Here’s the scenario: the developer of your suburban building, who still owns enough  units to throw his weight around, hires a property manager who plays fast and  loose with the municipal tax codes. So much so in fact, that he winds up in  jail—and your building winds up owing some significant back taxes. The sponsor then  brings in a new, wet-behind-the-ears property manager, who pays the tax bill  with an unmarked—and untraceable—starter check, which the city cashes…without crediting the proper account. It’s like a parking meter ate your quarter, but instead of 25 cents, your building  just lost thousands of dollars.  

 This is exactly the position one co-op board president found herself in a few  years ago. After an uphill battle against the municipal bureaucracy, after  title search upon title search, after interminable time spent on hold to no  avail—and after hiring a new firm to manage the property—the board member finally untangled her building’s snarled finances. Taking scissors to all that red tape was neither glamorous  nor lucrative work— to the contrary, it was painstaking and beyond tedious—but it’s all part of the compensation-free job of a conscientious board member.  

 The Good

 Most people view serving on their building or association board in one of two  ways: either as a thankless chore with more headaches than rewards, or as an  opportunity to influence—and hopefully improve—the quality of life in their condo, HOA or co-op community. The reality,  underscored by the experience of the board member above, lies somewhere in  between the two poles. There are benefits and there are drawbacks: the good and  the bad. There are also challenges—the ugly—which highlight the positive and negative aspects of the job.  

 Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of benefits to serving on an HOA  board—after all, why else would sane individuals serve on boards for decades at a  stretch? For one thing, board members are similar to officers within a  corporation in that they are taking an active role in managing what represents,  for most people, a substantial chunk of their finances. Board members occupy a  powerful position, influencing their neighbors’ investments and quality of life.  

 “There are no perks,” jokes Jack McGrath, treasurer for the last seven-plus years of The Grande at  Colts Neck Condo Association, “aside from the satisfaction of knowing that your condo is being handled the way  you’d expect it to be handled and that your property value is protected. When you’re on the board, you can keep the look, approve the way you think it should be  and protect the value.”  

 But it’s not all financial. How could it be, when board members are not compensated  beyond the occasional coffee and donut? Much of the benefit comes from, as  cliché as it might sound, the satisfaction of a job well done.  

 “There is satisfaction, knowing that the board is on top of what’s taking place there,” says Charles Remlinger, board president of The Pointe at Galloping Hill in  Union, “and knowing that you’re doing something productive. With all the things I’ve done, you’ve got to give something back. You can’t just be a taker in this world.”  

 If your heart and your pocketbook are not motivators, your brain certainly might  be. Indeed, there is much to learn in the co-op and condo world. Residential  buildings are like corporate entities (and in the case of co-ops, they are  exactly that), and are not so different from any other corporation. All  practical and personal concerns aside, it can be downright interesting to  figure out how something as big as a homeowner association functions.  

 The Bad

 Benefits and satisfaction aside, serving on the board of a residential building  can be hard, thankless work—and it has a way of eating into your free time, even if your association is  relatively small. It’s just the nature of the job. And this can be daunting, especially to new board  members.  

 “It’s extremely tedious,” says one New Jersey board member. “Going through a budget line by line is a tedious job,” and it involves overseeing the entire property—not just your own corner of it. “A lot of new board members come in and don’t realize it’s not about their unit, it’s about the whole association,” says the board member.  

 Larry Vant, a veteran member of the board of Renaissance Village in North  Brunswick, understands the time commitment required of board members quite  well. He got on the board within a couple of years of moving to the community—that was after “I saw some things I didn’t understand,” he says.  

 In addition to the two-hour or three-hour meeting his board has once a month,  Vant says he spends about three hours a week working on board business. That  work could include anything from informal discussions about the condominium to  looking into regulations, litigation, inspections or other tasks.  

 Michael Pesce, who works for Community Services Group in Clifton, helps with the  company’s management of 100 properties in New Jersey. In addition to that rigorous  schedule, Pesce has himself also been a board member. “I’ve been on two boards. When I was on a board I spent three to four hours a week  on association business,” he said.  

 But the biggest downside, says one anonymous board member, “is people’s personalities. There are people who respect the building, and people who don’t. There are people who care, and people who don’t.”  

 The Ugly (the Challenges)

 In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned about the horrors of political  parties, but even housing communities are often caught between two or more  competing factions. The key challenge then is trying to strike a balance  between them.  

 These factions can split along many fault-lines, but the most common divide is  money, and forming sides based on residents’ relative income levels. A major challenge is managing the expectations of the  two factions—toeing the line between making improvements on the property while keeping fees  and assessments as low as possible. It’s hard work, especially in the current economic climate.  

 Even board members who rate their HOAs relatively high on the  contentment-and-harmony scale agree that there will always be naysayers, and  people who grouse no matter what you do. That, too, is part of the territory.  At the end of the day, board members are running a business, and they must  yield to their fiduciary responsibility to the association, rather than cave to  the strident demands of a few squeaky wheels.  

 There are occasions, unfortunately, where personal agendas become so ingrained  in the culture of a board, it becomes impossible to run the business  dispassionately. Case in point: In board member Sue D.’s building, there are 140 units but only 35 parking spaces—most of which have been in the possession of their current owners for decades.  As the treasurer, Sue suggested that the price of $75 a month for the parking  spot was too low. The board should conduct a survey, she said, to see what  other buildings charge. Exposing the parking spaces to the free market would  generate more revenue, and would also probably create more turnover, so newer  owners might be able to enjoy a place. Her board refused to even discuss the  matter.  

 “It’s become personal,” Sue says. “They’re not really interested in what’s good for the building.” So personal, in fact, that she was accosted in the hallway by an angry parking  space-holder. She says he told her, “‘If you try to threaten my parking space, I’ll sue you.’ ”  

 This experience was so negative that Sue resigned from the board.  

 Most HOAs are not this ossified, of course, but there is still the danger of  becoming so. Tensions can run hot, especially as the job market cools, and  there are other bottom-line factors that pose challenges to board members  season after season as well.  

 In the end, however, taking the good with the bad, and being mindful of the  challenges, there is one aphorism that lends itself perfectly to describing  serving on a board: It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. “You need a desire to enhance your community, to make it better, to improve the  quality of living in the community,” says Mary Ann Rossotto, board president of Bold Oaks, one of the villages in  Freehold. “And to make it a better place for everyone to come home to.”   

 Greg Olear is a freelance writer, novelist and a frequent contributor to The New Jersey Cooperator.