One of the perpetual challenges of multifamily, shared interest living is the relatively small number of community members who are willing to volunteer their time to govern and run the community. It’s not uncommon for any building or association to have a small, core group who run for and serve on the community’s board year after year…after year. 

While administrative consistency and a deep bench of institutional memory are definitely good things, relying on the same handful of people to make important decisions that impact every resident of their community year after year can lead to problems, from negligence to financial mismanagement, or even outright fraud. 

Another very real risk of overreliance on just a few people is that of board burnout.  

What is Board Burnout?

Burnout can occur in any line of work, and is defined as a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, a sense of alienation or detachment from one's work, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Its symptoms can include physical, emotional and behavioral components ranging from head and body aches to depression, anxiety, irritability, feelings of isolation, and reduced productivity. Burnout can stem from chronic stress, long working hours, unrealistic expectations, a lack of control over work tasks, and a feeling of being overburdened and undervalued. If you’ve ever served on your condo or co-op board during a messy capital project, years-long lawsuit, or other contentious time, that may all sound all too familiar. 

While there are admittedly plenty of cases where board members—or entire boards—cling to their position out of stubbornness or egotism, most board members arrive at a point where they’re ready to move on and let someone else assume the responsibility.  

Unfortunately, it’s all too common to hear about the difficulty boards often have in finding community members willing to serve. “Being a board member of a community association is a thankless job,” says Kris Kasten, a partner with Chicago-based law firm Bartzen Rosenlund Kasten. “It’s a volunteer position that requires time and energy beyond one’s real job.”

Sometimes, long-serving board members simply feel they don’t have a choice, says Richard Brooks, a principal with Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks, a law firm based in Massachusetts. “Often, board members feel like they can’t step down, even when someone else wants to step up.” 

“The ‘stuck board member’ phenomenon is not uncommon,” says Hal Coopersmith, a partner at the law firm Coopersmith & Coopersmith, located in New York City. “Many board members find themselves serving far longer than they intended because no one else steps forward. This creates burnout—and sometimes resentment—from the board to the shareholders, as well as from the shareholders towards a seemingly entrenched board.” 

Dan Wollman, CEO of Manhattan-based Gumley Haft Property Management, adds that “Bard members often get ‘stuck’ because they want to protect their asset and believe they can do it better than other people. They are afraid someone else won’t have their judgement. Their judgment is better than someone else’s, or so they think.”  

A Numbers Game

What happens when a board member throws in the towel and resigns due to burnout, (or any other reason), and can’t be easily replaced? Can a board continue to function and make decisions with less than the recommended number of members? As with most things co-op and condo, that depends on what your community’s governing documents say. But from a practical perspective, yes.

That said, Kasten notes that “if the number of serving board members cannot constitute a quorum under your governing documents, then the legal validity of decisions by the remaining board members may be vulnerable to contest. However, the practicalities of the situation may require the remaining board members to make decisions to ensure the community continues to function and doesn’t fall into disrepair. If any significant decision must be made, especially any that incur a large expense, the remaining board members should fill vacancies so that at least a quorum can be met.”

The all-important quorum is what makes a board’s decisions valid and enforceable. “In the event that a board does not have a sufficient number of directors then the board should call a special meeting to elect the directors needed,” says Coopersmith. “The building's bylaws will cover what happens with the replacement of a board member. A lot of bylaws provide that when a board member resigns or is removed they can be replaced during a regular meeting or a special meeting of the board.”   

“In New Jersey,” says Michael S. Simone, principal of the Simone Law Firm located in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, “rules for replacing board members who resign are usually found in the governing documents and or bylaws. Typically, governing documents explain how to appoint a replacement for the remaining term. I’m not aware of any state statutory requirements. Generally speaking, a board can function with less than the number of board members mentioned in their documents. There are sections in most bylaws that give supplemental or special powers to remaining board members for a vacancy situation.”  

Service-Oriented

An oft-mentioned problem in shared interest communities is what’s called the ‘renter’s mentality.’ Many people buy into a condo or co-op community as their first ownership experience after years of renting—and many of them bring their renter mentality with them. They don’t completely understand that they are now the landlord, and that their voice is not only important, but critical in governing their community. With that said, with board service so important, and yet so few people willing to take it on, how can communities get their residents interested in serving on the board to keep the energy fresh and focused? 

“What we do as managing agents,” says Scott Wolf, CEO of Brigs Management, a Boston-based real estate management firm, “is to try to educate owners on what board service entails. We stress that with professional management in place, they just are the decision makers. We, the managers, are executing their decisions. We try to convince them that board service is not a heavy lift. One difficult problem is that when they come to an annual association meeting, they see other owners berating the board, and they don’t want to be up there. We try to explain to them that it’s not that bad. You help your community and protect your investment.”

Brooks points out that the advent of Zoom as a platform for resident and board meetings has had a positive impact on younger owners’ willingness to take part in governing their buildings and HOAs. Removing the need to be physically present in order to participate clears one of the biggest hurdles people cite as reason not to attend: the sheer hassle. 

“It will happen more and more going forward, because younger buyers aren’t interested in going to in-person meetings,” says Brooks. “They’re used to Zoom, and so may become more interested if they are exposed through Zoom. They still have to protect their most important asset, however, so I’m encouraged by using Zoom meetings. It piques younger owners’ interest” and makes getting involved more appealing. 

Where Apathy Can Lead

“Getting an apathetic membership to serve on the board is a challenge all on its own,” says Kasten. “In my experience, I have not found one magic formula for fostering interest to serve on the board, but there are several options. The current board or management can try to encourage members to serve by using positive language. Members can be repeatedly reminded that their active participation is necessary for the success of the community. The opposite approach is using negative language. This is when the current board or management repeatedly tells the membership that unless they are willing to step up and serve on the board, the community is doomed. Perhaps that’s a bit hyperbolic, but that is essentially what is communicated. Because fear can be a strong persuader; sometimes it can convince community members to serve.”

Coopersmith recommends that boards can encourage broader participation by providing more information about the responsibilities of the board of directors and break down board service into smaller, more manageable committee roles. For example, there may be a committee for financial matters for individuals who are interested in finances of the building.

Left to fester, the combination of apathy and burnout can lead to a set of unresolvable circumstances that can even result in the collapse of a condo, HOA or co-op community. Simone explains:

“There’s apathy, and it’s hard to come back from that. Many residents say they don’t want this kind of drama in their lives, and it becomes a spiral that prevents resolution. New Jersey has new laws going into effect that affect shared community governance, and that’s burning out even more board members. It’s deterring people from running. There are even communities that are seeking to dissolve their association, though that path of action naturally depends on the type of association in question. That’s easier where it’s a planned community HOA and they can just become fee-simple estates.”

A Group Effort 

A refrain among the professionals we spoke to for this article was the importance of board members supporting each other, and recognizing that their cooperation and commitment to the association as a whole is crucial—not just for its administrative functioning, but in order for themselves and their fellow board members to bring their best to the role.  

Simone sums it up in a most practical way: “the best way to avoid the issue of burnout is by having full cooperation by all board members as much as possible. This avoids the responsibilities falling on a select few members on the board, and helps avoid the appearance that one person is dictating their wishes to the whole community. 

At the end of the day, says Simone, getting people to serve on their board may boil down to the fact that “being on the board is a self-serving interest, and should be presented as such. Your home is typically your largest asset. By serving on the board you help ensure your asset is properly protected.”

A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter with CooperatorNews Chicagoland, and a published novelist. He may be reached at alan@yrinc.com