All of the HOA boards we work with are made up of volunteer members. Leaders are taking time out of their own busy schedules to participate in the management of their communities, and that’s pretty impressive.
Respect your time and the time of your fellow board members by making your meetings more effective and efficient. You want these HOA board meetings to be time well spent, and you don’t want to spend hours getting nothing done.
If you’re looking for ways to make your board meetings better – we have some strategies that we’re sharing with you today. We also want to remind you that professional association management in Winston-Salem can save you time, money, and stress when it comes to your HOA board and the improvement of your community.
Craft an Agenda in Advance
Your HOA board meeting needs an agenda. If you’ve just been keeping it relaxed and informal, you’re probably wasting more time than you realize. Don’t come up with the agenda once you’re all gathered, either. Have the agenda ready ahead of time and distribute it to board members so everyone will know what to expect from the meeting.
A good board meeting agenda will have specific points of discussion. Your governing documents may have requirements about what’s discussed and voted on. Remember that you don’t need a three-page agenda with a dozen sub-points. Focus on what you want to solve and address in this one particular meeting, and draft a concise agenda.
Put times in the agenda as well. This will keep each topic focused, and you can avoid getting into longer debates or discussions that take up the entire meeting or drive you off track.
Manage Homeowner Crowd Control
Homeowners should feel welcome and be invited when the board meetings. A well-attended board meeting usually reflects a community that’s engaged and willing to participate. That’s great news.
However, you want to limit the time and scope of what your homeowners are invited to discuss during the board meeting. Reserve some time in the agenda at the beginning or the end of the meeting for homeowners to introduce an order of business or make a statement about existing policy. There’s no need to allow homeowners to share their opinions on everything and anything during your board meeting.
A good strategy is to have community participants submit their questions or comments in advance. Then, the board will know what to expect and how to respond. You’ll be able to limit the amount of time that’s spent on items that may be off-topic for each particular board meeting.
Adjourn the Meeting with an Action List
Summarize the meeting at the end, and list any action items for each attendee. This will keep everyone accountable and clear on expectations and responsibilities. Spend a few minutes to confirm that everyone agrees what was discussed and decided. Confirming with everyone while you’re all together is more effective than having emails fly back and forth between meetings.
Take Good Meeting Minutes
Put someone in charge of meeting minutes. Typically, this is the board secretary, but it can be anyone in attendance. Be sure to have those minutes distributed as soon as possible after the meeting so board members have a chance to review them and raise any changes or concerns.
These are just a few of the things we do with our HOA boards to keep their meetings organized and consistent. If you’d like some help, we’d love to talk to you. Contact us at Capstone Realty.