Boards do hard work, they shouldn’t work hard

By focusing on Money Matters within condominium associations, we being to see all sorts of opportunities to help boards smooth out the decision-making process.  To us, there is nothing worse than the board doing management’s job, while paying management.

Over the weekend, I assisted the secretary in finalizing the minutes.  The secretary was concerned because another board member (who was the past secretary) told her how to do the minutes.  The minutes would typically run for 5 or 6 pages, attempting to capture all the conversations.  I recommended striking the additional comments and focus on the motion and its approval (or failure).

She asked if she could send it on to the past secretary director for her take as she was her mentor in the role.

I then assisted the treasurer with the monthly report.  I summarized some of the detail and put it into a 5 page Powerpoint presentation.  I pdf’ed the necessary monthly reports and sent them on.  The treasurer said that it was great, but he was used to filing out the excel template that a past treasurer (surprise, the same past secretary and also past treasurer) had put together.  He asked if he could forward it onto the past treasurer.

It wasn’t four hours later that there was an email blast from this director.  To the board and to me.  She didn’t take kindly to me undoing all of her ‘hard work’ and the training she put into these new officers.  And further, all communication should be to all board members in the spirit of ‘transparency’.

This board is already meeting twice a month for 3 hours each meeting.  There are hundreds of emails floating between the board members.  Each email takes a few minutes to process.  The treasurer was rewriting the financial statements which took about 8 hours of his time.  The secretary was spending several hours going through notes and transcribing them to get to the minutes.

By my very rough calculation, the board is working between 10 and 20 hours per month.  This is the definition of working hard.  It is also nuts.

Management creates a financial statement.  If you as treasurer don’t like it and don’t want to tell management to create something different, by all means invest your time in creating a pretty picture which is meaningful to your board.  But don’t spend more than an hour.  If you have to work that hard, then you either don’t know what you are doing and need help or things are reported so poorly that you need help to figure it out.

The minutes are a record of a board’s decisions.  It isn’t meant to be a complete recording of the meeting.  If you want that, hire a court reporter or record the meeting.  Detail the motion, identity the second and record if it passed or failed.  While the debate can be entertaining, it is not a part of the official record.  And neither are owner comments, by the way.  Keep your minutes clean and to the point.

All of this additional work really puts a strain on board members.  And owners who show up start seeing how much time has to be invested and they go “no way!”  That isn’t healthy for your association either.

If your association seems to require lots of time commitment, then perhaps you need to rethink your board meeting process.

1. A ‘board briefing book’ should be emailed out to the directors a week in advance of the meeting.  It should
   1. The agenda
   2. Proposed motions by board members
   3. Supporting reports from committees and management
   4. Proposed resolutions
   5. Additional research as necessary to support a motion
2. The board chair should ensure that a time limit for each agenda item
3. The board chair should call the meeting to order at the established time
4. The board goes through the agenda and upon a motion
   1. Stop any debate before the motion is seconded
   2. Do not allow lengthy preambles to the motion
   3. Close the debate once all board members have been heard
   4. Call the vote
5. Accept written reports from directors and committee chairs
   1. Allow a brief (2 to 3 minute) summary of the report
   2. Allow for a brief Q&A session (5 minutes)
   3. Move on

You can solve a lot of problems in a board meeting, but only if you try and stick to a process designed to get to a vote on those matters.  And whatever you do, don’t try to do the work yourself.  Doing research, getting quotes and scheduling work is the role of management.  You oversee management.  Require them to do carry out their role and not pass it back to you.  If they can’t get new management and set it as a specification to get your business.

At C.O.R.E. Services, we believe Money Matters. The boards are dedicated but typically outsource the management who often do not understand the vital role of systems dedicated to rooting out the risks of fraud. Our services are designed to help the board and owners rely upon their accounting and financial statements to help with the decisions surrounding their community and home. You can find more information about us on our website.