Oct/Nov 2020 Four Board Member best practices that will build a vibrant HOA community

“Back to basics” never gets anything done

This “back to basics mentality” is a toxic narrative that excuses laziness and defends incompetence. It is lazy to rationalize all of home owners requests down to “the basics”. It is incompetent to ignore the very prescriptive feedback gained from the thirty or forty members who attended the 2019 Annual Home Owner’s meeting. We asked them why they came and they shared their concerns as we cycled through the room. Their responses overwhelmingly indicated that they wanted the HOA to level up to solving problems that we have in 2020 rather than continuing to nurse problems that we have had since 1997. The homeowner wish list included an list of 8 major initiatives: 

1) Ensure our actions are ethical and transparent, 
2) Modernize HOA bylaws, 
3) Host virtual meetings, 
4) Replace our communication platform, 
5) Expand the number of board members
6) Increase our return on investment, 
7) Significantly lower our gate maintenance costs, and  

8) Enable electronic voting.

Competence matters most to home owners

Our team of 4 new Crosstimber HOA directors successfully with the exact same professional management advisors that other previous HOA leadership teams had for years. A realtor, an accountant, a doctor, and a computer engineer completed all 8 initiatives in only 9 months from January to September of 2020. This begs the question: How come prior board directors didn’t get any of this work done between September 1997 and September 2019? That is over 22 years of board leaders. We believe that recruiting competent home owners with diverse skillsets is the key differentiator. So is empowering home owners to work on specific problems that they are personally committed to resolving. We proved that a board of directors and home owner led subcommittees with diverse skills can work collaboratively towards the same goals and solve problems faster. The positive results show we have exceeded expectations with less meetings in the middle of a pandemic largely because diverse thinking can often solve problems more quickly. We also stopped debating and simply pull in the same direction once a board majority decision was made.

Do or do not: There is no try

Arguing that “we have never done that before” when now is 2020 and before was 1999 is not acceptable. Several concerned home owners have contacted the HOA board for solutions to problems that only exist because HOA, Swimclub & the ACC do not coordinate better with each other. We specifically picked new crosstimber.com software to enable the HOA, Swimclub & the ACC to work hand in hand together for the betterment of the community. EX: Our new crosstimberhoa.com software has an online reservations system that easily solves the problem of non- home owners using our tennis courts without permission but it cannot work if only the HOA home owners use it without any support from the Swim Club or the ACC.