What Makes A Good Board Member?

 

 

The question is frequently asked in our community: What makes a good member of our Board of Directors?

Just as cookie-cutter answers rarely work, there is no perfect answer to this question. On balance, the answer does not usually lie in the career experience of a resident.

Yes, it does help if the Board includes residents with legal training, and certainly it is a big help if some directors have the financial/accounting background that facilitates their work with the $8 million annual budget of Sun City Anthem.

Still, no one type of career training automatically translates into the ideal Board member. One concrete example: The late director Barry Friedman drove a bakery truck for most of his working life.

Here are some of the qualities I suggest we should seek in a Sun City Anthem director:

First and foremost, I suggest, is knowledge of our Association and how it works. Someone who comes onto the Board without having gained this knowledge is at a real disadvantage.

Where does the association knowledge come from? Volunteer service is the key. Someone who serves on one of our standing committees or a task force has the opportunity to understand and work with our important governing documents and often with NRS 116, the Nevada statute that regulates homeowners associations.

Participation in one of several volunteer organizations is another way to gain invaluable experience and knowledge of the workings of Sun City Anthem. This includes the Community Patrol, Community Service Group, and Community Neighborhood Watch.

Another way: active participation in one or more of our chartered clubs, especially in a position of leadership such as club officer or head of a club sub-group. This affords an opportunity to demonstrate leadership while working collaboratively with others.

Could a viable Board candidate come forward without any of the above “qualifications”? Sure, but it would be much more difficult, I should think, to gain the confidence of voters if the candidate has not shown a history and willingness to become engaged by participating in some of the Association’s many volunteer opportunities.

In addition, participation of the types I have described helps to build networks of friends and fellow volunteers who have the confidence in the candidate to help him/her get elected.

Some past candidates who have not built up a SCA volunteer “resume” could have gained a fair amount of knowledge by regular attendance at committee and Board meetings. When a candidate comes forward without volunteer experience AND/OR without a history of meeting attendance, one has to wonder whether all they plan to  rely on as a director is on-the-job training.

The next quality to look for in a director is simply stated: the ability to work well with others.

To work cooperatively does not mean giving up one’s independence of thought and deed. What is does mean, however, is that an effective director will articulate his/her viewpoints in a respectful manner, will not over-personalize discussions while advocating a point of view, and will accept consensus, for the good of the community, after collective decisions have been made.

Though we employ the services of a professional management company, the overall fiscal and personal integrity of Sun City Anthem depends on unpaid resident volunteers who support our structure of governance. It DOES NOT mean ignoring and failing to work for constructive change and improvement, because we are not a perfect institution and we should always be engaging in examination of our policies and structure to see where we can make things better.

But the key to success in these endeavors is to practice respect for our fellow resident volunteers and to focus as much as possible on issues, not on personalities.

Much has been made in some quarters for a perceived need to do background checks on Board candidates. Advocates for this process point to the widely reported instances of fraud that have occurred in other homeowners associations, almost all very small ones, throughout Southern Nevada.

We are fortunate that our system of checks and balances, and relatively open governance with few unnecessarily hidden secrets, if any, has kept us scandal-free since our inception as a community.

Almost all meetings are held in open sessions with homeowners welcome and encouraged to attend. Minutes are kept and posted to the SCA website. Board Book documents are also open to resident review. Controls are in place to assure that no one person can spend large sums of money on his/her own without proper review and approval.

Nevada Revised Statute 116 spells out the limited qualifications required to run for the Board, and there is no provision for background checks. Board candidates produce materials that describe their respective backgrounds and experience, and residents are always free to challenge candidates’ credentials and/or to contact them directly to ask questions that concern them.

Background checks would serve one purpose only: to discourage homeowners from stepping forward as unpaid volunteers because they don’t want their personal privacy invaded. That is not how to operate the community we love and call home, the community that has earned the designation of Number One Luxury Adult Community in America.

 

Comments

[Sandy Ridge]

One has to wonder why, in some quarters, there is a fixation on background checks. Beyond those two words - background checks - no thought seems to have been given to policies, procedures, application.

I believe you are right, David, when you say that the Board candidates' Sun City Anthem résumés are the best predictors of future success. Contrary to unpopular opinion, our past and present Board members have served us well.

Granted, there has been one rotten apple in the basket who contacted the IRS when he saw the opportunity to line his pockets.
(Hmmm, I wonder how many other friends and relatives he turned in to the IRS in the past.) But would a background check on him those many years ago have changed the fact that he was, unfortunately, elected to the BOD?

[Wade]

Excellent thoughts> Two more to consider.
1. A board member has to be willing and somewhat able to put their personal wishes and / or agenda aside for the good of the Association. This is difficult as individuals have strong feelings generally. NRS's guidance in the business judgement rule is that we must look out for the Association at the expense of ours or other residents individual personal wishes. This is a hard concept to grasp. Several residents have complained to me about a specific issue thinking their belief is what the Association as a whole wants. Sometimes they do not recognize or accept that theirs is the minority opinion. An example is that I do not wish to have gambling in the restaurant space. It appears that I am in the minority so would have to support gambling if it came to a vote.
2. A board member has to know and support the meaning of the word consensus. It is ok and welcomed to debate, discuss, and argue on different sides of an issue -- sometimes very strongly. After the vote is taken the decision is made. Win or lose a board member needs to be able to support the outcome. It is disingenous and disruptive to be second guessing a decision after the vote.

[Bob Sansing]

David:
I think your descriptions of what it takes to be a good Director is right on target.
I would add, length of time living in SCA to be a good measuring stick as to their understanding of all of our governing documents and NRS 116. We have had a couple of examples of how hard it is to govern without that knowledge. We subsequently end up with a Board that can't get out of its own way in dealing with important issues of the day.
The election of Board officers has also shown to be important. I believe that new people to the Board should not be put into positions of high responsibility, such as Board President. Since we elect members to serve 2 year terms, I think a new member should watch and learn the first year and then ask their fellow Board members to elect them to a higher Board level as an officer.
Obviously many people disagree with me on this point as seen by a new Board member elected to Board President. It seems that in our most recent case, we got lucky that he turned out to be someone who hit the ground running. But there are examples where
it turned out badly for the individual and the community.
Just my thoughts,
Bob Sansing, ex-SCA BoD Director
Proud to serve my community