A common topic
Access Management Group responds to are questions on actions taken by individual
Board members:
“Recently one of our Board members,
on his own, sent out a message to the community soliciting information about
management company interactions. I’m
worried it may have been inappropriate.
What is the rule for communications by the Board?”
If an action
by a Board member causes unease, don’t ignore your gut reaction: Boards must operate in a way that is very definitive,
with unified messaging, to avoid needless confusion. How an email or letter is worded may
negatively impact the community’s perception of the Board if it is too “familiar” (using words like “I” rather than “We”) in
tone, or can be perceived as political in nature.
Remember: A community association is a corporation run
in the manner of a business, not a city council. While the natural desire is to be friendly
and informal, any communication from the Board or a Board member will be taken
as an official pronouncement by some in the community, regardless of intent.
The best
policy is for the Board to designate a single point of contact, whether that is
the Board president, secretary, or the community association manager. Whoever is selected should have excellent
composition skills: Misspellings and grammatical errors will
distract from any messaging. Nothing
should be sent to the community without review by the Board as a group. While not every Board member will respond or
agree with a particular notice, all should be focused on maintaining the
professional image of the Association.
All of this
relates to the broader issue of a Director choosing to act independently of the
Board. The Georgia Real Estate
Commission, which oversees the licensing of Community Association Managers, has
provided the following on dissenting Directors:
• A Director
who does not agree with the decision of the group should request that his/her
dissenting vote be identified in the Minutes of the meeting
• Although
not required by law, a dissenting Director should keep the discussion at the Board
meeting confidential even though he/she disagrees with the final result
• If the
dissenting Director uses knowledge obtained at a Board meeting to undermine the
association, the dissenting Director could be in breach of his/her duties of
care and loyalty and personally liable (without indemnification) for any
damages their actions create
• The Board
should send a cease and desist letter to the dissenting Director
• The Board
might need to vote to remove the dissenting Director (sometimes membership must
vote to remove a Board member)
• The Board
might need to obtain a temporary restraining order against the dissenting Director
As you can see, this is a serious topic that needs to be discussed frankly and frequently among all Board members. Setting expectations in advance of such negative behavior is key to preventing a dysfunctional and disrespected Board.
The main thing I could go ahead about this is from my own particular individual experience, what I have seen, done, heard and experienced. I'll utilize my national (truly worldwide) protection brains bunch (MM11) as the premise of how you could do it as well (not saying it is the main way but rather it works! Dissenting group
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