What Are Effective Ways to Recruit People to Your HOA Board?
The success of your Aurora, CO community association is mainly dependent on your HOA board. Made up of volunteer community members, your HOA board works alongside your HOA management company to run the day-to-day operations of your neighborhood and make the more significant decisions about how your community is run and what its rules are.
As residents move, retire, have kids, and go through other life changes, you may find yourself in need of additional board members. However, not all residents are aware of the possibility of becoming a board member, what it entails, or when you’re looking for new members.
If you want to recruit new, reliable community members to become HOA board members, here are four effective ways to start the search.
1. Recruit In-Person
How often have you deleted an email or scrolled past a social media post from your HOA without reading it or giving it a second thought? With so much content for residents to digest online, it’s easy for your virtual recruitment efforts to be missed or ignored.
Try recruiting in person to grab residents’ attention and set your efforts apart. At your next community meeting, make an appeal to the residents and put a face to the name to make your board’s needs more real for the attendees.
2. Be Specific
When recruiting — whether in-person, online, or via print — be specific about what your board is looking for. A vague and general “join us” to “apply for the board” will likely get overlooked or ignored.
Instead, offer specific traits that you’re seeking, which is likely to stand out to residents with those traits and draw their interest. Give people specific reasons why they should join and what they can contribute. Eventually, qualified residents will begin to respond to your message.
3. Consider Unhappy Residents
The initial instinct for anyone is to search for residents who love their neighborhood and have no qualms. However, unhappy residents can also bring tremendous value to the board.
These residents likely have things they want to improve about the community — things which many others in the neighborhood likely also want to change. Having someone who sees the weaker areas of your HOA and has ideas for improving them is a major attribute, even if they may not seem like your dream candidate at first glance.
However, you should run these candidates by your HOA management company first to ensure that their concerns can be addressed and bring legitimate improvement.
4. Show Off Your Board’s Accomplishments
People like to be part of a successful organization, so don’t be afraid to advocate for your board or committee’s accomplishments. Show residents what improvements your current board has put into action, and let them know that they can be a driving force in similar improvements in the future. Additionally, think about what traits made that board’s initiatives successful and seek these traits out in a new recruit.
If your board has too much on its plate, turn to an industry-leading HOA management firm like The Management Trust to help you vet applicants. With more than 1,500 communities nationwide, The Management Trust offers the resources of a national corporation with the personal touch and care of a local service. Whether you need HOA financial management or conflict resolution, we can handle it all for your Aurora, CO HOA. To learn more about how The Management Trust can help your community thrive, give us a call at (303) 750-0994 or fill out our online contact form today.
