I was elected as Director of Board of HOA, Treasurer

[Beiruty]

HOA's Board of Directors elections.

Yep. I nominate myself last March 2nd.
Last night, I gave a 5 min speech stressing the need to control finances, provide value for $$$ of the residents of our HOA and work on rolling back of HOA dues that went up from $300 to $360 over the last few years. I run against existing President and Treasurer whose 3-yrs terms ended. I was elected with another new member, debie. I had the chance to be the President, however, nominated the existing secretary to be the President. I elected to be new treasurer.

It would be fun serving on as an "elected" public servant.

[Excaliber]

HOA's Board of Directors elections.

Yep. I nominate myself last March 2nd.
Last night, I gave a 5 min speech stressing the need to control finances, provide value for $$$ of the residents of our HOA and work on rolling back of HOA dues that went up from $300 to $360 over the last few years. I run against existing President and Treasurer whose 3-yrs terms ended. I was elected with another new member, debie. I had the chance to be the President, however, nominated the existing secretary to be the President. I elected to be new treasurer.

It would be fun serving on as an "elected" public servant.

Congratulations!

I've served on HOA boards as president, vice president, and treasurer for as many as 350 homes.

It's a necessary service. If good folks decline to do it, the less capable will be glad to and your fees will go up while services go down.

Be prepared to put in WAY more work than you figured on.

[dukalmighty]

DUUUUDE how much have you allotted for guns and ammo

[rwg3]

Congratulations! I was surprised how my opinion of my neighbors ebbed the more I got dragged into the mire that all too often follows these kind of groups. I hope that yours is an enjoyable experience.

[WildBill]

HOA's Board of Directors elections.

It would be fun serving on as an "elected" public servant.

Don't let the power go to your head.

[fickman]

HOA's Board of Directors elections.

Yep. I nominate myself last March 2nd.
Last night, I gave a 5 min speech stressing the need to control finances, provide value for $$$ of the residents of our HOA and work on rolling back of HOA dues that went up from $300 to $360 over the last few years. I run against existing President and Treasurer whose 3-yrs terms ended. I was elected with another new member, debie. I had the chance to be the President, however, nominated the existing secretary to be the President. I elected to be new treasurer.

It would be fun serving on as an "elected" public servant.

Congratulations!

I've served on HOA boards as president, vice president, and treasurer for as many as 350 homes.

It's a necessary service. If good folks decline to do it, the less capable will be glad to and your fees will go up while services go down.

Be prepared to put in WAY more work than you figured on.

I'm currently the President of our HOA. . . I never intended to run, but was asked to fill a vacant spot a few years ago. I definitely have better things to do with my time (I'd rather not live in an HOA at all), but I've become fond of saying that if I wasn't looking after things, somebody else would be. My HOA has a few minor challenges, but for the most part it's been an enjoyable experience.

I'd recommend having a reserve study done as soon as possible to inventory and evaluate all of your capital, where each piece of capital is in its lifespan, the expected replacement or repair costs, and to ensure you have the available reserve funds set aside.

[RoyGBiv]

Be prepared to put in WAY more work than you figured on.

In my experience, there will be a LOT of whining and complaining, and very little "helping" from your homeowners.
It's sooooooo much easier for most folks to tell you what the problems are rather than put in real work on implementing solutions.

Good on you for putting in the effort.
Good luck... Welcome to "Public Service".

[RoyGBiv]

I'd recommend having a reserve study done as soon as possible to inventory and evaluate all of your capital, where each piece of capital is in its lifespan, the expected replacement or repair costs, and to ensure you have the available reserve funds set aside.

OK.. I have a story...

When I first moved to TX, after reading the first annual report of my HOA I was FLOORED.
We were a gated community, so we had responsibility for repairing and maintaining the paved streets. And we had exactly $0 in reserve. We were paying for capital projects from our operating budget.!! And we had a very small carry over from year to year.!!

Seeing the urgency of the issue, I ran for VP of our HOA together with a neighbor who ran for Pres. We were both elected, and appointed a third person, a neighbor lady who was an accountant, as treasurer.

We paid for a reserve study and following the recommendations, we had to shut down spending... No budget for parties, renegotiating vendor contracts, getting rid of our management company (who failed to adequately advise previous boards of the reserve issue and overcharged us for that privilege)...

Within a year we had a plan... and EVERYONE was mad at us... Everyone's pet projects were de-funded. Miraculously, the property sits on top of the Barnett Shale and we were saved by leasing the common area mineral rights for enough money to reach a reasonable reserve. I moved out of that place 3 years ago... No more gated communities for me... Unless it's Bill Gates community..

So..... If a reserve study has not been done in the past 5 years... that should be your first priority.. IMO.

[fickman]

We were paying for capital projects from our operating budget.!!

We were doing the same thing when I took over.

There was an adequate reserve account but we weren't contributing to it nearly fast enough to prepare for the next 5-15 years. We used the data from the reserve study to tighten our belts, dramatically increase the reserve contributions, and notify the neighborhood that we'll have three small rate increases over the next five years to get us comfortably through the tightest window. If we'd waited five years to look at it, we'd be in a bad spot. . . possibly forced into debt financing. As it stands, we should come through OK.

Once the major expenses are out of the way, we'll have plenty of time to replenish the reserve and should avoid future fee increases for a long, long time.

[Beiruty]

DUUUUDE how much have you allotted for guns and ammo

Since, I control the budget, I have an open line of credit. I am limited by the storage capacity of my safe. I guess, I have allocate a fund for a bigger safe

[Beiruty]

HOA's Board of Directors elections.

Yep. I nominate myself last March 2nd.
Last night, I gave a 5 min speech stressing the need to control finances, provide value for $$$ of the residents of our HOA and work on rolling back of HOA dues that went up from $300 to $360 over the last few years. I run against existing President and Treasurer whose 3-yrs terms ended. I was elected with another new member, debie. I had the chance to be the President, however, nominated the existing secretary to be the President. I elected to be new treasurer.

It would be fun serving on as an "elected" public servant.

Congratulations!

I've served on HOA boards as president, vice president, and treasurer for as many as 350 homes.

It's a necessary service. If good folks decline to do it, the less capable will be glad to and your fees will go up while services go down.

Be prepared to put in WAY more work than you figured on.

I'm currently the President of our HOA. . . I never intended to run, but was asked to fill a vacant spot a few years ago. I definitely have better things to do with my time (I'd rather not live in an HOA at all), but I've become fond of saying that if I wasn't looking after things, somebody else would be. My HOA has a few minor challenges, but for the most part it's been an enjoyable experience.

I'd recommend having a reserve study done as soon as possible to inventory and evaluate all of your capital, where each piece of capital is in its lifespan, the expected replacement or repair costs, and to ensure you have the available reserve funds set aside.

Good idea. I will have more questions for the HOA hired manager. We will keep in touch.

[SewTexas]

I'm the "treasurer" of our HOA, right now it's an honorary position...everything is so well set up that I don't have to do a whole lot. When we got our last numbers I did ask a few questions of our management company, and got the answers.

our HOA has found that your management company makes a big difference, I've found even your manager make a difference. We were with one company that apparently has a very, very bad reputation, but no one realized that I guess...now we are with a better company, we have had a guy who is very strict as a manager, and a lady who is much more relaxed...so it kinda depends on your manager...the lady realizes that the two of us on the board want to be more relaxed about most things....(you know, clean up the dead bodies and I won't care about the grass being a 1/4 too tall)

[fickman]

No offense to any of you but I'm in an hoa neighborhood as well. My hoa is a pain in the neck. Ill never get a house with an hoa as long as I live. I can understand the rules to a point but if I work til 730pm and my trashcans are not in by 700pm that same night I get a letter. Same thing with my yard if I have one weed in the flower bed I get a letter. I think its a little extreme where I am. But my main concern would be as long as people keep their yard descent looking and don't have motors hanging from their trees with a huge rebel flag with a purple painted house and a green garage door, I think the hoa shuld ease up a little I get fines for such silly things its obnoxious. Imho maybe I got involved in a cruddy hoa. But from my experience ill never live in one again

Sounds like a reason to run for the board. . .

(FWIW, I hope to never live in one again. Acreage in an unincorporated area sounds much more like home to me.)

[Beiruty]

Today at the school where we were under lockdown, one parent approached me and asked if I was elected last night. She added she had to leave early and wanted to make sure I was elected since she vote for me.
It was a chance for her to meet my wife and have a neighbor to neighbor chat.