HOA Insights: Common Sense for Common Areas

136 | When's the Right Time to Retire an HOA Committee?

• Hosts: Robert Nordlund, Kevin Davis, Julie Adamen • Season 3 • Episode 136

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When should an HOA retire a committee? Robert and Julie show you how to learn the signs, best practices, and communication tips to keep your community thriving! 

✅ Is a Reserve Study right for you? 👉 https://www.reservestudy.com/

When is the right time to retire an HOA committee? Robert and Julie break down how to evaluate committees, set charters, boost productivity, and transition members with appreciation and transparency. Learn how to refresh your HOA structure, improve communication, and strengthen community engagement! 


Chapters: 

00:00 What starts the conversation about retiring HOA committees?
00:30 What sponsors support this HOA Insights episode?
00:45 What is today’s topic on retiring committees?
03:10 What problems arise when committees overstay their purpose?
05:32 What’s the difference between ad hoc and standing committees?
07:08 Why do committees need charters and clear direction?
10:19 How does community age diversity affect committee needs?
12:29 How do communication and transparency help committee transitions?
14:48 Why should HOA boards frame committee changes positively?
17:07 How can technology committees support modern HOA needs?
19:33 Ad Break - Kevin Davis Insurance Services
20:02 How do you retire a committee but retain great people?
21:49 How should boards thank retiring committee members?
24:30 How does kindness and appreciation strengthen the community?
27:14 What signs indicate a committee is no longer needed?
29:14 How can proactive committees improve community operations?
30:07 What final advice does Julie give to HOA boards?

The views & opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts & Guests, intended to provide general education about the community association industry. The content is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or organization.  Please seek advice from licensed professionals.

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Julie Adamen

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Julie Adamen:

When you are deciding as a board Well, we probably need to kind of refresh the community the committees, and maybe get some new people on. Don't blindside them, let them all know. And it can be a personal call, depending on how big your community is, from the board member or from board member or the board president, we want to bring new people in. We need, you know, sometimes we even feel like we're stagnating as board members. So we're going to start recruiting newer people from from the community to even replace us. You know, at the next election, a few of us.

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Robert Nordlund:

Hi. I'm Robert Nordlund of Association Reserves,

Julie Adamen:

and I'm Julie adamant of Adamen Inc. And this is HOA Insights, where we promote common sense

Robert Nordlund:

for common areas. Welcome to episode number 136, where we're again speaking with management consultant and regular co host, Julie adamant. Today we'll be diving into the topic of committees, specifically figuring out when it's achieved its purpose and it's time to disband the committee, retire the committee. Committees are a great way for board to get homeowner help, and they make a great pipeline for future board members, but you don't want a committee to overstay its welcome, to outlast its purpose. Well, last week's episode 135 featured a great conversation with regular co host Kevin Davis on reducing your insurance risk and legal liability during the holiday season. We want this podcast to be a valuable resource to you, so when we learn there are practical things you can do to save yourself some money or some trouble. Want to pass along those tips to you, putting more things into your control if you missed that episode or any other prior episode, take a moment after today's program to listen from our podcast website, Hoa insights.org, or watch on our YouTube channel. But better yet, subscribe from any of the major podcast platforms so you don't miss any future episodes. Well, those of you watching on YouTube can see the the mugs which

Julie Adamen:

I got lipstick on it. Sorry,

Robert Nordlund:

it's used anyway. We have lots of good stuff here, and we got it from our merch store, which you can browse through from our Hoa insights.org website, or the link in the show notes, and you'll find we have some great free stuff there, like board member zoom backgrounds and some specialty items for sale, like the mugs. So go to the merch store, download a free zoom background, take a moment, look around and see if there's anything that puts a smile on your face, and ship it to yourself anyway. We enjoy hearing from you responding to the issues you're facing at your association. So if you have a hot topic, a crazy story, or a question you'd like us to address, you can always contact us at 805-203-3130, or email us at podcast at reserve study.com Well, today's program came from Julie, who sees this problem of committees who've lost a grip on their mission and purpose and overstayed their welcome. So Julie, tell me what this looks like when a committee

Julie Adamen:

needs to be retired. Well, let me start with how I got to this topic, and I wrote about it in my newsletter HOA news line, which you can get off my website. But anyway, www dot adaman, Dash inc.com that's a D, A, M, E N, like more than one ma'am, Dash inc.com or you can Google me, you'll find it. No problem. How this came to me was I had an on site manager who had been, oh, come into the association. She hadn't been there very long, maybe six months, and they were coming up on their annual meeting, and she emailed me, and she's like, Oh my god, Julie, we need to get rid of some of these committees there. They've been on. Members have been in there forever. They're stagnant, or they're nasty, or they just have lost their focus and purpose, and we really need to disband them. What should I do? And so I made a whole article out of that, because it's a real common problem where committees have either overstayed their welcome meaning individuals, you know, it's kind of like term limits. I'm a real fan of term limits. Or it's just a committee that has lost its purpose, that maybe was appointed in what we would call, in our industry, or other places, an ad hoc committee, which is so there's two types of committees. Let me go to that two types of committees, ad hoc and standing the standing committees are typically outlined in the governing documents. So that would be committees like the nominating committee, because that is typically outlined in your documents. And what's the other one? Architectural control. Architectural control. Thank you. Of course, that's the big one. The arc is really big one. So those two ones are outlined all the other committees are pretty much. They're not all ad hoc, but committees that are in service all the time, which would typically but aren't defined in the documents, would be like the landscape committee. You know, the if you have, like, the last real place that I manage, really, really managed had 36 sets of pools and spas. So we had a pool committee. Yeah, yeah. So when you have things that are always going to be going. On ad hoc committees are typically appointed for a short duration to study a specific issue, report to the board, and then they should be disbanded. Well, sometimes, you know, they don't get disbanded because, number one, people don't know to do it, or number two, politically, it can be a hot potato, because the person on the committee, or a couple of them on that ad hoc committee, is pretty politically powerful, and they're going to show you what's what. So they just stay on forever. How do you disband these or how do you repopulate them? So that's kind of how we framed this article. And my answer back to her, it just depends. Go ahead, you're gonna say, I can see your

Robert Nordlund:

face, yeah, in preparing for this, I was focusing on the committee, not the individuals. And I can see that's is that half the problem where you have probably more than half the problem, interesting? Well, because, you know, this almost like wiping the committee so you can start over.

Julie Adamen:

No, well, sometimes, if you're lucky, but you know, there's, there's a waste, a lot of ways to approach this. I mean, you have to go committee by committee, and you have to be very sensitive as the manager, or as the board, who realizes they need to get rid of certain committees that you need to be sensitive to a couple of things. I mean, number one would be, have we just done a disservice to our committees as the administrators, meaning the board and management, you know, along with them, by not giving them a charter, what are their duties? Because I find that most associations do not have a Committee Charter, which would really basically be a job description for what the committee is supposed to do. Let's take like the landscape committee, that's probably the next biggest committee that is not defined in the governing documents, and so they should have a charter what they're supposed to do, how they're supposed to do it, how they report to the board. By the way, I have committee job descriptions. If anybody wants them, they can probably in the show notes. I can send them to you, Robert, we'll do that. But everyone should have something, because the committee needs something to function on, just like the board does. The board basically has the governing documents, but as we've talked about, they should also have a vision statement, a mission statement, and this platform for relatively seamless operations. Well, your committees need that too. So first take a look. Do are we as the administrators the board? Do we need to give the committees better direction?

Robert Nordlund:

Yeah, to funnel, to focus their efforts and follow their energies? Yeah? And maybe give them a deadline? So it depends?

Julie Adamen:

Well, it depends on what the committee is. If it's a relatively standing committee, like landscape, they, they're they, they're in perpetuity. So what is their thing is to ensure that, you know, things are done to contract, or that they walk the property, or that they're the ones who decide what flowers we plant. The variety is as as big a variety of community associations as

Robert Nordlund:

there are for landscape Committee. It flows with the seasons. They have continually new projects. We had a big rainstorm, we had a big snowstorm, we had hail, we had whatever, and they're always okay. What do we do now? But I guess I was thinking, from my worldview, a budget committee where the board gets help from someone doing or a committee doing the research, and they need that by, you know, a certain date

Julie Adamen:

exactly, so they can do it so that, but that, and you know, the budget committee could be either ad hoc or it could be a standing committee, because, you know, it takes, especially for a large association with big budgets and lots and lots of line items and a lot of amenities it may take. The committee probably should be in functioning at least 10 months out of the year, because as things happen, and they're keeping track of it, and then they're starting to formulate what's going to go on the next year. And, you know, everyone is a volunteer, even if you're retired, your time is worth something. And you probably don't want to spend 40 or 50 hours a week working for the Association for free, but if you spend a few hours a week, or, you know, as we get closer to when budget is due. Obviously you'll spend more time, but some of those can be ad Hoa, smaller Association, ad hoc committee. They may be functioning maybe three or four months, and then, boom, they present their suggest budget to the board, and then they're disbanded. And all of that should be in the charter. So if the committee is disbanded and reappointed every year, that needs to be in the charter if, if there are term limits on your committee members, that needs to be in the charter as well. So that was and if you have never done this before, and you've got myriad committees in your community, and you're thinking, maybe we need some new blood, or maybe we need to bring more people into the process be inclusive with new folks coming in. Because what happens in associations? I'm living in a big 55 and better community, as you all know, and we have dozens and dozens of committees going on all the time. And in lots of places, there are people who've been serving for years, literally for years, they'll rotate off of one and get right back on another, then they rotate off of that, and then they go back to the original committee, because the term limits are only, well, you can only serve two terms. Can't serve a third, but you can certainly come back again after that third year, or whatever. Yeah, after that third year. So things can and that doesn't necessarily mean a bad thing, but things can stagnate and and. I always say I'm one of the newer cohort living in here, where I live, is it's, we're the 60 something cohort. The 80 something cohort is, is they've either passing away, moving in with their kids, moving on to smaller places, or assisted living, that type of thing. It's just a natural progression. I'll be there one of these days. Robert will probably still be doing the podcast

Robert Nordlund:

by then, I'll be there with you. That's right,

Julie Adamen:

doing the podcast from assisted living.

Robert Nordlund:

That's us. What kind of technology will we have then? Oh, yeah, really, I'm still thinking about people. And it's all about the people. It's all about the people. And I'm wondering some of the things I've been on, well, like committees I've been on with Cai in the business partners committee, they needed so many attorneys, so many Association physical support, people, plumbers, roofers, painters, so many reserves, day providers and some ad hoc so are Can you envision a committee, or is it healthy for a committee to have? I need this many women, this many men, or, in your case, this many people who've lived here less than five years, people who've lived here more than five are you looking for specific blends?

Julie Adamen:

So I'm saying that's, you know, I never thought of that, Robert, but it's a good idea. It depends on where you are, and it all depends. I mean, that could be considered somewhat discriminatory one way or the other, if you have it written down, I'm not quite sure, but I think that it would behoove boards, when they're looking to populate committees, to bring people, new people in, specifically, because we need a mix, because the things that concern me in my 60s versus what concerns someone who's going to only live here another two or Three years, or four or five, and have been here for 25 or 30 years now, we have completely different concerns, and things are changing. You can see it in the in the makeup of how things are working in clubs, various clubs, and that, like the club I belong to, the Swim Club, and we have a cohort in their 70s 80s. We even have competitors in their 90s, believe it or not, unbelievable. Yeah, I know they always make all American because they're some of the few people in their 90s still swimming. So it's pretty it's pretty astonishing. So but their concerns are completely different than the concerns of the newer folks. And not that we want to come in and take over, but it would be nice to have a voice, and I will tell you candidly that they don't have that big a voice quite yet, but natural progression will make the turnover will naturally happen. If we can't force it. I mean, that's just what will happen.

Robert Nordlund:

So I like what you said there, so they have a voice and to have a healthy community. We've spoken about this before, healthy community, healthy communication, things like that, to have a healthy blend board member turnovers, which is healthy elections, committee turnovers with healthy getting the new people involved, inviting, oh, you have a dog. We're going to start a dog committee to help us know how many pets, pet waste stations there are.

Julie Adamen:

What we're going to need, yeah, exactly. We're going to start having yappy hour where everybody brings their dogs out and their cocktails. They actually have that so but actually, I'm glad you brought that up, because I had a section here that I wrote. It was all, communicate, communicate, communicate. Because, excuse me, if the board is taking this type of thing on and it's a brand new thing for your community, and they're like, wait a minute, you're going to get rid of Bob. He's been on there forever. And people are thinking, Yes, that's why he needs to go maybe. But let if you're the board, I'm being somewhat facetious, people, please take this with a grain of salt, but it's you need to communicate not just to your committee members, but to the community as a whole. And let me address the committee members first, when you are deciding as a board, well, we probably need to kind of refresh the community the committees, and maybe get some new people on, not necessarily everybody, but don't blindside them. Let them all know. And it can be a personal call, depending on how big your community is, from the board member or from board member or the board president, or it can be, you know, in writing to everybody and saying, Hey, we have a meeting for all committee members. We want to talk to you about where we're going, and we'd like your help. So have real reasons why you want to do this. Don't tell them you need to get off because you're not doing what we want you to do. It's more like, again, your diversity. We want to bring new people in. We need, you know, sometimes we even feel like we're stagnating as board members. So we're going to start recruiting newer people from from the community to even replace us. You know, at the next election, a few of us, because, obviously staggered terms type thing, but also with the homeowners. You don't want the homeowners out there thinking, because don't forget, all they're going to hear is from the disgruntled committee members who think they're being axed. And they are going to go, what do you mean? You're getting rid of these people? You have to have legitimate, real reasons to do so and frame. I have my notes here. I'm just looking at this. You want to frame the transition as positive?

Robert Nordlund:

Okay, I'm now, that's a cute now you lift my pen up.

Julie Adamen:

Frame the transition as positive, an inclusive effort to strengthen community governance and use absolutely every channel you have. Me. Meetings, newsletter, the website, even on the clubhouse bulletin board or in the lobby as you walk, as you as you're going up the elevator, reinforce the message that you are modernizing how you're doing things, and you are inviting broader participation from the homeowners. And you know, boards, this is so great for you, because most of you don't want to be board members forever. Some of you do. You're a little sick. But if you want new, good board members, where's your pool? Robert, your pool is in the committees? Yep. And you want to look at those people who are good contributors, who are looking out for the community, not for themselves. They make the meetings. They have input. They don't blow things off. They meet that whatever deadlines. Those are people you want to target to be board members, not immediately, not immediately. That's a big mistake we always make. They're great make a board president.

Robert Nordlund:

No, no. There's a lot I'm hearing here that I'm really liking. It's causing my brain to spin, and I'm thinking that when the committee has a better definition, it's perhaps easier to get on that committee, because you know what it's going to do. It's not endless, and it's not open ended, and then also just technology makes a difference. We're thinking about getting a new entry security system. Do we want this? Do we want that? Do we want key fobs. Do we want hands free? And how are we

Julie Adamen:

going to distribute? How are we going to distribute those key fobs? How are we going to charge for them, etc, etc. Are we

Robert Nordlund:

going to have building wide Wi Fi, or is everyone going to continue to have their own service in their own unit? Just there's a million technological things that you can

Julie Adamen:

and are we going to use? Are we going to use Comcast, or we're going to use Starlink? I mean, there are, it's just massive things that are going to end and speaking of that technology, having a committee that is versed in it, at least a few members who know, who are maybe still in the work world and are using all these technologies, from AI to the new Wi Fi systems and that type of thing. I mean, is would be very, very helpful for boards to get the kind of information they need, because not every board member is going to be versed in what Wi Fi we should get

Robert Nordlund:

well, and not every board member wants to add that to their plate, because we're trying to keep the board member workload low enough that we're not killing the board members, because that's probably the best reason. Yeah, I don't want to research internet. I'm not even asked to do this now. I'm already rubbing my forehead. I don't want to research internet providers. I don't want to research which one carries the local football team or the local baseball team. And there's so many other things that what flowers. I really don't care what flowers. I just want to look nice to find someone who thrives on that who like, Oh, I know that. Finally, I have something I can contribute to my association.

Julie Adamen:

Robert, that's an excellent point. And board members out there, I you know, if there's five of you or seven of you, you know that you guys are the who do the most work. I mean, you really do most homeowners. Don't know how much board members do work. The larger the association, the probably the more work they have to do. But sometimes, if you're self managed, you're doing everything. So having these start at the basic with the committee charters and what they're supposed to do makes the board look organized. In fact, it makes the board organized. And within those charters, you also want to tell the committees how to report their findings to the board, because when you were saying, Robert, I just it hit me, well, I don't know what has the baseball channel? Who has the football channel? Whatever going to want? Well, that's a massive level of detail, and I can just feel board members out there going, oh my god, they're going to be calling me with all these details. How am I going to make these decisions? Well, you ask them to place all of this in writing and give it to the board before the meeting, and it should be in your board information packet. If you're with a management company, three to five days ahead of time, or if you're self managed, you still want that in writing so the board can look at it all in good order. When committees are super busy and they don't have charters, they don't know where to stop they some of them will just blow out the information or

Robert Nordlund:

a little here, a little there, and it never gets put into the record exactly.

Julie Adamen:

And it's like dealing with a soft white light bulb as opposed to a laser beam. You guys want to be focused more like the late it's never going to be perfect, but you're going to want to focus more like the laser beam than the soft white light.

Robert Nordlund:

I'm hearing so much, it's good stuff. Hey, Julie, looking at the time it's time to take a break coming. Yeah, do exactly that. It's time now to hear from one of our general sponsors, after which we'll be back with more common sense for common areas, specifically today talking about committees.

Kevin Davis:

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Robert Nordlund:

Now we're back. Well, Julie, we spoke so much about committees. How good ones are formed. They have a charter. We spoke a little bit about retiring them, and I was so glad to hear you don't just give them a pink slip. You go through a process. So walk me through that process. What about a committee that potentially has served its purpose, but there's some great people on that committee. What? How do you work with that situation?

Julie Adamen:

Well, I think this is all a part of you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, though the committee they're on may have served its purpose and may need to be retired off to the you know, the elephant dying ground over there, the elephant graveyard. But people who are really good, you what you want to do is utilize their energy somewhere else. If you have a new ad hoc committee, maybe you want to have all the streets resurfaced. And you want someone who's good, you know, who can participate, boom, put them in that committee or the next ad hoc committee that comes up, or make a per, you know, talk to them personally and say, Look, you're a fantastic member. We're just looking where to put you. Do you have any ideas, and you can bring them into that process as well, or maybe you'd like to serve on the board next time we have an opening. So I think it's super important not to think, well, you know, just because we had a five member committee and four of them were terrible, yeah, either they're all gone, but if you got that one person, that's really that's really good, utilize that person. And there's always something to be done in association.

Robert Nordlund:

Always there's upcoming projects, there's seasons, there's events, all those kinds of things. Exactly when the committee ends and you want to be a good human, you want to, again, not a pink slip. Tell them about the communities changing. We need committees to help the board. How do you thank them? How was that done? Well, I

Julie Adamen:

would tell you, I think I would do something for them, whether you throw a wine and cheese party or you give them a plaque or you give them, I mean, Robert doing during the break, we were talking about something that your wife had on her desk that she'd received for some volunteer work she did in the 90s. I have to say, I have a couple of those as well. They're nice little, nice little crystal thing, and it's got a fish in the middle of it. And I got it for I don't even remember anymore, but I guarantee you,

Robert Nordlund:

it's from the 90s. But it's a good memory. And it was not only a good memory of what you did, but a good memory of someone who took good care of you and said, Thank you.

Julie Adamen:

It was appreciation. And no matter what, even if that could that whole committee needed to go because of whatever reason, they need to go, and you guys are all glad to get rid of them, you still need to thank them. Because no matter what we are, human beings, we could say we're complicated, but we're actually pretty simple. People just want to be acknowledged for their input. They really do. You don't have to take the input. You don't have to in the back of your head, think, Oh, my God, but you still have to acknowledge them. So whether you're thanking them in the newsletter on the website, having a party, you know, plaques, whatever it is, certificates of appreciation, whatever it is, thank them for their service. Because honestly, they didn't have to do it, and they likely stepped up when no one else would. So you just have to do that, and it just makes them feel better, and it makes the whole community feel better that don't think that you treat your volunteers like dirt, you know, because some people really like those volunteers. You may not, but some of them do. And when it's all over, even though they may be angry, they're not really on the committee anymore, or their committees gone. They still think, well, at least it ended Okay, at least I got a little bit of appreciation. Much better than them grumbling around the community and talking to people about it and making it a big problem, which grows exponentially at cocktail time, as we all know. So you just want to, you know, mitigate that ahead of time. You don't want to have to go on the back end and try to mitigate the damage that's already been done. Do it ahead of time, plus they probably deserve it. Oh yeah.

Robert Nordlund:

And then Kevin talks about how we want to lower the temperature always and elevate the community aspect. And if I was at a board meeting and they had three people there were on the side that were the retiring Wi Fi committee, or whatever they were, or dog poop voice station committee, and they were able to stood up and Everyone applauded them. I would think, cool. This is the kind of people I want to be hanging with, and this is my association. They're treating people well, and I get a warm feeling, just there's a kindness that is contagious. And I like being that, and I like it's the

Julie Adamen:

community and community association. And you know, times we're thinking, Oh my God, how are we as administrators, meaning Robert, I mean, you help boards. I help boards, and I was a manager many, many moons ago, but that's where I come from. But, you know, I always used to poo poo that, but I don't. I guess maybe I'm getting old, because I don't so much anymore, because the feeling of the community you have when you live in a crummy Association and it's at each other's throats all the time, it is so the vibe is completely different, because. Completely different than it is in a happy community. It's just totally different.

Robert Nordlund:

Yeah. Okay, so if you are in one of those grumpy communities, maybe you can start one grain of sand at a time by starting to treat people a little nicer, saying thank you. It's time to move on and those kinds of things. So you gotta, you gotta start somewhere.

Julie Adamen:

Gotta start somewhere. And you know what, Robert, that'd be a good committee to have. It's the lower the temperature committee. I mean, even. And I'm a big fan of small committees, by the way, it's three or five at the most. But is that, you know, if you recognize your community could be a little nicer, that maybe the notices that go out to people could be nicer maybe Hoa, yes, yes. Or, you know, or the people that are it's like we always say, the dog poop weigh stations, right when all of your letters that go out or pick up after your dogs, or, you know, dog poop everywhere, or whatever it is, which is a huge thing in our world, as you know, you know, a committee that says, Well, why don't we just fix the problem and put the duck the weigh stations there so they have the bag and they can throw it away. Yep, the board's like, Oh, that would make everybody think we're on top of it and we're tuned to their needs. It goes a long way in making your community a community.

Robert Nordlund:

Yeah, I'm just thinking the nice community or the nice committee, where they're responsible for helping the board with communication, and maybe they are helping rewrite the rules. So it's not the pool hours are such and such and such and such they can frame it in to keep our community the peaceful, happy acres that we strive to be pool hours are this, you know, they're framed for a purpose, not just because we told you to do it. We're going to be out there in the bushes with a watch and a fine book, you know, like, sometimes we see a policeman on in the shade behind a tree, like, oh, are there we've talked about how to do it. Have we talked about, are there telltale signs that a committee is done, or is it different with each committee, each Association, things like that?

Julie Adamen:

I think it's kind of different everywhere. I would say that. But everybody, if you have an ad hoc committee that was formed to, you know, study the roofing system, and there's and after that's all been done and the roofs have been replaced, officially disband the committee so they know they're done keeping them and thank them and give them their certificates, or whatever you need to do, because you want to thank them, but you want to make sure they know that they're not to start going out and Looking for other things, unless you give them that charter. So let them go. If there are other committees that are just being completely unproductive, they maybe they lost the head of the committee and no one else has taken up the mantle, but they're still sort of meeting, and you're not getting the reports you need. You need to move them along to either something else or just move them along period. Maybe the committee doesn't need to be in existence anyway. So I think it's kind of depends on the commit, the community, the committees and the people populating those committees.

Robert Nordlund:

Yeah, I think one of the big things I'm taking away from this is the importance of committees, all the things they can do to support the board. And you can give them assignments to delegate a project to them, and that makes the board members job that much easier. You've got reliable people. You're building a pipeline. We've talked about it before. Of future board members, people who know how to do things. You get them with their fingers now in the community where they're participating. It's my association. The stupid board wanted three dog weigh stations, and because of our committee, we now have eight, all in the right places, exactly. And I don't know if you could probably feel good about that when you drive home at night that kind of well

Julie Adamen:

you would. And you know, you wouldn't even think that. People think about that. But it's a it's a process, right? So just putting in one dog Weigh Station. That might be nice, but if you put in all that need to be done. And so there's that. And then the next thing is, oh, gosh, they took out those dying trees out there and they planted something else in there. We didn't even have to complain about that. I would say all of this is proactive,

Robert Nordlund:

yeah, and it's a momentum builder.

Julie Adamen:

Exactly, exactly, yeah. The proactive aspect is the momentum builder, and it's it's subtle at first, but when you see, when you're living in a community that you know is well run and the board is attuned to the needs of the community, you will probably find some really effective committees working with that board, because they can't do it all themselves. And when you try to do it all yourself, you just, you can't do everything effectively. You just can't

Robert Nordlund:

and you bring and you burn out the board members, and you get grouchy, and that's you don't want grouchy leaders,

Julie Adamen:

nope, because that's when you get the no police know this, know that, yeah, because

Robert Nordlund:

they're sick and tired of this. What's that new word, hangry? When you're hungry, you're hungry, and you don't want board members like that good committee. Will help, help with that. Well, Julie, as always, it's fantastic. It's great talking with you. Any closing thoughts to add at this time?

Julie Adamen:

Well, the only thing I can say to all of you board members out there is number one, thank you for serving. I've served on boards myself. I'm not. I'm serving on my swim board, but I'm not serving on my HOA board, but I think I'm going to run next year. We have a big issue coming up. So they might we'll, we'll see someone. Please check me on that. I may be going crazy, but it'll give me plenty of fodder to talk about on the podcast. So there's that. But also, if any of you have any questions about this, I yet I don't know if you know what I do. I work as a consultant in the HOA business, and I work with association management companies, but I work mostly with board members now, helping them, you know, get things done and how to operate things. The most recent thing I was retained to do was, was do governance training for an association that was court ordered to do so. So I did their governance training. Are they? Did they like they like the training? Did they like the conclusion? No, they did not. That's I do that type of thing. Or if you just have questions, or you want to, you know, bounce something off of someone, because you guys typically don't have anyone you can talk to. I mean, I'll give you X amount of time for free. Obviously, I do this to make a living, but you can email me and it's all on the show notes, or you can always find me. Just google me. Julie Adam and ADA m, e n, my website is adamant, inc.com but if you Google or chat G, P, T or grok me, you will find me. I'm all over so and if you want to, I've tons of articles up on my website that applied lot to management. But this thing about committees, I just published this last month, so you guys can all find that as well too. So just reach out if you have anything you want to chat about or question like to answer.

Robert Nordlund:

Yeah, well, Julie, I joked about trying to keep you from joining the board, but truly, your association, we'd be very lucky to have you on the board. So we'll see where that adventure goes, and you can tell us all about the campaigning and all those kinds of things.

Julie Adamen:

Oh, they do big campaigning here, I mean, like the signs and everything. Oh, wow. Okay, well,

Robert Nordlund:

that'll that'll be another episode. Yeah, today, we hope you learned some HOA insights from our discussion that's going to help you bring common sense to your common areas in the way you manage committees. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to bringing many more episodes to you, week after week after week, we'll be here, and it'll be great to have you join us on a regular basis. Spread the word

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Robert Nordlund, PE, RS

Host
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Julie Adamen

Co-host
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Kevin Davis, CIRMS

Co-host