It's that time for another HOA election

It's that time for the annual HOA election.

Three board positions are up, one was vacant and two were occupied. I'm not sure if the current Welcoming Director or Rules & Regulations Director are running to retain their positions. However, they both provided an article for the newsletter and that was amazing, so I guess they are running to retain their positions.

Usually, I spend more time attempting to get board members to write for the bi-monthly newsletter than it takes for me to write my articles. I provide two articles because I'm the president and also the Architecture & Projects director.

This month everybody provided an article. Astounding! It's been many months since this occurred, perhaps it is the election? Because some board members only run every other year, perhaps it has been two years since all of the board members provided an article at the same time.

I do get a lot of help from our Maintenance Director who is also putting together the newsletters. I did that for about 4 years and she has taken this on. I assist her in her job. Doers do need to help one another.

As part of the annual meeting and election we'll have the board presentations. 
Last year I presented a 30+ page PPT address about fees, reserves and "why things are the way they are". I did make a video of the data in the presentation and provided it to board members who wanted it. There is a version out a Youtube. Perhaps I'll publish it here in October.

This year I'll provide additional insights during the September 28 annual meeting. My primary interest in becoming president of the HOA was to get to put about 600 words on the front page of the newsletter every other month. Why? Because "everything can be resolved in communications".

We have about 60 new owners and I'm sure some are really interested in knowing more about their HOA. I'm hopeful most of them will attend the annual meeting. I'll be presenting a detailed message about finances. Why? Because I'm a fiduciary, that's why!

Has there been a problem with finances in this HOA? Yes, indeed. The problem about finances is this. For about 30 years previous boards avoided or refused to get a reserve study. It seems they preferred to use a dart board for setting annual reserve contributions. By 2008 with annual fee increases of 5% or more each year, owners had enough. They booted most of the incumbents. Sadly, the board that was ejected had failed to save enough. That's what happens when we fail to get real experts involved, or if we do, we fail to do our homework and listen to them. After 30 years of financial undersaving, this HOA was in real trouble. And current owners were on the hook for the tab.

Some board members at the time deflected all of the criticism.

However, lately we've had fee increases of less than 2% per year. Yet, our reserves have increased and miraculously infrastructure repairs ignored or delayed for more than a decade have been completed.  How did that happen? It wasn't easy. A botched reserve study in 2010 indicated we needed a 10% fee increase and a $million loan to address "issues". That didn't happen. Why? because of another rebuttal reserve study by me, and a third by a competent and qualified reserve firm to set us on the right track. Since 2010 we've been putting the money where our mouths are as a board. Not easy because not everyone agrees.

Today we have a viable financial plan, I've re-invigorated projects and maintenance and we are on the right track.

Thanks to the current treasurer for championing the replacement to the Thames deck. I must admit I had tired of being the target for board crap. Then there was the neighbor who screamed at me from across the street "I hate you". I must be stupid or a masochist to be here for 15 years. Or perhaps I'm very forgiving.

Returning to the present, it is that time for the annual election. So suddenly everybody writes an article for the newsletter, or at least agrees to one. Whoopie! But that is much, much better than chasing board members to do this. There was a time when I wrote articles for other board members. What a cluster. I've noted previously that I have spent more time chasing board members to do their duty that it would take to get the job done. But that is how some manipulate others. I'm a busy guy. I'm a paid creative writer on financial things, I've got a business to run and three home bases to maintain. Want to get under my skin? Just chew into my free time.

How will the election go? Who knows. About half of our owners are apathetic to the issues, unless they feel the pain of fee increases or they don't like their "view". Perhaps that's why our board member with the longest tenure presses for significantly higher fees each and every year. "We don't have enough money". WTF? It's pretty disingenuous when one of the architects of the financial problems facing this HOA in 2008 argues today for a lot more money. Perhaps the goal is to simply get the attention of owners? But annual fee increases of 5% or more inflict a lot of financial pain on owners, over time. I prefer to manage the HOA properly and spend a lot of time on 30 year plans. Much better than the "dart board" approach to future planning that was used here for nearly 30 years.

After 7 years on the board, I've concluded that you really can't teach an old dog new tricks. Too many owners really don't care.

Time for me to leave. I'm sure I'll never be missed. There are many other places to put my considerable talents to use.

Here's a chart with one possibility for capital expenditures from 2018-2047. Of course, this will require a funding plan to accomplish it. The secret is that small, incremental fee increases can be saved for these really large expenditures. But you would be surprised how many people fail to appreciate the cumulative effects of long term planning and saving. It is really difficult for me to grasp that this HOA ran on whims and prayers and guesses for 30 years. Boards paid the annual bills, but kicked the can down the road. I guess I purchased at the optimum time as my fees quickly increased by 73%. Yep, that's nearly double for monthly fees. Thanks to the owners who previously pressed for "lower fees" and gutless boards who failed to do the real work and publish the reality. I guess getting re-elected was more important.

Could you or anyone construct and provide for the following chart without some grounding in reality? When streets, roofs and other infrastructure requirements all coincide, a lot of money needs to be available. Or boards make difficult decisions. Should they short shrift streets, delay roof replacements, avoid doing any other capital work? When there are insufficient funds, something has to be sacrificed.  That's what some previous boards did. Some infrastructure was ignored. Don't bother on making those annual condition surveys. Stick you head in the ground and ignore the elephants in the room. And they apparently did.

That was then, and this is now. There is a plan and it can be accomplished with 2% annual fee increases for the next 30 years.

I'm sure I'll encounter some stiff resistance at the October budget meeting.