Co-op and condo board members are usually volunteers who give of their time and expertise to help make sure their building or HOA is well-run and their investment protected. In a perfect world, new board members are architecture graduate students who moonlight as attorneys and work day jobs as CPAs. Indeed, many new board members are architects, engineers, lawyers, accountants, or successful businesspeople—but the majority are folks from all walks of life who don't necessarily have years of experience that is directly applicable to running an association, and for these folks, some basic board training can be invaluable.

Of course, much of the onus of training a new board member falls squarely on the shoulders of that new board member themselves. They are the one who must acquire the knowledge and skill to get the job done effectively. But it’s also incumbent upon the incumbents to help out too. Let’s take a look at what makes a good board member, and some things new and veteran board members can do to help with training and orientation:

New Blood

According to Mike Jacobs, president of the board at Hamilton Woods Condo Association in Basking Ridge, “Generally people who choose to run for the board want to help their community because they have a vested interest in its success and well being. A board should have a mix of people with some solid business experience, financial expertise, management, contract experience, and hopefully good communication skills. At times we've pursued people to try to get them to volunteer because we needed specific skills, but overall we like people who are willing to be part of a team, and who aren't there because they're trying to serve their own bias. We want people who are willing to listen, willing to communicate, contribute ideas and discuss alternatives, and who bring some thought and leadership to the group."

Marvin Rothenberg, a board member at The Plaza co-op in Fort Lee agrees. "People who can work with others and deal with issues rather than personalities" is key. "There’s nothing wrong with having disagreements on issues. I think that it’s very helpful to have people on boards who have some corporate experience and have learned to deal with other people and having give-and-take."

Ed Brozek is treasurer for Longport Condo Association in Sea Isle, and says that for his part, "A top attribute is political acumen. You get a lot of conflicting views and attitudes, ranging from people who say 'I just paid my quarterly condo dues and I don’t want to know anything—just make it work' to the other end of the spectrum where people are engaged and involved and make recommendations. It's important to be able to communicate clearly without offending people."

What New Board Members Can Do

1. Read All About It

If you’ve been elected to a board for the first time, what you need to bring to the position, first and foremost, are your reading glasses. There are literally piles and piles of pages to be pored over. Reading over the minutes of the last several board meetings is a good way to start. Not unlike watching the last season of a TV show to prepare for the upcoming one, this will, at minimum, get you caught up on the exigent goings-on at the building. Almost everything that has demanded the attention of the board and the property manager is in those pages.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of paper to sift through.

“They should at least know what the governing documents are,” says Irwin H. Cohen, a property manager with Manhattan-based A. Michael Tyler Realty Corp.

The governing documents include the proprietary lease for co-ops, or the declaration for condos, the bylaws, and the house rules. The bylaws are especially helpful, Cohen notes. “They contain exact job descriptions of the board and every officer’s responsibilities. Want to know what’s expected of you? Here’s your job; it’s written down.”

"I learned the hard way that if anybody was going to run for the board, they should look into the various government documents first and get an understanding of the bylaws and the house rules in the case of co-ops and proprietary lease, the financial reports, and the various laws that govern things," says Rothenberg. "It was baptism by fire. Within two years, the group who was against what that manager had been doing took control of the board, and we all learned an awful lot together."

2. Use Your Resources

New board members might feel a little lost at their first couple of meetings, but fortunately, their particular road has been well-traveled. There are many resources to turn to for help, starting with some organizations whose mission involves aiding co-op and condo boards.

The Community Associations Institute's New Jersey chapter (CAI-NJ) has a website loaded with helpful information, and offers seminars from time to time to help boards run their associations more effectively. The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) maintains two chapters in central and southern New Jersey, respectively, and also serves as a clearinghouse for information and HOA educational resources.

The publication you now have in your hand is also a great source of information. Back issues of The New Jersey Cooperator, with articles on every conceivable topic that might cross a new board member’s attention, are available in the archives on the website, free of charge.

3. Don’t Let It Go to Your Head

Being on a board of directors—especially serving as president for a very large development—can be a heady experience. It’s as close as most of us can get to running a Fortune 500 company, or an entire nation. But that doesn’t mean board members should comport themselves like flashy CEOs or Third World despots.

“One thing I’ve seen over the years: board members get elected, and the power goes to their head,” says Richard Herzbach, an attorney with Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman in East Meadow, New York. “They think they can run the building without the consent of the other board members or the community. That always creates situations.”

At the end of the day, board members are there to serve their fellow unit owners—their friends and neighbors—not to rule over them with an iron fist. The politics of the job are almost as crucial as the business acumen. “When you’re involved in a community association, it’s basically a mini-government,” Herzbach says. “You’re an elected official. You should listen, and get a sense of what the community is all about and what is cares about.”

Sometimes, of course, boards do have to rule against the vocal wishes of some shareholders—especially when it comes time to raise maintenance fees or conduct assessments for repair work. The key is to maintain the connection to the community, as they are residents, too.

What Veteran Board Members Can Do

1. Assess Strengths and Weaknesses

New board members come in all proverbial shapes and sizes. Board vets recommend that sitting members assess what newcomers are bringing to the table, and how their skills and qualities can be put to best use.

While concrete credentials and professional expertise are definitely valuable, according to Rimma Nielsen, current board president at Woodland Lake, a condo association in Randolph, "It's more a matter of the person being approachable and getting along with people. You have to be able to take and give criticism, and I think that's part of anybody's job description. Of course, the board can benefit from having people with certain expertise in certain areas, like law or accounting. But if you have 36 homes and there are 36 families, and you have, let's say, 30 percent who are teachers and 20 percent are handymen and the other 50 percent are nurses, that's the pool. It really doesn't matter what you do during the day to make your money. It's just that if you want to volunteer your time and services, you get trained on the job and you run with it."

2. Think Globally, Act Globally

When President Barack Obama has to make a decision about the war in Afghanistan, he doesn’t take a plane to Kabul, tour the front, and interview soldiers on the ground. He reads reports and he listens to presentations from a variety of key people in the know, and then he makes up his mind. Ideally, a board should function the same way. Management pros and long-time board members alike agree that proper delegation, combined with guidance from the property manager can help the board serve in an executive rather than an administrative function.

This might not sound like it has much to do with training the new guy, but it does. A well-run machine alters perceptions, inspires newcomers, and makes serving on a board more rewarding—and that's definitely a good thing. When the role of the board member takes the form of ‘Gee, I have to do all the work myself,' disenchantment and burn-out tend to follow. By spreading out the load and balancing responsibilities, more owners are likely to volunteer for board positions when they become available.

3. Establish a Mentorship Role

Delegating doesn't mean abandoning newbies to their own devices, of course. Smart boards will delegate responsibilities, but offer new members help from veterans who know the ropes.

"Mentoring new members is certainly a good idea," says Rothenberg. "Somebody gets to the board, and maybe they don't realize they ought to read all the governing documents. [It's helpful] for someone to tell them that and show them what they ought to know. You don’t want to scare people off from serving on a board by saying 'This is a full time job and you better learn all this stuff,' but at the same time you don’t want to just say 'Come on up, you’ll get elected, and you don’t have to do anything.' You have an obligation."

According to Nielsen, "New members at Woodland Lake can certainly get advice from the person whose job they're taking over. That person is supposed to stay available as a coach for a year for the newly-elected person. For example, our outgoing treasurer has been a treasurer for 23 years, but she has said that she would stay on as a sort of financial consultant-adviser to the new treasurer, and of course to the board. Usually that's how it works with presidents and vice presidents and whomever else is leaving a position."

Sage Advice

So what final words of advice do board veterans have for newcomers?

"People’s attitudes are all over the map," says Brozek. "But that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. It’s not a huge time commitment, it’s more of an emotional commitment, that they’re really engaged to follow through."

Not only does this help ease the transition, it develops a strong working relationship between the board members involved and paves the way for future generations of board members to become the next leaders. "You’re always learning something," says Rothenberg. "The real key is being interested in serving."

Serving on the board "is just a great opportunity to influence the direction of our community," says Jacobs. "My advice to people is to come with an open mind. This is an opportunity to make a contribution and truly be a valued addition to their community."

Greg Olear is a freelance writer, novelist, and a frequent contributor to The New Jersey Cooperator. Additional reporting by David Chiu.