaws as Standing Committees.

GeraldT4

Posts:932

02/20/2008 11:23 AM
SusanW1 - You are correct in that committees must be approved, voted by the Board to establish their legitimacy. However, KimB9 needs to let this groundswell of interest take shape and even the act of gathering to discuss forming a committee with the goal of presenting the ideas to the Board for approval will be a great event. What came first, the chicken or the egg? There actually is an answer to that question but you get the point.

DonaldM3
(South Carolina)

Posts:21

06/07/2008 4:11 PM
Not really true! We had a “do nothing board” and had no established committees (the builder turned the HOA over to us about 16 months ago) and I started up a Neighborhood Watch Committee about 9-10 months ago. After a few meetings with about 18 owners, I requested from the BOD that we be recognized as a board committee. They called me in for a discussion (so they would not have to take minutes, they had “discussions" rather than board meetings” (the pres actually told me this)). After a short “discussion” (interview) and without a motion or vote, the pres said, “You’re good to go.” We went and we’re still going.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2065

06/07/2008 4:56 PM
Donald, personally I feel more comfortable working under or with a Board that really knows their job. However I am no big fan of separating or drawing lines with committees. To me, it all goes into the same basket and if I want to make an issue of a parking problem and I am on the landscape committee, where's the problem? Therefore I am in favor of your wildcat committee. Much more productive to make good changes than argue about who is supposed to report to whom. I have recently been elected to a "Grounds Coimmittee". I look upon the grounds as anything on the grounds that belongs to the association. This seems to be very difficult for those that always operate in the batters box, but your "free roaming committee" seems to have proved itself, and the reason is obvious. It's whose doing the work and is doing it for the better of the association.

JosephW
(Michigan)

Posts:751

06/07/2008 7:06 PM
A few lessons learned about committees : Don't just create a committee to have something going on. Each committee needs a specific purpose, with goals, operating guidelines, limits, etc. Committees that basically just flounder around usually end up causing problems, or worse, the volunteers go away. Don't allow the committee(s) to fail. I usually recommend that every committee have a board member liaison to make sure sure they don't wander too far astray. There's nothing worse than having a committee and it's volunteers spend hours and hours putting together a new program or proposal, only to have the board ignore it or shoot it down. The liaison should make sure that what the committee is doing is workable and likely to be adopted by the board. The board should set each committee's basic agenda for the year. The board knows what the budgetary realities are and also what they need to work on. This doesn't mean they should stifle all independent thought, or new ideas, or even limit what the committee looks at. Just bring a little reality to the table. Often committees get 'hijacked' by someone with their own agenda or a cause. I guess what I'm saying is, that it is important to make sure committees succeed, because this is often where future board members come from, and you want them to "graduate" to the board because of good experiences, not bad ones. Joe

Joseph West Official HOATalk.com Sponsor Community Associations Network, LLC www.CommunityAssociations.net *See legal notice below (end of page) or go to www.hoatalk.com/legal

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2065

06/07/2008 10:01 PM
Joe W., It would be hard to disagree with your evaluation. It is also realistic to observe what is common in most associations and is closer to the norm. I just had a conversation with a couple of long time owners of a condo. Ex=president and at this time in their life find they can maybe contribute more that that have in the past. I mentioned we should lower our quorum for meetings (annual). I stated we needed the flexibility to be able to make decisions in the event of a hurricaine. I said we needed some owners on site or close by to make emergency action. Their response was they didn't want a few select people making decisions about the developement. Fact is our Board Meetings are closed, our annual meeting has to use proxies for quorum, and for the past 18 years have had a cloned board because of little interest. What has happened over the past twenty years is a few select members and a cloned manager have made all the decisions. I venture to say this is not uncommon. We have nearly all off site owners with 70% rentals. I have been on at least two committees a year that produce little. The committees spin around making recommendations and the Board lets the manager decide what is to be done. So, I conclude most organizations are run by few people, committees do not blend with this kind of structure and the success or failure of the association is how much integrity, and ability, is holding the reins. So, it appears if you want to effect change and get things back on track and get them there, then be very selective of who these few that are going to end up running the show. If you don't get excellent people and keep them and support them, and watch them, you are doomed to be less and less effective each year, until you run aground and are forced to take a hold. I am much more critical as to who I support, board members or not. I can look back on a twenty year track record and to make the same mistakes with selecting the few and expecting different results just seems not the way to go. These associations are all products of their past, and apathetic owners standing down that don't care enough, leaves the concerned with reality that they best make smarter selections of who will be running the show. Then you can talk about effective committees.

BruceF1
(Connecticut)

Posts:523

06/08/2008 7:07 AM
KimB, Be careful about what you wish for. Any committee established by the board becomes, in effect, an extension of the board and is subsidiary to the board, and is then subject to all the same responsibilities, restrictions, etc. that are imposed on the board. 1. The committee's purpose and objectives must be in agreement with your corporate charter (if you are incorporated) and your bylaws; 2. Will the committee need funds to accomplish it's goals? Any funds raised or expended by the committee must be accounted for in your annual budget. Remember, you must continue to meet the 80/20 rule for HOAs. 3. Depending on the activities of the committee, a committee may increase the association's exposure to liability and potential lawsuit due to personal injury, property damage, discrimination, etc. What if an events committee plans a community activity and someone is injured? Is the association now liable? What if an events committee plans a gathering (ie, a holiday party) in a location that is not handicapped accessible? Can the association be sued for discrimination? Depending on what you have in mind, things can get very complicated. Think things through very carefully.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2065

06/08/2008 9:04 AM
RobertR1; this is RobertR1 reminding you of a habit you have, as do some others here that post advise to Owners or whoever, when they seek some help. This thread is a good example. I am not being critical of the advise offered, but just to remind me to think I really don't know enough about the seekers perdiciment. I give advice a lot of tmes because that is how it applies to my situation living in my condominium, in our particular area, with the approximate numbers of members I deal with. Which brings up committees: some of the advise here differs but it ll could be workable given the help seekers situation. If your Management (like mine) has a dismal record of Board appointed committees, my advise will reflect what I have learned over the years about my associaton. So maybe it becomes; "Just do something, even if it needs tweaking down the road to mnake it work."

SusanW1
(Michigan)

Posts:2115

06/08/2008 10:17 AM
Use the Annual Meeting, then, to establish these committees. Motions can be made by a Member and the Membership can vote it in - and direct the Board to work with it and give it the budget it needs. As I have said before there is NO more powerful entity than the collective vote of the MEMBERS!! This Annual Neeting is NOT the Board's meeting; it is the meeting of the Members, and they are free to make and approve motions.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2065

06/08/2008 10:34 AM
Amen Sister Susan, Would that the members take a hold and not treat associations as something foreign, when you as a owner start to count the members that are responsible, your name is at the top of the list.

EllenS1
(Florida)

Posts:350

06/08/2008 4:57 PM
Robert, I agree with you. There are times where there are too many meetings, too much voting and notices thereof and just too much talking with nothing being accomplished. I live in a townhome of 101 units with a lot of apathy and many complaints from the majority of owners. We have a good board and there was discussion of a landscaping committee. We have no pool, etc so the grounds were our main concern, especially since we have a company caring for our grounds in a pathetic way. We informally formed a landscaping committee. Our committee reports to the board before any action is taken and the board votes yes or no on our suggestions. We do walk throughs of the community and note how the landscaping company has or has not fulfilled their contract ending up with a letter from the board to them to shape up or ship out. While we do the walk throughs if anything is clearly in violation of our docs we can individually notify our management company. We are located quite close to an interstate and have just installed about 45 shrubs that will grow up to 20 feet to form a barrier between our community and the interstate cutting down on the traffic noise and dirt that the interstate causes. We are using money from a Mayor's Grant for a park on a common area. Our committee has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time but more importantly we have gotten some owners interest since they see something is being done. We are excited to see what else we can do to improve our properties. I recommend checking with your City to see if they have something similar to our Mayor's Grant that your hoa can benefit from.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2065

06/08/2008 5:29 PM
EllenS1, Good work and also a good example of the subject. Our condo has grounds, gardens seawall beach, parking garage and 65 units pricing around 600K for a medium guess. We also fall under a POA that is made up of Property Owners from all Residencial areas. It is rare to have a POA board member from a condo association. We have too many rental units and only five full time residents. So different places require different tactics. I am convinced that the quickest way to turn off a Regime is to have a management that talks everything to death and never takes action. 28 years with the Documents just revised a couple years ago has resulted with a bunch of like minded boards over the years. With about 70 % rental units you would think that someone has done a deed that earned a fine. Never happened and our Closed regular board meeting can last well over four hours. But patience and determination does work and today a couple new board member had a special meeting called and inside of an hour have abolished closed board meetings. Great day for our place and the people I talked to that found out about it, sound like different people. People that gave up the fight years ago have a smile in their voice. Good luck on your self determination to do the right thing, however it has to be done, and force them into taking some action. This no action in HOA's is as distructive as talking about progress and never leaving home plate.

EllenS1
(Florida)

Posts:350

06/09/2008 6:38 AM
Robert, Glad to hear you now have open meetings. Unbelievable how boards think they can act on their own and totally disregard their docs. About five years ago most owners here thought they were not "allowed" to go to board meetings. The meetings were also not noticed. That has all changed, meetings are posted and tho not a lot of members attend some do and the word has spread that everyone is welcome. Keep up the good work.

KirkW1
(Texas)

Posts:1110

06/11/2008 7:48 PM
I would offer this advice: Decide as a board to start a single committee to deal with the "low hanging fruit." In our neighborhood there are a lot of people wanting to et to know their neighbors. We are now starting a social committee and charging them with National night Out and other activities. In our view this is easily achieved and will have a big return for the investment in time. After this is under way we will work to form our next committee. But get someone with leadership to stay involved. Don't let any committee become a group of people saying yes to the actions of one. Should the one move or burn out the committee will fold. Instead focus on action. I will focus our social committee to divy up the work and get on with it. Find out how much we as the board need to spend to make it a huge party. What the most pressing thing is in your neighborhood may be different. If you need input, seek it out. Send out a survey. Get a web site with interaction. The thing is to get something going that people can see. Success breeds success.

You are not authorized to post a reply.

Forums > Homeowner Association > HOA Discussions > Ideas for Forming New Committees