The only thing more diverse than common interest communities are the board members who run them. Board members differ in their experience, knowledge, and leadership methods. One thing they do have in common is that they feel that they can help to make their community better.
Diversity among board members is the secret sauce that helps to represent the best interest of the community. But these differences can also cause conflict among board members. When conflict and disagreements go unresolved, the progress of the HOA can come to a standstill. This deadlock can often be attributed to the problem board member. They are unwilling to compromise, or they simply love to play the antagonist. If you’ve tried to work with a problem board member you know who they are — but what is it that really makes them a problem? Here are a few things that problem board members do that can stifle the progress of the HOA.
Self-Interested
Rule number one as a board member is that You must act in the best interest of the community. This means that board members must put their personal agendas aside and look at issues objectively. This can be difficult and often board member don’t even realize how much their personal interest is affecting their decisions. The problem board member is especially good at ignoring the best interest of the community and seeing every issue through the prism of what benefits them most.
Know-it-All
Many board members seek to be on the board because they see a problem that they have the ability to solve. In many cases they’re right. But the problem board member is arrogant and domineering. Their arrogance makes them unwilling to listen to other ideas. Even worse, the know-it-all will rarely seek education or training — after all, what could they learn that they don’t already know. Right?
Fickle
Change can be good, and sometimes it’s necessary to solve HOA problems, but a fickle board member will end up throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water. It’s quite common to hear of a fickle board member immediately fire the landscape or other contractors shortly after being elected and without fully understanding the scope of the work, limitations, and history of around the issue. Over the months and years that follow, HOAs will often experience poor service, unhappy residents, and high contractor turnover, without seeing any significant savings. Board members should weight all factors, remember change can be good but it can also be painful. Change should be well thought-out and researched before action is taken.
Dictator
Many board members have never worked on a board prior to their HOA experience. In addition, many of them work in professions where they call the shots. In their daily work, they have no need for parliamentary procedure where debate and compromise are required. They make decisions and they get stuff done. This can be a great attribute to have, and most board members adapt just fine to working together as a board. On the other hand, the dictator will sidestep proper procedure and initiate action on their own. If your HOA has a dictator board member, the other board members must be aware and involved enough to make sure proper procedures are followed. The dictator board member is only successful when accompanied by other complacent board members who allow it.
Remember, most board members do great work — and let’s face it it can be a pretty thankless job. But a problem board member can make the job of the other board member more difficult, open the HOA up to liability issues, and give the board a bad name. If you see the signs of a problem board member in your HOA, take action, get involved and make sure proper procedures are being followed.
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You nailed it! And the comic is genius!
I have a king of everything treasurer poisoning landscape plants that he did not give approval for. He sent a letter saying everyone’s plants must be cut down to three feet. We now have 33 yards with dead crepe Myrtle trees. He supposedly collects proxy votes and is reelected every year.
Knowing you have a board member like this, what steps can the other board member do to protect themselves, their staff and eachother. This guy openly criticized fellow board members and staff on social media websites, open session meetings etc. members are petitioning to recall him but what about censure? They have a board code of conduct, harassment policy, website resolution and continuously violates all of them!
no board member should be on the board more than 3 years running with a mandatory 3 year break.
we have board members for decades, who driven everyone out of the process resulting in extreme apathy, hence theres never a quorum or vote. Board members repeatedly re pick themselves and stay on.
As the owner of a management company, I can share what we do – as we have done it many times. We tell the other Board members that if a certain member remains on the Board then we will be giving them a 30 day notice to find another management company. We will not have our company tied to Boards that are not willing to do the right things for their communities. Even things such as funding reserves, if the Board won’t do what’s right then we don’t want them as a client. Because we do our job better than virtually all our competitors, normally our clients would rather go through the headache of removing a problem Board member than lose us. We stand up for what’s right for us and for the Associations we manage.
Love this! Can you tell me what state your company works in? I have been dealing with this situation for a couple years and I can’t get anyone to stay on the Board anymore. They all resign. The owner of my company does not want to get involved. Even other Board members have asked him to help. I wish more owners handled this issue as you are! Kudos to you!