People have different ideas about what should be considered "appropriate behavior" for community association board members.
Unfortunately, these disagreements in style and approach can create a lot of tension on boards and among the board, management staff and owners, leading to accusations that may include some of the following inflammatory words and phrases:
- Condo commando
- Dictator
- Bully
- Micro-Manager
- Personal Agenda
- Unprofessional
- Kickback
- Crook
One way to help avoid some of these problems is to ask your board members and committee members to sign a code of conduct or code of ethics, which describes what board and committee members should and should NOT do.
Click here for a great sample of a code of ethics from CAI.
Personally, I think it is missing some key points regarding how the board should interact with management staff, owners and contractors, including:
- President should act as primary liaison with management staff, to avoid conflicting direction.
- Directors or committee should direct owner complaints to management staff.
- Directors or committee members should not contact staff after hours unless there is an emergency.
- Directors and committee members should not direct contractors or vendors.