Mathew was frustrated.

Once again his Board of Directors, at Checkered Heights, could not find anyone to serve on the board of his 50 unit homeowner's association. Sure, he knew what was going on. But with five years as the vice president he was fed up with sitting on the board. He wanted a life. They had a great property management company running things, but nothing is automatic and the budget needed annual review. The usual recruitment process was not working.

The real question is, was there a recruiting process?

In this case there was not.

Most boards don't have a developed process. In some organizations there is the traditional nominating committee. In some organizations friends nominate their neighbors or other friends. Checkered Heights had neither. Usually the president asked the board to nominate names. This time no one expended the efforts and there were no nominations to fill the 3 open board positions.

Options:

There are many options and some are addressed in the Bylaws of Association's.

What is typically missing is a long range view of the recruiting and leadership training process. What is typically overlooked is that it takes a year of service and training for a board member to become effective.

Boards need to recruit with a two year time line and association members need to realize they are accepting a longer term responsibility. Skills need to be accessed.

There should be two people on a board with mathematical skills to serve on a finance committee and help the property manager review monthly financials and prepare the budget.

Nominated Vice Presidents need to agree to serve as President's and Presidents need to agree to serve as immediate past president.

Typically the Vice president and the immediate past president work with the president to flesh out the board of director needs for the association. The Vice-president is also responsible for board member recruitment.

The recruitment process starts with the preparation of a job description for each position. In addition the association needs to look forward to understand their future staffing needs.

Recruiting should be an issue on the Board of Director's agenda. The process of developing future leaders should begin at least 12 months in advance.

A Chairperson's success relies on their planning for the future

A President/chairperson's success relies on their ability to engage and involve members of the community.

This means that the association needs to make board meetings open and easy to get to (both location and time wise). Board meetings need to be well organized and have an agenda (role modeling) and not run on for hours and hours.

The board needs to set policy and direct the Property Manager. Let the Property manager handle the details. In this way serving on the board does not become a rock that members carry on their back.

Have a few parties for all association members so you can get to know the players, and they can get to know you. Ask likely candidates to serve on sub committees to gain experience in association issues. Be committed to annual elections and annual turn over of a part of the board of director, so that no one feels they have a life sentence serving on the board of directors.

The board recruiting committee should always be working on a few candidates, inviting them to board meetings to familiarize them with the efficient board process. The recruiting process should be memorialized on paper and used as a road map for future recruitment.

The VP, responsible for recruitment, should be tracking terms of the officers and committee members, drafting or updating job descriptions and helping the Chairperson look to the future to see which skills would be helpful as the board plans for the future.

If skill sets are missing, this gives the board the time for board retreats and training to generate the leadership and management skills that are necessary to manage a successful association board.

The recruiting committee will need to sell a little to encourage public service. The recruitment committee will need to ask people to serve "if you don't ask you will not get a volunteer."

You need to sell the future and the ability for a board member to have real impact on the success of the board and on the property values of the association.

The evaluation of candidates

The VP of the board and his/her committee also need to include a quality control component in their process.

In evaluating the candidates (it is always important to recruit more potential candidates rather than less, since candidates fall out due to other family and personal and business commitments).

You need to consider the following:

1. Can the candidate contribute the time necessary to be an effective board member, or are they 36 months pregnant and expecting a new baby any day now?

2. Do they understand the mission of the association?

3. Do they have a heartfelt interest in serving the association?

4. Do they have key skills that would help the board?

5. Can the prospective board member place the needs of the association above their own personal and professional interests?

Challenges:

You probably want to discourage two members from the same family unit from being on a board, because they can potentially control the board and they really have only one vote to cast per unit.

You may want to find a way to evaluate a candidate's temper. A hot head on a board of directors can be very destructive.

Clearly the bylaws will guide you as far as the election process, but by developing a well thought out plan you can recruit a successful Board with out excluding those that want to serve. Service by a prospective board member, on a subcommittee, will give board members an early view of the potential skills that a prospective member can bring to the board as well as point out the training that a board member might need.

Early on a board member must understand the rudiments of "Robert's Rules of Order," in order to facilitate successful meetings.

Conclusion:

Mathew decided to serve one more year, this time as president. He drafted an outline for the positions he needed to fill and a two year plan for items the associations needed to achieve. He also decided on the subcommittee members that the board should recruit and train. Finally, he threw a party to introduce existing board members and members of the HOA community. At the party they displayed information about the board and got to know many of the members, and convinced many of them to serve.

Mathew felt much better, it was a lot of effort, but he could see daylight and that the future of the association was assured. That is what a board of an association needs to be committed to. Planning a clear direction and a continual focus on recruitment as well as training, leads to long-term success for running a board of directors, for condominium or homeowner's associations.

Published: August 27, 2008

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Clifford A. Hockley is the President of Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services, one of the larger brokerage and property management companies in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Hockley holds an MBA Willamette University and a B.S. in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College. He is a Certified Property Manager and Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services is an Accredited Management Organization (AMO) by the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM). Mr.Hockley serves as member at large on the Portland IREM board. He has twice been named Certified Property Manager of the Year (2001 and 2003) by the Institute of Real Estate Management and is a frequent contributor to industry newsletters.