Question on dealing with a less active board member

I belong to a 5 member board (just recently appointed a new 5th member because one quit in March). Due to the age of our condo building and the neglect in operations and building maintenance in the past few years (past poor management company one of the problems)there is a lot for this board to do. At this time,we need to go beyond the average board tasks.

We have one board member who is serving her 2nd consective year on the board. Since we were all in elected in January, she has not worked as hard as the other three members. She says she will not be forced to work as hard as the other board members and that she thinks we should all do less. Realistically working less is not an option at this time due to the amount of work that needs to be done. We have a new property manager but she works only 30 hours and can only do so much in those hours. One board member is compiling the task list of items that need to be done. Now that we have a full board again, two of the board members want to equally distribute the task list to all 5 board members so we can complete the work that needs to be done (there no waste on the task list). One member is new and says she will contribute the other 5th member has contributed a lot of time and work but has been silent on what we should do going forward.

What have other communities done in this situation? Should the rest of the board members scale back in the amount of work we each do and risk expensive problems to our community in the near future? The less active board member does not want to relinquish her seat on the board. What can we do to help us at this point?

SwanB- Thanks for the reply. You have a good points about board longevity and the commitments we all have outside of the board.
We do have several committees lead by committee heads and a board liaison (rules & regs, building, landscaping, communication) unfortunately the members want to just attend meetings but most members will not stand up and volunteer for any work that needs to be done. Sadly, there a lot of inertia and complaining by a majority of the committee folks. I guess a second question would be - How can we inspire the majority of volunteers on the committees to work?
We do always post a thank you and or acknowledge at a board meeting all contributions whether time, money,
telephone calls placed etc. We are very good at making sure any and all volunteer work performed is appreciated.

MCs are good for some things but are not always the answer (my opinon).

Try a group discussion identifiying the tasks and ordering them in prioity. Then go around the table and see who is interested in owning which task. Sometimes that gets help.

Harold, isn't your board reviewing RFPs, competative sealed bids, approving contractors, and establishing contracts? I agree with you that the Board is shirking their duty if they allow a MC to do these Board responsibilities. Meanwhile, a good MC will have a list of qualified low cost contractors which can be used as a starting point.

So why is your Association still using that MC? Is it possible your Board isn't doing a very good job either?

I do not mean to imply that volunteer Board members are not qualified. Board members are to be commended for stepping forth and serving their community. I served for 15 years on 4 HOA Boards, plus our church council, and 3 professional societies. As long as there is a sufficient pool of COMPETENT volunteers I am in favor of not using a Managing Agent. However, based on my experience I have a concern that many HOA Directors are not knowledgeable about their fiduciary duty and their legal and financial exposure.

We have the same type of situation on our Board.

We have 5 Board members in our self-managed community, but only three of make any substantial contribution (I perform all 'business' functions).

Of the remaining two, we have one who does nothing but show up at an occasional meeting, and one who is Mr. 'you should'. He fails to realize he is part of 'you'....and takes no initative even when it is his idea he wants implemented.

We have tried to address the problems, and run into a brick wall. we got the 'I am a volunteer' speech as an excuse as to how much the latter two are willing to do. My feeling is that if you volunteer, you should accept the responsibility for doing your job well.

So in the end, since the three of us who work hard are generally of like mind (or at least respectful of each others opinions and able to compromise), everything gets done promptly by the majority vote. But we recorgnize we are lucky...and that it may change with every election.

lisa