You need to actually run your condo meeting and HOA!

This week, we’re going to give you suggestions on how to free up your schedule to spend more time with your family or however you choose to spend your free time.

It is important to always find time for the things that matter to you. And we can help you get there by streamlining your meetings and making sure things run more efficiently without breaking any rules while making sure your owners don’t feel neglected.

Let’s start from the obvious:  meetings cover so much ground, and take a while, which is probably expected - to some extent. 

According to Joe White, the owner of Philadelphia Property Management Solution, LLC, who represents a lot of associations in Philadelphia, “I’ve been to hundreds of these meetings where they go on, as a rule, for far too long,” he also stated that “But I’ve said this to other lawyers here at my firm: I think it’s impossible to have meetings that last less than two hours. For some reason, you can’t get them there.”

White also says you need to find a way to reduce unproductivity and waste to the barest minimum, not just for yourself, but for the good of your association and your owners. In his words “We do tell people association meetings shouldn’t last more than two hours unless you’re involved in litigation. If you’re just handling the day-to-day stuff and you’re going more than two hours, you start to lose people’s attention after a while, especially since many of these meetings are in the evenings.”

Joe White, who represents community associations, contends that “When meetings are long, rambling, and undisciplined”.

Our experts are always advising boards on the best way to make their meetings more productive and shorter. They’ve proposed four solutions to achieve this. The first is that:

You shouldn’t become too relaxed. “Often, meetings involve sitting in someone’s unit until 11 p.m. sipping a glass of wine,” stated White. “I tell my boards to have their meeting at a library that closes at 9 p.m., where the staff will be throwing you out when they close.

And that “You don’t want to have to schedule a time to come back next week to finish your meeting. As it gets closer to that 9 p.m. closing, you’re going to be more productive getting things done.”