Why I Hate Board Meetings

How many times a month do you think about resigning from the board? With new legislation requiring large cash reserves and unaffordable insurance costs, have you noticed your board meetings are more hostile, budgets more unpredictable, and owners more short-tempered? Many board members are thinking about walking away from unhealthy board meetings. Before you give up, here are a few ideas that might make your job more productive, healthier, and rewarding.

Take your CPA out to lunch. Warning: CPAs get nervous when you invite them to lunch. Tell them the financial pressure on your community is getting worse, and you need them to help you find some money to reduce the financial strain. Take everything they say seriously and act on them.

Ask your property manager to take you out to lunch. Start by asking them what they're doing to help with the stress and how it would be much better if they picked up some of the routine tasks the board members do so they can focus on decision-making without being overwhelmed.

Make an appointment to visit with your property manager's IT person. Explain that you want to fully understand the property management software they use. I bet you'll find some free software features you aren't currently using that automate repetitive board work, save you money, and help you better communicate with your owners, renters, and vendors.

Take a deep breath now. I highly recommend that your board call an Owner Q&A Special Meeting with your key professional advisors, such as your insurance agent, accountant, and engineer, to discuss your biggest challenges and answer questions. Your owners will be very happy to learn more about what is happening and see who their board is doing business with. Your advisors will solve a problem or two, and you might get lucky that by transference, your owners start disliking your insurance agent more than you.

Pull out all your contracts with vendors and start looking for opportunities to negotiate better pricing and long-term deals to cut your monthly costs. Go for a walk and find out who is on the board in your neighboring communities. Explore any opportunity to share service providers with them, such as landscapers or pool maintenance, to save you both money.

Today is a good time to examine your utility bills and investigate all the new technologies that can save money. Whether it's lighting, motion sensors, thermostats, potable water conservation, submeters, solar, or simple billing reviews, there are a lot of new ways to cut costs. I'll bet you find the research very interesting and profitable.

Believe it or not, a mini class in leadership training, conflict resolution, financial management, or public speaking at a local community college or not-for-profit nonprofit agency can be fun, productive, and very satisfying. Besides making new friends outside of your community, you'll enjoy immediately putting your new skills to productive use.

Lastly, get your board together somewhere off-premises every three or four months to share an hour of recreation time. Be sure to celebrate outstanding individual performances and enjoy yourself. Besides learning to like each other more, the real benefit will be that recruiting valuable new volunteers to share the community workload will become much easier.

Remember, the trick to overcoming all life problems is always taking action to improve things, no matter how small.

Travers Hartnett serves as CondoExec’s Editor in Chief. Travers holds more than 19 years experience providing insurance risk management services exclusively to Florida community associations. As a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist from the Wharton School and formerly a Human Services- Board Certified Practitioner, he has served on multiple boards, both as a volunteer and President.