Condo Media - April 2014 - 22

ASKED & NAME
COLUMN ANSWERED

Getting Owners Involved
10 Tips for Success

QUESTION: Can you recommend
new or creative techniques for getting owners more involved in the
community? We have a very dedicated board, but most owners seem
content to let board members and a
handful of volunteers do everything.
What's the secret to persuading
owners to take more of an interest
in the community and play a more
active role in running it?

ANSWER: If there is a secret, no
one has shared it with us, and if you
have "a handful of volunteers," you're
already doing a lot better than most
communities. As for "new and creative" strategies for encouraging owner
involvement, there probably aren't any.
But there are some ideas that boards
and managers have found helpful in the
past that may also be helpful to you.
Here's a short list:

Make communication with
owners a priority for the board.
Keep owners informed about board
decisions, community issues, and
plans. Encourage owners to attend
board meetings and solicit their input. The more residents know about
the association and the more engaged
they are made to feel, the more likely
they are to see themselves as an integral part of the community. The converse is also true: The less residents
know about the community, the less
likely they are to identify closely and
positively with it and the less interested they will be in playing an active
role in its governance.

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Make volunteer recruitment a
board priority. It won't happen
CONDO MEDIA * APRIL 2014

by itself. Make sure owners understand
what volunteers do and why they are
important. Provide new residents -
and all owners periodically - with an
updated list of committees and volunteer opportunities.

Ask for help. One reason (although not the only one) owners
don't volunteer to serve on committees
or tackle other assignments is because
no one asks them to. So ask owners to
get involved and ask them in person. It
is easy to ignore requests for volunteers
posted on bulletin boards or on the
association's website; it's more difﬁcult
to say no to a neighbor who is standing in your doorway making a personal
request.

Encourage owners to participate, but don't badger them. No
one likes to be badgered. Explain why
owner participation is important, but
emphasize the positive (it can be fun,
rewarding, and helpful) as well as the
obvious: "It's your obligation as an
owner in the community to share the
responsibility for running it."

Identify owners' talents and
interests and try to match them
with volunteer assignments. If owners express a concern or propose an
idea, enlist them to serve on a committee to address it.

Make volunteering satisfying
and, as much as possible, fun.
Create meaningful assignments and set
reasonable, achievable goals. Assign
several small manageable tasks instead
of one or two huge and intimidating
ones. Most volunteers offer to pitch in

because they want to make a difference.
If committee assignments are vague,
pointless, or impossible to achieve,
volunteers won't want to repeat the
experience.

Deﬁne committee responsibilities and volunteer assignments
clearly. You don't want to tell a hardworking volunteer, "Thanks, but you
weren't supposed to do that." Also,
respect the work committees do.
Boards don't have to accept committee recommendations, but they
should take those recommendations
seriously.

Expand the volunteer circle. It is
tempting to call on the people who
always volunteer, because you know
they will say yes. But that risks burning
out the "old faithfuls" and overlooking
the "new blood" associations need.

Say thank you. This is an obvious point, but it is important and
too often overlooked. Volunteers need
to feel useful and appreciated. Thank
them often and publicly for their efforts so other owners are aware of the
contribution they are making.

Understand that the board
itself is the best recruitment
tool - or the worst. If the board
operates efficiently and members
seem to be enjoying their work, then
other owners may want to volunteer
to serve on the board or on other
committees. If the board is dysfunctional, meetings are acrimonious,
and members seem miserable, then
why would anyone else want to participate? CM

Condo Media - April 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - April 2014