Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
15 Feb 2006 15:19 PST
buddyboy400...
This will depend on the Articles of Incorporation for the
Association. I'm an HOA officer, and our documentation
states that there must be an odd number of officers, as
a tie-breaking measure. Therefore we may have 3 or 5
officers, such as President, Vice President, Treasurer,
or President, Secretary, Treasurer, and so forth. But
if there are 5 officers, and one moves, we've had 4, at
times. Our board has never had trustee or membership
positions.
Typically, the officers make decisions for which a meeting
of the membership is not required, which should be defined
somewhere in your documentation, and could include prioritizing
repair work, selecting vendors, allocating financial resources,
and so on, with regard to ongoing maintenance and repairs.
This could extend to planned improvements, but you might
decide, as officers, to include the membership in voting
on things of this nature - or not. Generally the idea is
to achieve reasonable representation of the membership by
the officers. If it's a small, close-knit community, this
can be accomplished by informal chats between officers and
residents, and officers can have casual chats in which the
thoughts and feelings of the members are represented with
due diligence so that the officers can make decisions and
get on with their lives and the process of maintaining and
improving the property. Such an informal process can be
very effective, and considerably reduce red tape, paperwork,
and time spent on the process of governing. Annual meetings
to vote for new officers may be all that is required of the
general membership.
If it's a larger and less close-knit community, it may be
found necessary to hold frequent membership meetings to
provide adequate representation of the membership in
addressing even trivial concerns - especially if there
are commonly found to be some outspoken dissidents who
oppose the decisions the officers might make on their
own. In such situations, you are more likely to see
officers challenged, resignations, and frequent elections
for new officers. Naturally, this can result in considerable
instability and confusion.
The president is essentially the go-to guy amongst the
officers. The Secretary handles membership and officer
meeting minutes, the Association newsletter, if there is
one, and, perhaps, correspondence to offsite owners of
rented units. The Treasurer handles collection of fees,
financial records, and income taxes, if any. The Vice
President is often someone to whom the President can
delegate responsibilities when he becomes busy or is
not available.
All of this can be subject to variance, and is not
written in stone. Some Associations are very loosely
structured, and allow for considerable latitude in
assigning duties and responsibilities. Others are much
more rigid and structured. It's really a matter of
assessing the size and composition of your membership,
as well as the complexity of the property maintenance
and improvement, and choosing what will work the best,
which is, to some degree, an ongoing project, and can
be formalized along the way, if necessary, through
formal documentation.
Let me know if this assists you in clarifying what
you need to know...
sublime1-ga
