If your community is relatively new or is considering ways to become more organized around the interests of its members and constituents, forming resident-led committees should be a top priority on your HOA agenda.

Committees play a vital role in helping the Board of Directors meet their responsibilities, and they serve as a training ground for future community leaders. At the heart of nearly every successful community where residents are happy and property values are relatively high, you will find thriving, active committees. These committees serve homeowners and the HOA board in five important ways:

1. Representation: Offer homeowners representation and equity in the governing process
2. Involvement: Provide a means through which homeowners can become involved in their community
3. Input: Broaden community input on decisions by gathering owners’ opinions and attitudes
4. Research: Help to research and prepare recommendations for the Board
5. Communication: Help to explain Board decisions and actions to the community

To carry out these functions successfully, each HOA committee should be provided with a Board-approved set of guidelines that clearly spells out the committee’s operational structure and authority. Committee guidelines will typically address, at a minimum, the following areas:

• Purpose: Define and detail the expected results of the committee’s work, including outcomes and deliverables.

• Responsibilities: Identify the activities and/or actions that must be performed to fulfill the committee’s assigned purpose.

• Organization: Detail the number of members to serve on the committee, the method to select the committee chairperson, member status requirements (whether a committee member has to be an owner or just a tenant), term of office, board liaison role (if any), and desired characteristics of a committee member.

• Operations: Address meeting times, locations, and frequency; handling of committee meeting minutes; reporting to the board (when and how); and approval process for the committee’s use of association funds.

Providing clear guidelines that address purpose, responsibilities, organization, and operations reduces the risk of committees working outside of their authority. Just as valuable, organized guidelines provide both impetus and direction as to what each committee is charged with accomplishing.

If you would like to see a sample set of committee guidelines, click to download Sample Landscape Committee Guidelines.

Mike Lesku

Vice President of Onsite Operations, CMCA®, AMS®, PCAM®