154 | Finding Success Through Diversity on an HOA Board

Every HOA board has conflict. The best ones use diversity to make better decisions. Here’s how to turn your board diversity into success…
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Today, Julie Adamen and Robert Nordlund will be addressing a common challenge among board members:  seeing the world differently from one another. The question is, will that tear your board apart, or can you use that to have success because of that diversity? And that's a question we'll tackle today! 

Chapters

00:00 Why do different perspectives create tension on HOA boards?
00:48 What challenge do new board members bring to existing teams?
03:54 Why should boards avoid expecting the worst from new members?
05:41 How does change impact HOA board dynamics?
07:32 Why do different generations see HOA decisions differently?
08:48 How should new board members approach change responsibly?
10:34 What is political capital and why does it matter?
12:00 Why are HOAs like small governments with real impact?
13:55 What types of diversity affect HOA board decisions?
16:23 How do different strengths improve board performance?
19:21 How do communication and translation challenges affect boards?
20:31 Ad Break - Kevin Davis Insurance Services
21:00 How do you shift from defensiveness to collaboration?
23:46 How do you find common ground on difficult decisions?
25:29 How can boards align on financial decisions like repairs?
27:36 Why does consensus building take time in HOAs?
30:05 How does communication help unify diverse board members?
31:29 What is the best way to build trust on a diverse board?

The views & opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts & Guests, intended to provide general education about the community association industry. The content is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or organization.

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Transcript

Julie Adamen: 0:00

The people on the board who are in their 80s, who've been on the board and off the board for the last 20 years, they're not going to look at moving forward like I'm going to look at moving forward. They like everything just like it is. So though the place runs very well, it looks really good, but you can see the thinking, and I want to be an agent of a little bit of change going forward. So but for you people, the people on the board, don't freak out for the new people coming in on the board, you don't go in there and change everything or try to in the first six months or even a year.

Announcer: 0:32

HOA Insights is brought to you by five companies

that care about board members: 0:34

Association Insights and Marketplace, Association Reserves, Community Financials, Kevin Davis Insurance Services, and the Inspectors of Election. You'll find links to their website and social media in the show notes.

Robert Nordlund: 0:48

I'm Robert Nordlund of Association Reserves,

Julie Adamen: 0:51

and I'm Julie Adamen with Adamen Inc. And this is HOA Insights, where we promote

Robert Nordlund: 0:55

common sense for common areas. Welcome to Episode 154 where I'm joined by management and leadership expert Julie Adamen of Adamen Inc. Today, we'll be addressing a common challenge board members seeing the world differently from one another. The question is, will that tear your board apart, or can you use that to have success because of that diversity? And that's a question we'll tackle today. Last week's episode 153 was an episode with Kevin Davis exploring some of the news and tips you need to know about insurance to position your association as a preferred risk, helping you to get the best coverage at the best rates. Now, if you missed that episode or any other prior episode, take a moment after today's program to listen from our podcast, website, Hoa insights.org or search for HOA insights on YouTube, but better yet, subscribe from any of the major podcast platforms, or subscribe to our podcasts YouTube channel so you don't miss any future episodes. I mentioned that because more and more subscribers means a higher search engine ranking, which means more board members can find the podcast and get the help they need to lead their associations. So don't just visit and listen. Subscribe. Join us in our mission to improve the future of the community, association industry. Well, those of you watching on YouTube can see the HOA insights mug that Julie and I have, there we go, that we got from our merch store, which you can browse through from our Hoa insights.org website, or the link in the show notes, you find we have some great free stuff there, like board member zoom backgrounds and some specialty items for sale, like mugs. So I spoke at an event last week, and I had a bunch of extra mugs. I enjoyed handing them out to the attendees. They're great to have. So go to the merch store, download a free zoom background, take a moment, look around, see if there's a mug or something else that you want, and put a smile on your face. So we enjoy hearing from you responding to the issues you're facing at your association. So if you have a hot topic, a crazy story, or a question you'd like us to address, you can always contact us at 805-203-3130, or email us at podcast at Hoa insights.org, and I mean that we do answer the mail and enjoy your phone calls. Today's program came from a question from Tracy from Pennsylvania, who asked we had past tense a well functioning board two stepped away from the board, so now we have two new people. They are young and relatively new to our association, so we're bracing for change. Any suggestions. So that's what we're talking about here with you get the people that come to you. You don't get to pick your team. So Julie, big picture, how do we begin to take diversity and turn it into an asset?

Julie Adamen: 3:54

The first thing I would tell every board member, and don't forget, for those who just in this I've not only am I a management side of the side of the equation, and a management expert. I have sat on boards of directors two at a time, once, and I'm running for mine here, where I live this this year is that election soon, or election is in November? Yeah, okay, though it's we're 2000 units, skull, food and beverage, blah, blah, blah, but it'll be quite interesting. Yes, and I will be skewing younger, which is why I like it, because we're 55 and better, but, but I think the first thing I would tell all board members is, first of all, don't expect the worst. Just I think sometimes, especially when you're older, and I am one of these folks, I prefer to call it classic, not older. But if we are classic, and you're having people coming up that are in their 30s or 40s, and maybe they still have kids at home or whatever, and they're definitely way in the work world. I mean, I still work, but I'm one of the few that still works where I live, other than my husband, who I think just. Corrected me over there, and he works too. So But anyway, I would say it's, don't expect the worst. Don't brace for the worst. I think a lot of times we think, Oh, God, this is going to be horrible, and we just got it working really well. The truth of the nature of our business is the only thing that is the same is the change it we are, as board members. And as people in the management world, we really are change managers, because nothing stays the same. And Robert even in your side of the equation being, I mean, I'm a vendor too, technically, but being a business partner vendor, things change for you too. Am I right? I mean, you're in the middle of bidding some job, then all of a sudden, three new board members come in, and you're like, oh my god, what am I going to do now, we

Robert Nordlund: 5:41

do budgets, and everything changes with budgets, the cost, the components, the cash and

Julie Adamen: 5:46

reserves, yeah. And the attitude of the people, the new people that come in. So the first thing for the existing board members don't, don't, kind of get that freak out. I mean that in kind of a soft way, you're like, Oh God, it's going to change. Well, it's going to change, for sure. And your attitude about that change is going to help you or harm you? Number one and number two, I would say that the new younger people, let's just, let's just do young and old right now, because there's a whole bunch of diversity besides young and old. But the person who was in their 30s with kids at home is going to look at things very differently than someone in their 60s, who is either at the end of their career, or, you know, coming towards the end or already retired, you the older. This is a big problem in associations, Robert, and you can attest to this is you have people that have lived in a community association, particularly condominiums, high rises, that kind of thing. Not just high rise, but it could be patio homes, but condos. They've lived there for 3540, years. They bought when the place was new, original owners, original owners. And that that is happening here as well, where I live, that cohort is moving out, and we the younger people in our 60s. I mean, we're like the kids, but it's definitely changing. You can see the demographic change going on. But the people still working in their 30s and 40s and 50s, they're in the work world. They're making money, their incomes, statistically, going up. Those are their most productive working years, while your income as an older person may be the same. Now if you have a reserve problem, and we talk about this in our our yearly podcast, that podcast, we do a webinar yearly about this is that the newer people are going to want to say, hey, we need to fund reserves, or do the clubhouse needs revamping. This looks bad. And you're like, Well, I can't afford this anymore. How are we going to bring our older people along to make these kind of changes? And it's

Robert Nordlund: 7:32

been fine for 20 years that way. So why change?

Julie Adamen: 7:36

Why change? Well, because things change.

Unknown: 7:39

It's 20 years old. It's 20

Julie Adamen: 7:41

or it's 40 years old. Yeah, I mean, and that's that is obviously more and more, because the community associations are aging. There's newer ones. The one I live in. These original units were built in 1989 and the last of the original owners, they're in their late 80s or 90s, are either passing, passing on or going to live with the kids or assisted living, or that type of thing. So the 60 that's one of the reasons I'm running for the board. I'm in a 60 something cohort. I'm going to live here another 25 years. God willing, I'm gonna live here another 25 years. And honestly, the people on the board who are in their 80s, who've been on the board and off the board for the last 20 years, they're not going to look at moving forward like I'm going to look at moving forward. They like everything just like it is. So though the place runs very well, it looks really good, but you can see the thinking, and I want to be an agent of a little bit of change going forward. So, but for you people, the people on the board, don't freak out. For the new people coming in on the board. You don't go in there and change everything, or try to in the first six months or even a year. I got one more story on that. Do you Can I do one?

Robert Nordlund: 8:48

Can I just because you got my my brain spinning, and I remember hearing, on a business level, a consultant was telling us there's two types of people in the world, those that are carrying baggage and those that are carrying luggage. In your illustration, the people who have been board members or in the Association for many years, they're carrying baggage memories of things I'm comfortable with the way it has been. I like it this way. That's baggage, where you're coming in with luggage. I want to take this association successfully into the future, and it's two different world views of exactly the same situation, where you're focusing on the past or looking at the future. So I'm sorry you had somewhere you wanted to go.

Julie Adamen: 9:33

I just one more with this. I did a I just told you that I did a big board retreat for a management company in Northern California this past weekend, and I had board members coming up left and right after, because we did talk a little bit about this. And one gal came up, and she's new to the board, and she's, oh, I would say she was probably in her late 50s, and she goes, Oh my gosh, so many things need to change, and it's just me and the other for like, everything the way it is. And she got elected because she had a cohort of board. People that wanted someone else new on the board, new new blood. New blood to the board. And I said, so it's four to one, right? She said, Yes. I said, Don't try to change anything. Make allies. You want to be a part of the team. You want to and, you know, just get right in there and help with what needs help, and not try to shove change down people's throat, because they will resist it. And so you have to be if you're the new person coming on, you got to soften that in and by the time, and I talked to her probably two or three times that afternoon, she come up and asked me something else. And she turned to me at the end, she goes, You know, I think you saved me hours of work and worry and

Robert Nordlund: 10:34

some gray hairs too, because that's that's hitting your head against a wall, no sense in doing it, yeah. And what you're talking about, I've heard in different scenarios, they talk about political capital. You want to have the juice, you want to have allies, you want to be on. Create common grounds, common ground, yeah. And that takes time, and we see that in government, on the federal state level. It's got to be in the cities too. I guess I just don't see it. But you know, you develop your allies, and you find out who can I count on, who can I help? Any organizational ground?

Julie Adamen: 11:10

Yes, even in business, you know, if you're working for a company, you have allies. And you know the wheels that need to get greased if you need to go somewhere. But it's absolutely in politics, from world, from the world on down Hoa, are simply a microcosm of government, any size government.

Robert Nordlund: 11:29

Aren't there more board members than federal, state and local elected officials in this country? I could believe that

Julie Adamen: 11:41

if you say, if you, if you said government employees, I was going to say no, but I if it's

Robert Nordlund: 11:44

not, it's got to be real close elected officials. I believe there's more elected board members leading communities than there are. I'm pretty confident federal, state and city. I'm going to look at officials.

Julie Adamen: 11:58

I got to look that up. That's interesting.

Robert Nordlund: 12:00

Ask you got to ask Brock one of your AI tools. Yeah, I know, yeah, cool. Compare that to 2 million and find out. What you find out be very

Julie Adamen: 12:08

interesting, yeah? And that'd be actually interesting to talk to board members about, because I think

Robert Nordlund: 12:12

it would blow their mind. Yeah, more of the world is depending on you, you than people in Washington, DC or your local state capital, and you're

Julie Adamen: 12:20

certainly going to have a more immediate effect on the people you're responsible for and the and the, you know, the common area you're responsible for, than anybody in the

Robert Nordlund: 12:28

government is going to well, didn't someone say all politics are local, local, and that's it. You're talking about pool hours. You're talking about, are there dog waste things? Is the roof watertight? How's the entry flowers look? Yeah, those kinds of things, you have a direct, not direct impact.

Julie Adamen: 12:49

It's directed, immediate impact. I did a big consulting job a few, several years ago, actually, now, and one of the board members had been previously a member of the Canadian Parliament, and she made she was terrific person, very, very good, really good with the owners. It was a very ugly situation we were dealing with anyway, but she said something that was so salient. She said, You know, when you're in government, everything you're doing is kind of academic, because you don't get that immediate reaction when you're on an HOA board, whoa, you get feedback right away. They're knocking on your door.

Robert Nordlund: 13:28

When you go get your mail, you will hear it. You will hear it exactly. So it's true. I'm writing this down. This is going to go into the this goes into the archives. The show notes, no, the show notes, good stuff. Or, depending on where we go it may go into the next episode on this. Oh, we could

Julie Adamen: 13:43

talk about this for three episodes. Easy there.

Robert Nordlund: 13:45

Yeah, we got to be careful. We have a list now of differences. Yeah, you talked a little bit about age you want to go down? Do you want to go down that path you want go down?

Julie Adamen: 13:55

What? Where you want to go? Let's go down. Or at least, we can at least touch on some of the other types of diversity. You know, Robert and I were talking about this right before we went on the place where I live, because it's a 55 and better. In Arizona, it's relatively homogenous as far as ethnicity goes, right and it's so that's what we are. I mean, we're kind of old white people. That's just the truth, not all, but most. But if you are in a more ethnically diverse area, if you are living, for example, in New York City, if you are, well, if you're living in any big city, I don't live in a big city. I live out in the burbs, way out in the burbs. And so it just is different. I like I said, I was up in Northern California. There was Robert I'm going to go to here. Here was this fantastic group of young kids. They were all, they were all in junior college. And there was a debate team. What is that? It's not a debate off where they do contest competition, a competition, debate competition between these junior colleges, these kids were so amazing at your hotel, at the hotel I was at, yes, and there had to have been. Uh, 6070, of them at least. And so every time you're in the elevator, there's 10 of them in there with you. Anytime, these kids were adorable. The guys all had their, you know, they had their uh, suits on, and the girls were all dressed really nice. Their hair was all out to here. They were so fantastic. Just the greatest kids. And I will tell you, it was the most ethnically diverse group I'd ever seen. In fact, being white, you would have definitely been a minority in there. And here, they all were working together towards the same thing, and it really kind of put me back on this particular topic, because now they're all the same age, and they're all coming from the same school, so they have that, and they're going for one goal aligned, aligned exactly, and they're all coming at it from differently, because they, I mean, there were kids who were African American, there were kids who were Indian American, there were kids that were blends of all kinds of things and but they had found this way to work together because they had set goals. So for those

Robert Nordlund: 15:58

of you who are on, go ahead. I wonder if they also had strengths, like Fred was a stronger on constitutional law and Susie was stronger on

Julie Adamen: 16:10

Oh, whatever. They

Robert Nordlund: 16:13

had different strengths. So they knew in this situation, go get this person I would best be. So yeah, each other, yeah,

Julie Adamen: 16:23

oh, I'm sure the kids were debating against each other. They probably had been in other competitions. I mean, it's like, I mean, I swim on a master swim team. And after about a year and a half, when you go to competitions, you know who your competition is, you know, and you always gotta go, I gotta beat her. Yeah, she beat me last time I got her. This time I got her, this time I cracked her, that was it so. But, I mean, she lives up in Phoenix or something, but it's but you know who your competition is, and I'm sure the kids do if they've done this a few times, but, but bringing it back to to this, it's really not that different from the HOA thing. I mean, obviously they're not dealing with something. I mean, board members, your your trustees, your fiduciaries, you have to take care of everything and try to make things work as well as you can for the good of the community as a whole. You know, for board members who are sitting on very diverse boards, and I don't necessarily mean ethnicity, I mean it could be religion. It could be whether they're immigrants or not. I mean, it could just you. Now, in our multicultural especially our cities world, this is something that's real now there are people, there will be language barriers, for sure, between you and and if you're just so you're bored in this country, you're going to be thinking about things one way. Someone who immigrated to this country is going to think very sometimes, going to think very differently. And then there's going to be language barriers. They're going to diversity of food. I mean, if you start getting down to that, think about that, okay, you're having a wine and cheese, you know, spread, and you're thinking, you know, the wine isn't going to work too good for those people who, if they are Muslims, they don't drink and drink alcohol, typically, and then there's others, or just over a holiday season, if it's high holidays, people have something else they do. Everything does not fit into Easter, Christmas. And you know which we would be used to thinking as as you know, native born Americans. And so taking all that into account for all of you, whether you're an immigrant, whether English is your second language, whether you are Muslim or Christian or Jewish or however, Sikh. It doesn't matter. What I'm saying is that all of you have to look at each other on your board. There's five of you, there's seven of you, God forbid, there's nine or 11. It happens. All these people are going to think completely differently than you do from wherever you're coming from. They're coming from somewhere else and well, I know we need to go for a break shortly, Rob, but just think about this. They have everyone has a different job, and that's going to happen in any board. But on top of all this ethnic diversity and religious diversity, everyone has a different type of job. They're also different ages. Again, if you're in your 40s and in your 40s and 50s, prime working time, and you're making money, and then you have people who are retired and they don't speak your language as a first language. So all of these mixtures are something we have to take into account when we are trying to come together as a cohesive board. And with that, I bet we need to take a break and we can pick that up on the other end, if that's okay with you, Robert, we do.

Robert Nordlund: 19:21

You know, I always think I come prepared for these I've got my own ideas. And just what you were talking about reminded me of an attorney that we both know, and he was telling me he had this strange experience that he needed to go to his client association that was in, I don't know, Korea Town, Japan town, or whatever, in his city, and the board member reminded him to bring a translator, because our board meeting is

Julie Adamen: 19:46

in Korean, or whatever

Robert Nordlund: 19:48

it was, yeah. And he was like, oh, geez, a wheeze,

Julie Adamen: 19:54

you know what? Though that's been taken care of. Now with the new iPods, they will translate for you immediately you have your you. Also translator in

Robert Nordlund: 20:00

your ears, if you can get people to slow down to one at a time and that kind of stuff. Yeah, what we're facing is incredible. You don't get to pick your team. The question is, how we're going to work with it. So, as you suggest, it is time, and so let's take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors, after which we'll we back with some more insights, common sense for common areas, and talking about building trust. How do you take all these differences and become a team that helps your association win?

Kevin Davis: 20:31

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Robert Nordlund: 21:00

we're back, Julie, during the break, we were talking about all the ways we could turn this into a three part episode, and we want to be careful, and we've already introduced some of the differences. We spoke about age, we spoke about phase in life, we spoke about race. We touched on language, religion, language. Okay, so we know, and that is only the tip of the iceberg, really, because we're all different. Oh, men versus women, we could go a lot of different places, but let's focus, as we on the second half of the program, what's some of the fundamental things you want to bring to the table? And now that you know, we've got different people. What's the fundamental concept?

Julie Adamen: 21:43

The first thing I would say for everybody, and this is a part of don't brace for disaster, because, so if I look at it this way, this is the visual for you folks. So don't do this, because if you're doing this, you can't do this. This for

Robert Nordlund: 21:57

everyone listening. Julie's got a clenched fist not to fight, but she's, I'm looking at her, and she's tense, she's tense, or she's defensive, oh, she's worried well, like the who was it? Who had the question in today's program? Customer Tracy from Pennsylvania, she was bracing, right? She was okay,

Julie Adamen: 22:16

that's what I think of. His fist up when you're bracing, because you're in defense position, yeah, if you have your fists up, you can't open your hands. And open your hands is, I mean, that's a receptive gesture to me, and I'm using this metaphorically. So first thing I would say is, don't brace. But if you are a board member, and I don't care what part of that group you fit in, that we just touched on, and we haven't even gone into personalities yet, because, like Robert said, we could be doing this for a couple of hours, but anyway, if you are any one of those people, what you want to try to do is rally around a common goal. First you have to identify what the goal is. So let's just take something that's common in an association. Pool needs replastering. I'm just using something very common for a community. Everybody knows the pool is in bad shape. It's everybody uses the pool. They like it there. They'll hold parties there. Everything's wonderful about the pool, but it looks really crummy and it needs to be redone. So if that is the most obvious thing that needs to happen, I'm simplifying this everybody. So please bear with me. Is that That's a goal. Now all of you, or the majority of you, hopefully, but maybe all of you can agree we need to do this. Now all of you are going to have a different way to get there, but you have to start with that one goal. This is what we want to look at, and a problem we want to solve together for the betterment of the community. Where do we start? Okay, and everyone's going to have a different idea where

Robert Nordlund: 23:46

to start. Go ahead, Robert, let's say you have board members in a crazy alternate universe who get elected to the board because they want to minimize spending and they want to roll back the assessments to five years ago. You've got people that are on the board and they really are not seeing eye to eye, and maybe you just have to appreciate that. Okay, it's going to take a while to get that figured out, but at least, can we agree that let's get the pool taken care of? Yes, can we all agree that the pool so is this a matter of finding that common ground and start ticking off some minor victories.

Julie Adamen: 24:20

That's exactly what I'm talking about. When you are cohesive, even about one subject, then the next step is, how do we approach it? Now, the scenario you put forth, Robert, that someone got elected to roll the assessments back, or what that's so common, you know, that's a lot of people get elected on that because they don't have a seat as like, I call it, it's a seat at the table of knowledge. They haven't been on the board. And typically, when they get on the board, they're like, oh, you can't really do that. But let's say they still, they're just going to fight on that kind of thing. Because all most of the board says, you know, we need to raise assessments, or do a special assessment, or even taking it out of reserves. Even if reserves are healthy, there will be board members. Who are like, Oh, we shouldn't do that, because they have an idea that reserves aren't made to be spent, which is very common as well.

Robert Nordlund: 25:07

They think it's precious. We should keep it when, like you said, its only purpose is to be spent on taking care of the buildings. Yes, and

Julie Adamen: 25:15

so, okay, we all agree this needs to be done, even the recalcitrant board members that don't think we should spend the money we would rather talk

Robert Nordlund: 25:21

about their pet project, getting garbage collection moved to Tuesday instead of Wednesday. What you want to try and do is, if

Julie Adamen: 25:29

you can get everybody, or at least the majority, let's, let's go to fantasy world and pretend that everybody agrees. For simplicity sake, we can address the other as well, maybe in the next episode, because you will have to deal with that. But let's just say everybody agrees, but nobody agrees how to do it. We have consensus on one thing, and that's that's the platform. That's the basis for action. It's a solid basis for action. Okay, what's the next step? Well, the next step would be fine. Let's it's always financial. The next step is going to be financial. Okay, do we have the money right now in our reserve account. Yes or no? Well, we're ticking that off right there. Let's just say no, because that's typically it. Sometimes you do, but not necessarily. Okay, no, we don't have it. We have about half. So we're going to need to get X amount more dollars. We're going to need to raise another let's say it's a big pool. We're going to need to raise $100,000 just for evening. What are our options? Okay, well, you have the guys that are guys that say, No, I don't think we should raise assessments whatsoever or special assess. Okay, you've got no you know where he's going. What are the next people think, Well, you do have an option. You can take a survey and a survey of homeowners, giving them all of the options and the reality of the costs, and holding maybe a town hall when everybody on the board knows this needs to be done, and the one guy who doesn't want who or two people, or maybe three, which could stymie your vote, would not want to do is if they see a group of homeowners going, well, you know, I kind of see it. And, yeah, the pool looks really bad. Hmm, what are our options? Do we do one big special assessment, or do we do it over a period of time, six months, six months? Yes. And I do want to go back to that you said this earlier. Don't try to do it right away. I mean, this, this process could take a year, and that is really, really normal in our industry. I mean, homeowners associations, politically, are inherently slow. They're inherently, they will inherently stymie immediate action. And overall, that's

Robert Nordlund: 27:36

probably a good thing. Well, it's the nature of a committee structure. It takes time. Yes, if,

Julie Adamen: 27:41

if a committee gets together to build a horse, it's going to look like a camel. We all know that. But the slower you go and you try to get herd all those cats into one direction, and for each one of you out there thinks it should be done this way, somebody, all four out of five of you are going to be unhappy about how it happened, but you're gonna go along with it, because it's the best case scenario. Only one person is going to be happy because that's what they wanted to do in the first place. Start with that structure of, okay, we need to, we need to do that. And even getting to the point of saying we need to fix this, how are we going to pay for it? And let's see what the maybe we can take it to the owners, because we need to raise more than we're legally allowed to by statute or governing documents. That process alone could take six months, and that's okay unless there is some threat to life, limb or property. It's not a pool, it's a roof. That's a different story, but now we're kind of taking the simple case scenario, so bringing everyone along in that one spot of what we need to do will bring a diverse group of people. Will give them go ahead together exactly. They will start to become a more cohesive unit, and they'll learn

Robert Nordlund: 28:55

how we got that done. And we got that done because, well, after all, life is not perfect. It doesn't go according to plan, and now that you're on the board, this is all about compromise. And as you suggested, it's perhaps not all about me getting my way. It's maybe asking for some input from the homeowners. And say, Hey, you're the ones that are going to be paying for this? Do we dip into our reserves? And it means we need to raise our assessments to get read ready for the roof project in five years? Or do you want to do a mini special assessment now, just for the pool? That's 500 bucks a piece. And here's the picture of what the new pool deck area will look like. I'm like, Oh, yep, that's nice. You know, there's some things you can do. It's like, we've, Julie, you've spoken about so many times communication, when you dial the communication up and the board's communicating to each other, because they understand that we are different. I'm going to your open hands from earlier. We are different. Hoa. What do you think? What do you think? How can we get to the future for the best interests of the homeowners?

Julie Adamen: 30:05

Is that that's exactly what we're talking about. And I will tell you the process, once you get everyone to get that one thing they agree on, the process of getting there, say it takes six months or three or four months, whatever, you will end up knowing little board members a lot better as that time goes on and you actually go through the exercise of getting everyone together. I have seen it happen. This stuff works, but it is time consuming. But again, as long as you're open, as long as those hands are open and the fists aren't up,

Robert Nordlund: 30:36

it is possible. And then I'm thinking, just like you said at the beginning, we're in change management. So it takes six months to get that project going. You hire the pool person, and it takes three or four months, and by then you've got an election for the next couple of three board members, and

Julie Adamen: 30:54

you do it all over again. You do it all over again. Yeah, exactly. It's yeah. But you can't stop got to keep moving forward.

Robert Nordlund: 31:01

It sounds like that's life. Well, thank you, Julie. We had, we had a long list of things that we're going to talk about, and I think we touched on exactly what we needed to but I have a feeling there may be another episode or two in this or three. Yeah, there we go. Well, we will be back anyway. It's always great talking with you and hearing your perspective, your stories, you've seen so much. Any closing thoughts to add at this time, just

Julie Adamen: 31:29

think the biggest thing again, is that this process takes time, and don't if you're the new person, don't try to come in and ram it through right away. You want to build your political capital, and if you are in a board, a diverse board, age, race, sex, it doesn't you know, whatever, any kind of diversity, it could take even longer. But again, you're still trying to build consensus. We are still people, and if everyone has a clear picture that they're responsible for the community as a whole, not just for now, but into the future. Then people start to come together. Start with one thing, though, just one if you can, if you have several to deal with, we could talk about that maybe a later episode as well. Start with the most important thing, first that needs to be handled,

Robert Nordlund: 32:15

and then go from there, get that done and make that your first step. Because first success, yeah, journey of 1000 miles begins with one step. We're not, we're not talking about anything new here with we all with old stuff, okay, human dynamics. This is, this is nothing new. Well, we hope you learned some HOA insights from our discussion today that helps you bring common sense to your common areas. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to bringing many more episodes to you, week after week after week, we will be here, and it will be great to have you join us on a regular basis. Spread the word.

Announcer: 32:52

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