As you come out of your Holiday coma and reflect on your HOA’s 2024, there may be several things you think your board did well with, while there might be others where it is obvious that you could have done better. Maybe you’re glad you actually survived the year! In any case, the New Year is a wonderful time to start fresh with new goals and new resolutions to make 2025 a better year for your HOA than 2024.
If you have not decided on any 2025 goals for your HOA board yet, it is not too late! To give you an early start, we have compiled a list of several goals that we think could help almost every HOA board improve as a unit, and as a result, help their communities improve as well.
Make Your Meetings More Productive
We think it’s safe to say that hardly any board member enjoys long, drawn out, unproductive meetings. Start 2025 off with a resolution to bump up the productivity of your meetings and put that into action with advanced planning. Make it a point to prepare meeting agendas and supporting documents early, so members can review them before the meeting. Commit to keeping meetings within allotted times and stick to discussing agenda items. You will notice a significant rise in productivity and homeowner engagement.
Step Up Your Organization
Are your HOA documents and filing system in disarray? Having organized documents saves time and will keep you from getting frustrated when looking for specific information, so we think this is a very worthwhile goal for your 2025 year. To conquer this, you may need to break it up into monthly or quarterly goals. Start with the most important documents first and remember to keep an electronic backup version of them, too.
Make Better Informed Decisions
Does it ever feel like your HOA board is taking a wild guess when making decisions? This year, make a resolution to consider paying for professional input when it comes to decision making as an HOA board (especially if your community is self-managed) on issues where your board lacks expertise. Paying for assistance with an informed decision, whether that’s through an HOA management company or a legal advisor, is often much less expensive than correcting mistakes afterwards.
Get Familiar with Governing Documents
Have all the members on your HOA board actually read through your community’s governing documents thoroughly? Does each member have access to a complete set of documents? You might be surprised at the responses when you ask. The CC&Rs probably haven’t been their top pick for leisurely reading. Start 2025 off right by ensuring that each board member has access to and has read your covenants, conditions, and restrictions from start to finish. Making sure that board members are working with the same, up to date, information will keep discussion of topics important to the association short and productive, while minimizing potential frustrations.
Review Financials
How did your projected figures last year match up to the actual figures? Even if you’ve already made a budget for 2025, compare this to last year’s projected financials and make note of any line items that may need extra monitoring this year.
Review and Plan for Major Repairs/Replacements
What better time to plan a walkthrough of the entire community? Begin the New Year by assessing your reserves and plan for major repairs or replacements in community areas that are needed in the coming year. Consider how long it has been since certain amenities or common areas have undergone repairs, as those might be the first big projects for your association in the new year.
Appoint Committees
Certain HOA boards have more duties than they have time to tend to. If your board is finding itself in that position, consider appointing committees or using existing committees to assist with projects that your board may not have the bandwidth to micromanage; like neighborhood watch, landscaping, maintenance, or other issues that are important to your group. Propose a method in which these committees can effectively monitor issues and relay information back to the board for action to be taken.
Invest in Education
Make a commitment as a board to become more educated about your roles and responsibilities as board members. There are endless resources available like magazines, blog subscriptions, or even conferences and courses that can help improve your expertise.
Arrange Expert Help
Are your HOA’s expert professionals lined up when you need to call on them for help? There’s a good chance that at some point during the year, you’ll run into issues that will require expert help with legal matters, insurance issues, or financial dealings. Save yourself time and hassle by lining up these expert contacts before you actually need them.
Create an Emergency Plan
Do you find that you usually only seem to get caught in a rainstorm when you forgot to bring your umbrella along? Well, the same could be said for emergencies. Just thinking, “Oh, that will never happen to us,” or “We’ll just deal with it if it happens,” is certainly no emergency plan. Make 2025 the year that your HOA gets prepared. Create a detailed plan that outlines how your community should deal with disasters like a tornado, flood, or major power outage as they are happening and as you recover, too. Hammer out the details with your board, and then make sure all of your owners are informed so everyone in the community can feel confident about the action plans when (not just if) an emergency occurs.
Whether you choose all 10 of these items or just a few to work on throughout the year, we’re sure that your conscious effort to improve your HOA this year will provide benefits for your community for years to come. Need some extra help getting your HOA in tip top shape? Contact William Douglas! We offer everything from help with board meetings and community planning to classes for your HOA board members. We’d love to talk to you about how William Douglas can help make your community the best it can be.