Dear Board Members,
Your professional community managers want to take the time to share with you what character traits are required for successful community board members. As managers we help facilitate many functions of your communities and your board. Managers from Northern California to Southern California count on excellent board members as the recipe for success. Are you a board member that wants to know the successful character ingredients needed? Read on and understand what your community manager and community look for in board members and ultimately count on.
BE COMMITTED
Community Managers have tremendous success working with board members that show commitment to their role on the board. Board members that commit to their role take the time to become truly informed on the issues of the agenda, work to ask questions of the manager before the meeting and come prepared to make informed decisions for a timely and effective board meeting. Your professional community manager needs you to commit to executing decisions at your board meetings. Your meeting time is precious. Take pause, if your community holds one meeting per month that lasts two hours that is a total of 24 meeting hours for the entire year. Your community manager and community rely on the boards commitment to attend the meeting well informed and execute critical decisions.
PROBLEM SOLVE WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Association’s in California have to meet many challenges head on, such as working with the drought, aging common area elements, complaint driven communication and ever changing legislation. Managers depend on board members with a problem-solver approach powered by a positive attitude to help the community win and overcome these changes. Deep within a professional community manager’s DNA is the true desire to help everyone and problem solve for the community. Managers come back meeting fter meeting to better the community and when those managers are supported by problem solver board members with a positive attitude that make informed and timely decisions the sky is truly the limit!
RESPECT MANAGERS TIME
Great board members respect the managers time and treat the professional relationship with respect. A respectful professional relationship between the board members and management means the board understands the association has delegated many tasks to the manager to service the community. Take a moment and think of the many tasks your manager accomplishes for your community, every day, every week, every month. Great board members realize unnecessary tasks, interference with association vendors or unnecessary e-mails to their manager interferes with their community manager effectively executing their duties. Community managers completely understand and support that board members have the ultimate responsibility for their community. To ensure you are receiving only the best management service for the association and its’ members, work with your manager to establish check in times to discuss service and give your manager relationship building feedback.
CONFIRM, LEAD and DIRECT
Board members need to know what is expected of managers and not assume the manager takes care of everything. Great board members have the leadership skills to recognize what is required in the contractual relationship of their management. Community managers can do almost anything however they can not do everything, therefore board members need to confirm the community manager’s responsibilities and lead the community to be focused on the issues within the associations bandwidth of responsibility. Community managers rely on strong boards to keep their focus on what needs to get done and what is the best for the community even when it is unpopular. Successful board members understand this and direct accordingly. Board members, your managers rely on you to remain strong and steadfast with the conviction to lead by selflessly caring for the needs of the community above all.
Great board members understand a team approach made up of the board, community members and great management is the proven way for community to thrive!