HOA Insights: Common Sense for Common Areas
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HOA Insights: Common Sense for Common Areas
146 | Rebuilding Trust with Organized HOA Board Meetings
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Great HOA board meetings build trust. Bad ones create frustration, conflict, and doubt. Which does your association have?
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Today, we'll be continuing our early 2026 series on top HOA trends that we expect you'll be dealing with this year. In this episode, we'll be addressing rebuilding trust by running HOA Board Meetings that are organized and informative. Good meetings, and the message they give of trustworthy leadership, they don't happen by accident. They're intentional, and we want to arm you to be your best here in 2026 The result is an aura of confidence and transparency and trust, and that's good for every Association!
Chapters:
00:00 Why Is Follow-Up Critical After HOA Board Meetings?
00:44 What Do Homeowners Learn From HOA Board Meetings?
03:52 Why Do Disorganized Meetings Damage Trust?
06:31 Why Is an Agenda Essential for HOA Board Meetings?
07:58 Are HOA Board Meetings a “Production”?
09:08 How Long Should HOA Board Meetings Last?
12:57 Why Must Board Members Come Prepared?
14:37 How Can Committees Improve Decision-Making?
17:25 Why Is Homeowner Open Forum Important?
18:40 Should Boards Respond During Open Forum?
21:00 Why Must Boards Follow Up After Meetings?
23:10 Ad Break - Kevin Davis Insurance Services
23:55 What Is the Chair’s Role in Running Meetings?
26:03 How Should Boards Handle Conflict in Meetings?
28:44 When Should You Hold an Information Meeting Instead?
29:10 How Can Boards Prepare for Major Community Issues?
30:21 How Do Meetings Build Future Board Leadership?
31:23 What Makes a Board Meeting Feel Professional?
The views & opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts & Guests, intended to provide general education about the community association industry. The content is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or organization
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Just make sure, as board members, or as management, you get back to those people, I think one of the worst things that happens, because board members know this, managers know it, is that you are so busy all the time, there's so much stuff coming at you, it's very easy for something to get lost in the shuffle. At a board meeting is like the one place you don't want things to get lost in the shuffle. So whether you have to actually physically take a note, ask management to write that down, get it for you for part of an action list, and get back to that person.
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Robert Nordlund:Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of Association Reserves,
Julie Adamen:and I'm Julie Adamen and with Adamen Inc, and this is HOA Insights, where we promote common sense
Robert Nordlund:for common areas. Well, welcome to episode 146 where I'm joined by management and leadership expert Julie Adamen of Adamen Inc. Today, we'll be continuing our early 2026 series on top trends that we expect you'll be dealing with this year. In this episode, we'll be addressing rebuilding trust by running meetings that are organized and informative, good meetings, and the message they give of trustworthy leadership. They don't happen by accident. They're intentional, and we want to arm you to be your best here in 2026 The result is an aura of confidence and transparency and trust, and that's good for every Association. Last week's episode 145 was a great interview with Southern California Attorney Tom ware of kgsw law.com he and I were connected by an association that got embroiled in some litigation a number of years ago, and the origin was a strong board member that went too far, you could say, went south. So our discussion was about bullies, delegation, and how much board members can specialize, how much you can have one board member do yet how much they need to all continue to work together. It's always good to learn from the mistakes of others. If you missed that episode or any other prior episode, take a moment after today's program to listen from our podcast website, Hoa insights.org or search for HOA insights on YouTube. But better yet, subscribe from any of the major podcast platforms, or subscribe to our podcasts YouTube channel so you don't miss any future episodes. What we find is more and more subscribers means a higher search ranking, which means we can reach more boards with these free educational and inspirational episodes. So don't just visit and listen. Subscribe. Join us in our mission to improve the future of the community, association, industry. And those of you watching on YouTube can see the HOA insights mug that Julie and I have, that we got from our merch store, which you can too. You can browse through from our Hoa insights.org website or the link in our show notes, you'll find we have some great free stuff there, like board member zoom backgrounds and some specialty items for sale, like mugs. So go to the merch store, download a free zoom background, take a moment, look around and see if there's anything that puts a smile on your face. Well, we enjoy hearing from you responding to the issues you're facing at your association. So if you have a hot topic, a crazy story, or a question that you'd like us to address, you can always contact us at 805-203-3130, or email us at podcast at Hoa insights.org, today's program is a follow up to our episodes 141 42 and 144 on top trends here in 2026 so let's get right to it. Julie, what do owners learn about the association by attending a board meeting?
Julie Adamen:Almost everything they need to know that that could be good or that can be bad, but attending HOA magic here? Yeah, yes, absolutely. So let me just ask everybody. It's obviously, you all live in an HOA. You're on a board, or you're a homeowner, or you've been on a board, me too. I'm living a big HOA now. I've been on two HOA boards at once. I don't know what I was thinking, but I was so I feel your pain, but if you start thinking about board meetings you've attended, let's just say as as an attendee, not as a board member, as an attendee. And you sat through meetings that were argumentative, low decisions didn't get made, the board goes wandering off the agenda, off into the field somewhere, and you sit there just thinking, my goodness, this place has run as bad as I thought it was. And I think what really happens most of the time is that board members, because you're volunteers, and typically this is not your profession. Robert and I are insane enough for this to have been our profession. Lo, these close to 40 years each, decades,
Robert Nordlund:yeah, wringing my hands exactly,
Julie Adamen:or poking your eye out. Out, right? But it's been a heck of a ride, people. It's been really fun. However, I will say that if this isn't your business, and you don't live it and breathe it like we do, you're like, Okay, well, I've heard of HOA. Okay, I'll get on the board. And typically you How hard can it be? How hard can it be? That's right, I know the people who served on and they don't look too bright or whatever it could be, but what often happens. What often happens is that you left the room and they nominated you as the board president, and there you are. So But anyway, I mean, it's something, it's not your profession, so you're like, Okay, I'll give this a whirl. I'll step up and do something. And really, folks just don't think about how all of your laundry, the nice, clean, folded and pressed laundry is, and the really ugly, dirty laundry and all of that, whether it's good or whether it's bad, is going to show up in a board meeting unless you plan with forethought. And I think a lot of folks just don't think about it. So I'll start at the beginning, Robert, and then I'm gonna hand it back to you. Is that okay? So if almost all homeowners association meetings have attendees. Someone is especially larger associations, they have people that come to the board meetings. It's noticed some are televised through closed circuit television or cable through their association. And the first thing to do when you have attendees is make sure everybody has a copy of the agenda. Or big associations, they often do their agenda and all that on on a PowerPoint slide, so you have something you can see and actually look at and know where we're going. So yeah, like a handout.
Robert Nordlund:If it's in person, you have a few on a chair at the door. And if it's online, you have it available so they can download it, print it or view it. Okay, well, I'll tell you.
Julie Adamen:What is that, if it's online, typically that had to be noticed, just like any other meeting. And I would put in an agenda with that notice and with the link. Now understand that it used like, oh, the agenda might change. Yes, it might, but it's not going to change that much. You might add a item or two, or cross one off, and you just let people know what's going on. And that's Oh, fix it. Like, yes, my name is Kevin today. I didn't
Robert Nordlund:know, yeah, we were close on that. That was, that was an earlier episode. It was, oh, it was funny. Anyway.
Julie Adamen:So, so the first thing is, you know what you want to first of all, you want to be welcoming as a board. You want to, you know, welcome people to come in and see how things are going on, and you want to be transparent. That doesn't mean you don't run the meetings. You do run the meetings. The homeowners don't, but you still want them to attend. You want them to see you in action. You shouldn't have anything that you feel like, oh, I don't want people to see us operating this way. It happens a lot, though, unfortunately. So first thing is an agenda. Make sure you have your agenda ahead of time. If it's an online meeting, if it's zoom or teams, or whatever you're using, make sure you have that when your email gets sent out to give everyone the link. But if it's in person, just have, you know, just have a few copies by the door and let people come in and sit down and see what, what's going to happen.
Robert Nordlund:Okay, I think you started by saying people get into the board member position kind of unaware of what they're getting into. And that was certainly my background, my situation. But I think you get past that, like, what am I doing? Oh, gee, now I need to run a meeting, and then you're trying to figure out, what are we going to accomplish? Yes, it's a public forum. We need to be transparent. We need to communicate effectively. I'm not sure the average board member appreciates that they are putting on a show. They are putting on a production. Is that right up there with having agenda is making sure your shirts straight, make sure like we were doing before we started recording. Our headsets are straight. The light hair wasn't sticking out like you're you're putting on a show. What shirt are you wearing? Is it a logo shirt? Are you communicating more than you want to, or different than you want to? It is a show. And like you said, you have an agenda. Don't load it with things that are going to take three hours. You've got, what an hour or 90 minutes
Julie Adamen:90 I was 90 minutes to two hours at the most, but I know associations go longer, though,
Robert Nordlund:yeah, but so shrink your agenda down so you have you can set yourself up for success. Is that designing, that
Julie Adamen:is designing. And I want to go back to your word production, because I want everyone to think, Oh, we're not putting this isn't TV. We're not putting on a show. Yeah, you are, in the sense that when Robert's talking about your clothing. I mean, everybody knows if your kids went to school and they had to wear uniforms, kids in uniforms act a little different than kids with their pants hanging down their rear end. It just is what it is. It's like when your doctor walks in, you don't want to see him dressed as a big biker. You'd rather see him with this, you know, a tie and a coat. Or, you know, if it's a woman has nice little suit, lab coat, something like that. And as board members, that doesn't mean you have to dress like, ooh, with your tie. I mean, I live in a ginormous golf community, so I. Most of the people around here always got some kind of a golf shirt on or, you know, and a pair of slacks or shorts. Shorts are fine because a lot of you live in very warm areas, like I do, and so that's fine, but, oh, look neat and tidy. I would say. Don't be wearing the logo shirts. You always want to look as good as you possibly can, casual, but nice. And you have your agenda and and when you put things on the agenda, here's a way to think of agendas, folks. Let me go right into this. Your agendas should pretty much stay the same month to month. Now. I don't mean all the little items are going to be the same, but you're going to have some very the same categories all the time. Call to order approval of the minutes, review or approval of the financial statements, old business, new business. Maybe committee reports, if you have committees that are going to have report, and then time and date of next meeting and adjournment, and that is it. So if you are a relatively small Association you're under, if you're under 500 units, your meeting should not last any more than an hour. I can hear a lot of you going, Oh my God, I wish it would last an hour, but typically I find it's because the agendas are not well thought out. And within that, and I'm looking at you board presidents out there, because no matter what, you are the head of the meeting, you are the chair. Yes, another person can serve as chair, but typically, 99.9% of the time, it's the board president. So when the agenda is put forth, whether you did it, whether your management company did it, or your on site manager did it, you want to make sure and take a look at it. And you want to say, Hmm, there's like 40 items on here. I don't think we're going to be able to take action on this many. And then if it's ones you don't think you need to take action on yet, just get those off for the next meeting. And there's nothing worse than listening to a board grapple over 40 different items over four and a half hours. It makes you look unprepared, and definitely makes you look unprepared to make decisions. So you always want to be prepared to make a decision based upon what on what is brought in front of you. So let's just say you're gonna you're looking for a new landscaper. You have a manager. Manager has gotten, is sent out on our RFPs. You've gotten three or four bids in from, you know, Bob's landscaping, ABC landscaping, whatever. Hopefully you've looked at your board packets ahead of time, and you've read what the contracts say, or what the proposals say, and you are going to be able to make a motion second. It meaning, now that item is up for discussion, and you're going to discuss either, you know, Bob's or ABC, or maybe all three at one time, and then decide on your pros and cons. But you should be able to make that decision within five minutes. Most decisions, even less five minutes. If you're not ready to make a decision in five minutes, you're not ready to make the decision, and you just table it till the next month and move on. That's whether it's that or whether it's a new cable contract or anything like that. Try to make a decision, decision within five minutes. I'm hearing
Robert Nordlund:a couple things here. One is, don't stack the agenda designed for failure. And the other thing is, come prepared. If you are still asking, oh, is Bob's landscape the one that wouldn't do trees, or is XYZ the one that was only going to come once every other week, you need to come prepared so you're ready to go. I'm going to vote with Bob's, and I go with Bob's, and three of the five people vote with Bob's, and you move on, yes, like you're suggesting that shouldn't take a long time. It's one thing if you say yeah, but Bob's doesn't do trees well. But last year we went to ABC tree trimming, and they did for half the cost of what was built into Bob's Yes, and so we don't need Bob to do tree trimming, the other guy, we were paying the last people to do tree trimming, and that's why we're making this change. Exactly We want to come prepared with that, prepared to make decisions, yes, right? And the other thing I'm thinking is delegation. Are, if you have 40 decisions, are those really all board decisions, or should some of those be delegated to management or to a committee or a committee? Yes, yes. Say the committee has recommended Bob's landscaping. That's why you have Sheila. Can you tell us why Bob's and Sheila will tell in two minutes why Bob's was the best. They weren't the lowest price, but they do this and this and this, he managed committee recommends Bob's, yeah, and the committee recommends Bob's. He's the one who landscapes the place next door to us, which always looks so good, exactly.
Julie Adamen:And that's that delegation that is really key Robert on this. So I think a lot of folks don't understand how much they actually can delegate to specific committees. I mean, if anything has to do with landscape, your land, your active landscape committee, should be brought into that. That's why you want, you want to bring them in to help you make those decisions. Because they're focused on one particular area, you as a board member are focused. On the big picture, all of those areas, and none of them at the same time, but that's why you have those committee met. Now, if it's something specific, let's say you're going to have the asphalt removed and replaced. Typically, what you should have done ahead of time is appoint an ad hoc committee. That means he's just they're just going to be there temporarily to study one issue, and that issue is asphalt replacement. And those people should have been brought in four or five months ago to go and walk the whole place. Get decide what we want to do. You guys go out and you make the RFP, send it here to the board so we can review it before it goes out. Then the RFP goes out, the asphalt committee chair and management, if you have management, management management should always be looped in if you have a manager management company and and then they make their recommendation, and the Board may have questions for the asphalt committee. At you know at the time that these all came in, but you should have all your questions answered ahead of time. If you're a board member, do not hesitate to pick up the phone and call your asphalt committee chair and say, Why did you recommend this? Because the way I'm reading it, it says something different. Oh, okay, yes, you've spoken to him. This is what it says. There's an addendum, and it will be in the board packet coming
Robert Nordlund:out tomorrow. Yeah, they're going to manage the parking and they're going to clean up at the end of every day. Ah, okay, now I understand makes a big difference, because that's not a private board meeting that you shouldn't be doing. That's just you doing your preparation Right?
Julie Adamen:Exactly. No private board meeting that's completely different. You have to have a quorum of the board to do that, and most lot, a lot of states prohibit that now, can't even talk together.
Robert Nordlund:Yeah, you get into a mess if you're you're doing that kind of thing.
Julie Adamen:Don't but, but having going back to having your agenda and keeping the agenda relatively the same each time, same big categories, your drop down menus may be a little bit bigger or, you know, or smaller, depending on what's going on in the community, and having your agendas available for the people, and then utilizing your committees to help you get enough information to make decisions and listen to their recommendations on those decisions. Now, do you have to take the committee recommendation? No, you do not. You do not. But there's a reason you have those folks to study those things, so some of the burden is off of you as board members, and they can actually bring you a level of detail that you probably aren't privy to or didn't even think to ask about, because you're not focused on that. So those are two of the big things. Robert, want to talk a little bit about open forum for the homeowners.
Robert Nordlund:Yes, we're talking about you mentioned that you want to set an agenda that is set up for success, and one of those things is time for feedback. It is so important in communicating and transparency to make sure that you are hearing from your constituents, not just as you walk around and go the mailbox and sit at the pool or swimming in the pool, walking dogs, but hearing in an official open forum. So how do you manage that successfully? Do you can you budget 15 minutes? But what if you have a special assessment coming up and you got 15 people who want two minutes of microphone time.
Julie Adamen:Well, I would say you have to give them their two minutes, two minutes or three minutes, whatever it is, even if there's 15 people there, but hold it to the two or three minutes, whatever you're you're doing an association I live in. It's very large. And there they do have that so, you know, they can feedback for two minutes, and then they then they're done, and everybody knows it. Now, all the homeowners are pretty trained in that, so it's not a real big issue, but if you are having something big, like a special assessment, you probably should be holding another separate meeting just to get that kind of feedback, as opposed to it being at a board meeting. So that you might want to think
Robert Nordlund:about that, because a board meeting is a decision meeting. It's not an information meeting, and so you do your town hall, we're going to talk about a special assessment. Now in those open forums, let's say you've got two minutes, two minutes, two minutes. Is this a time for the board to respond, or is it just a time for you to let the people here, do you because are you gonna discuss back and forth?
Julie Adamen:Try not to. I know sometimes you have to, but really it's a time for those people to put forth what they think. Okay, so they think about whatever is going on they want to. Typically, it's a it's relatively smaller complaints. Well, you know, my trees didn't get trimmed on my street until, you know, a month later than everybody else is that kind of thing, and you just want to take it in. Thank you so much for your feedback. Now, if people do have something that would be like a common area complaint, or something that really needs to go to management, or if the board is managing, go to them at another time. If you're having an in person meeting, I would always have literally, a written form, kind of the service order type form, okay, if you are doing this online, and not even that, if your association has this, not all small associations certainly don't all have it, but you will have a portal for your community where people can go in and type up a complaint, and you could just refer them to that. Please send this. To us so it doesn't get lost. So and if you tell a homeowner as a board member, say, Yeah, that's a really good point. I don't have an answer for you. Let me get back to you. That's fine, but you have to, but you have to get back to them. You can't forget I like
Robert Nordlund:what you were saying. If someone says, I thought we decided this. And you say you're right. Mrs. Jones, we decided that last month, but thank you for double checking. You can find it in the meeting minutes, maybe just that simple acknowledgement that that's a good point. Let us look into that, and we'll get back to you. But just because I feel like so much, it so much of the time, it's an opportunity for the homeowner to let go of some steam and you want to acknowledge them. You're a human. You're a member here. You're in unit number 16. See, oh yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. That's a very good point. We will look into that, and we should have an answer for you by next week, something like that. Let them, let them be
Julie Adamen:heard, yes and acknowledge acknowledge it. I mean, that's you know to thank you so much for your input. Really appreciate it. And again, if it's something that the board that is going to be actionable for the board or management, just make sure, as board members or as management, you get back to those people. I think one of the worst things that happens because board members know this, managers know it is that you are so busy all the time, there's so much stuff coming at you, it's very easy for something to get lost in the shuffle. At a board meeting is like the one place you don't want things to get lost in the shuffle. So whether you have to actually physically take a note, ask management to write that down, get it for you for part of an action list, and get back to that person. It's frankly getting back to people, even if you've made a mistake, they don't care about the mistake. They care about how you fix it, and getting back to them and not leaving them wondering what happened in the dark. Because when homeowners are in the dark, wondering what's happening, all of a sudden, that darkness vacuum will get filled with all kinds of stuff that didn't even belong in there, and it can balloon into balloon into a much bigger problem than it was in the first place.
Robert Nordlund:Yeah, as I'm hearing you, one of my pet peeves is board members who don't come prepared. But I'm hearing that it's as important for you to do your homework afterwards follow up on those loose ends, and as much as you do great job by hearing people and letting them say and be part of the community. I think you're going to just destroy that if you just blow them off and say that was a waste of two minutes of my life. They didn't do anything about it. Yeah. Maybe that just a simple acknowledgement, an email or, oh, yeah, what's your email? Mrs. Johnson, let us get back to you on that you're 16 C, right? Or whatever it is, make sure you have the ability to connect and close that loop communicate, yeah, I we've been diving into this, and I haven't been looking at the time, and we're way past our midpoint sponsor at so we need to take a quick break here and here for one of our general sponsors. After that, we'll be back with more common sense for common areas, and discussion about basically how you can build trust at your association with effective board meetings.
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Robert Nordlund:experts, and we're back well during the break, Julie and I were sharing some stories about things that we've seen and heard. And we want to make sure, with the time available, that we leave you with at least a couple more ideas of what to do. And the first was the responsibility of the chair, and that's to move the agenda
Julie Adamen:forward, to keep the meeting moving forward. For example, if you are if a motion comes before the comes on the floor, second, it's okay to discuss it. But if it's obvious you're not going to make, like I said before, make a decision within two to three minutes, five at the very most, you're not ready, so you need to table that issue and come back to it at the next meeting. And then, because the last thing we were talking about was homeowner forums, when to have them and Well, typically not during the meeting. In some states, looking at you, Nevada, you have to do that, but most states, you do not. So they're held before the meeting or after. But one thing that often happens in a meeting is that there's a controversial issue, or at least it's controversial to some people in attendance, and they're going to want to give you their two cents in the middle of the meeting, the chair does not recognize those people. The board meeting is only for typically, only for the board members. And usually when something like that happens, it's some real ugly thing. It's people are angry. There's been a special assessment. There's been a tree cut down that shouldn't have been cut down. Whatever it is, people have emotion about it, and they get very angry. And I have sat in those meetings and they're, if you are the chair, and it looks like it is not going to calm down anytime soon. Call a recess for 10 or 15 minutes. Let everybody go out, stretch their legs, grab some water, you know, and kind of cool down. And oftentimes that will allow you to come right back to the agenda and keep moving. If you come back and it's more of the same, and it's abusive, it's angry. It is hostage holding. I mean, it's everybody's being held hostage. The rest of the homeowners there, the whole board members there, your staff, if you have staff there, you know it's okay to adjourn the meeting. Just call it a day. It's better for everybody, and then regroup and see what you can do to if they're even reasonable people, I don't know, whatever the issue is, you have to decide this on your own if they have a point, but they just didn't get it across well, or if maybe they're completely nuts, and how you're going to deal with them. So this doesn't happen again. At the next meeting,
Robert Nordlund:I'm thinking about one of the basic principles you've talked about so much, is communicating. And Kevin always talks about lowering the temperature, reducing the pressure, reducing steam. If there's a wait for maybe you can take a break saying, Hey everyone, I'm sorry this is on me. I've got a phone call I need to make right now. So you're not blaming the disruptive person, whatever it is. Or you could say, you know, with the emotions in the room, let's take a break. But is it possible to, during that time say, you know, can you put your stuff in writing and we'll take it as a
Julie Adamen:regular order. Take it as take it as a board that would be regular order, that letter or email can go into the board packet the next time. So people are seeing that ahead of time, and they can actually look at it, discuss it, and then either take action or not or send it to a committee for review.
Robert Nordlund:Got it, and that way, what have you done? You've lowered the temperature, you've allowed the person to be heard, and you're giving it due time and consideration to look into it.
Julie Adamen:Yes, in an in a business like fashion, because you are running a business, this is a business meeting well,
Robert Nordlund:and that I want to make sure we're clear on that also, because when I get involved, it's usually because there's a big roof project or asphalt project, and there's going to be a special assessment, they want me to come in and explain why the roof is leaking. And it's usually pretty simple. It's, it's 25 years old, folks, and it's it, if it was a dog, it would be dead. And you guys didn't set any reserves aside. So it's next roof is going to cost $250,000 and you got no money. It's pretty much that simple, but I get involved. And why is this? Why are we just to and you talked about earlier, have an information meeting. It doesn't have to be a board meeting, but make have it be information meeting, and you've told stories about how you were at an association at some point in time where they had a series of weekly update meetings, where people could always come in and there was at least one board member there and sometimes find out information, let off steam. Ask Anything. Boy, yeah, ask anything. It's total open forum, boy compliment, a business meeting, a board meeting where you are putting on a show with information. Meetings when you have that big you know the hot wire is going to be shut off for 48 hours these two days. You know that's going to be disruptive. You don't want to just mention that as an aside. At a board meeting, you're like, Wait, did he say 48 hours? What? Hang on, I got company
Unknown:coming, grandkids. I got Yeah, right.
Robert Nordlund:You need to prep that in advance. There's things you can do, maybe months in advance. Oh, yeah,
Julie Adamen:how big it is? Sure, yeah, typically, you know it's coming. It's not just coming up in a month or two, you usually know eight or nine months out that this is going to have to happen. It's a train wreck. We got to get ready for it and start addressing that train wreck before it's in your front yard. Ahead of time.
Robert Nordlund:Julie, this is just fantastic stuff, and I hope that we've been able to pull some of the major points together. It's always great talking with you and hearing from your volume of experience than the battle wounds that you've taken watching and assisting on all this kind of stuff. But any closing thoughts to add at this
Julie Adamen:time once again, like what we always tell all of you board members out there first, thanks for watching, but you guys are doing yeoman's work overall. I mean, I think the statistic is about 75% of homeowners are actually satisfied with their homeowners association. That is huge. Of course, we only hear about the bad stuff. We don't hear about the good stuff, but so you guys are doing great work. And just remember, when you do have a board meeting transparency, be aware of how you're presenting yourself, how you look, how the board meeting is structured. With the appropriate agenda and keeping that move that agenda moving forward. So everyone's not there for four horrible and pleasant hours, because, you know what, you don't want to be a board member forever, and people coming to those meetings don't want to think, I have to do a four hour meeting every month, and I want to kill myself. So you want them to come in, you want them to feel a part of something positive.
Robert Nordlund:Yeah, and there's two things I want to ask. I was trying to close this, but I've still got more in my brain going, this is a great opportunity for you to build a pipeline for future board members, because if you can make it appear doable and reasonable and non confrontational, it's like in my world watching Fred Astaire dance, watching Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan on a basketball court. It just looks so smooth and simple. If you can make it look like organized and you know, Fred has been president for four years, it's time for him to step down. You say, Well, yeah, I could do that. And I like being part of the common sense and bringing this community forward. Yeah, that kind of stuff, I think it can do. Build a pipeline.
Julie Adamen:You are spot on, and the number one place people see you in action as a board is at a board meeting. So if your board meetings are long or ugly or or you don't get along as board and they go on and on forever, nobody wants to volunteer for that experience. They want to be again, a part of something positive, something that's in touch with the needs of the community.
Robert Nordlund:Okay, my last question is, do you have a gavel? Does that make it look too official, or is that helpful in having there be order?
Julie Adamen:Oh, I don't know. I think it's I've seen people use them. I would say most people don't need it. It's but it depends if you like it. Go ahead and use it.
Robert Nordlund:But at the last trade show I was at, they had little squishy gavels for the attorneys. And I just just thinking about that, you could hit yourself on the head with it all day, and it wouldn't do anything. Perfect. Yeah. Nerf gavel, it was basically a nerf gavel, okay, well, we hope you learned some HOA insights from our discussion today that helps you bring common sense and today trust to your common areas. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to bringing many more episodes to you, week after week after week, we'll be here. It'll be great to have you join us on a regular basis. Spread the word
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