The purpose of having a homeowners association is to manage the community’s common areas, protect property values, and ensure that community dues are going towards projects that they, for the most part, support. Despite the value that an HOA provides, it’s typically the norm for condo board meetings to have low attendance.
Even if your HOA board is meeting to discuss a big decision or make an important change that will impact residents, meeting attendance can be dismal. Low meeting attendance is challenging for HOA board members as they want to make decisions for the common good of the community.
To help attract more residents at condo board meetings, here are several pointers to try:
- Offer refreshments.
Offering free food and beverages at your condo board meetings is a sure way to increase attendance. Depending on your budget, consider asking a local restaurant to cater the event. A cost-effective alternative is to have board members each bring a homemade dish. Either way, incorporating food and drink into the meeting is a easy way to add a punch of fun.
- Put together an interesting agenda.
When creating your agenda, lead with the most important items with the greatest impact on the community. Leave some of the more general, less exciting topics (changes in landscape company, for example) on the bottom of the agenda. Instead of using a business professional agenda template, spice things up with a fun and creative design.
- Keep meetings brief.
No one wants to attend a meeting where no end is in sight. Time is precious, and residents will be more willing to attend if a brief timeframe is assigned to meetings (two hours max). If you have a lot of information to discuss, consider splitting the topics into two meetings. Always use an agenda to keep the meeting on task.
- Offer advanced notice.
If you’re struggling with attendance at your condo board meetings, there’s a good chance that you’re not providing residents with enough notice to get to meetings. As a best practice, notify homeowners of meetings at least two weeks in advance, and send out reminder emails as the date approaches.
At the end of the day, the last thing that most of us want to do is attend another meeting. However, embracing these four tactics will help you to earn more attendance at your condo board meetings, which will ultimately allow you to operate a more effective HOA that benefits the good of the community.
Our team at Vesta Property Services has more than 25 years of experience in providing property management services to condo associations in Florida. Contact us to learn how we can help you create a more desirable community for residents.
