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EDUCATING
BOARD MEMBERS CAN SAVE LOTS OF MONEY!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
September 13, 2013
I
always winder how people think that they can be in charge of the
welfare of their neighbors without having a basic idea how they
are supposed to do their job as a board member. Being a board
member means running a business – the association.
Honestly,
if I would get 1% of the damages caused annually by “stupid”
decisions of board members I would be outright rich. I will
never forget what former State Representative Julio Robaina
always said: “If we
could pass a law against stupidity in our community associations
we would have less than 50% of the problems we are seeing daily!”
The
first time a went to Tallahassee to speak in front of a
legislative committee I talked about – among other things –
educating board members, much to the dismay of lobbyists for
community association service providers present at the hearing.
Don’t forget: More than 10 years ago the Community Association
Institute (CAI) got $500,000 annually from the Condo Trust Fund
– money they used in my opinion to fight owner-friendly laws.
A
lot has changed since then and this year
Florida
’s Legislature decided (H7119)
that it’s time to add mandatory education to the provisions in
FS
720. It was about time!
But the legislators still left a cop-out for the people who
think they know it all. These folks are allowed to sign an
affidavit stating that they have read the association’s
declaration of covenants, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and
current written rules and policies. Signing such affidavit
seriously limits the use of the formerly favorite excuse of
board members: “I didn’t know such rule existed!”
Board
members can now attend free seminars, approved by the DBPR, to
learn what the law says about conducting business in an
association. And according to many folks who already attended
these seminars – it’s even fun and often comes with free
food and drinks.
I
can only laugh about the folks who oppose these education
requirements claiming that it will limit the number of
volunteers for board member positions even more. Homeowners can
really do without the kind of “volunteers” who don’t even
have three hours to visit such board certification seminar to
learn the basic requirements of being a board member.
There
are still too many people who want to be board members because
they think it lifts their social standing.
Being
a board member is a big responsibility considering that board
members can seriously damage the financial welfare of their
neighbors.
Do you want to live in a community where somebody runs around in
your homeowners’ association telling everybody that he/she is
the president but barely knows what FS 720 means?
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