Board Governance: Building a Strong Foundation

Volunteer organizations are only as strong as their engaged members. That is certainly true of HOAs. For years, whether high-rise or single family, boards and managers have bemoaned the lack of eager applicants for volunteer roles, whether as board members or committee members. However, those challenges are not universal, so how do successful communities do it? Are they just lucky?

Communication and Collaboration

At the risk of oversimplification, it’s about communication and collaboration. The most successful communities actively foster connection and encourage residents to get involved by creating consistent opportunities for engagement. This often starts with regular updates from the board or manager (with board support) in the form of newsletters or simple updates sent as announcements in the Resident Portal and by email. These updates might highlight completed projects, projects underway, or are on the horizon, as well as social or community events like clean-up days, garage sale days, toy or food drives, etc. Even sharing things happening in the immediate surroundings like a local farmer’s market, an event for pets at a nearby dog park, or an event for families at a location like a YMCA, can help strengthen community ties and spark resident involvement.

When people feel that they understand what is happening in their communities, they are more likely to find something that interests them and want to join in the fun. Overwhelmingly when we ask board members why they joined the board in the first place, and why they keep volunteering, they respond that it’s because they enjoy helping to make their communities better; improving the quality of people’s lives and preserving the value of their neighborhoods. We need to work together to help neighbors understand that there are lots of ways to do this.

Engaging Your Community

Once people start to engage, the opportunities to do more will grow because as the saying goes, “many hands make for light work.” Newsletters, maintaining social media presence, and announcement/email content can be developed by committees. Social events, landscaping enhancement plans, architectural standards, rules enforcement, and so many other facets of community enhancement can be driven by engaged committees so that the board’s job can be less daunting, but realizing these outcomes requires strategy and discipline.

To be most effective, people need some ground rules and boundaries for engagement and need to understand what outcomes they are responsible for driving. This can be achieved by establishing charters for committees clearly spelling out how people are appointed and removed, what qualifications are necessary to serve (not necessary for all committees, but important for some), what time commitment is required, whether the committee has the authority to spend money or act without board approval, etc. The charter should also spell out what communication is expected between the board and committee. This step is critical. Committees should report their activities to the board, and by extension the members, regularly, but the board also needs to report back to committees. Tell them what they are doing well, where they could be more effective, and what the board would like to see them focus on.

How to Manage Committees

For communities with a lot of committees, it’s best to start with an overarching committee guidelines document that sets the framework for how all committees should generally operate. Then, each committee should have its own committee charter outlining their areas of focus and deliverables. This can help define the expectations for committee members and ensure consistency across the organization. Doing this work in the beginning can save a lot of headaches down the line. We often hear boards say that committees have “gone rogue” and refuse to report to the Board, or that they don’t deliver any value because they don’t meet and don’t report on what they are doing, or they play “favorites.” In most cases, the board has the power to establish committees and to disband them, and the power to appoint and remove committee members. This should be made clear to everyone, but so should the process of establishing a new committee, being appointed, etc.

Committees are great training grounds for future board members. With some structure in place, cast a wide net and publicize openings and information about opportunities. You never know who might be interested in joining! Every organization needs to think about succession planning to remain relevant, and an HOA is no different. The organization can’t function without volunteers, so it’s important for all of us to work together and support those volunteers, help them be successful, and develop a pipeline of future volunteers. We want to help you succeed in doing this so that your residents can love where they live.