A St. Louis subdivision trustee board administers the rules and upholds the policies of a community to help to unite them for many common purposes. If you’re among those who have volunteered to serve on your board, we acknowledge that this office can be both a rewarding and a challenging job.
While your goal remains to protect the value of residents to ensure neighbors do not paint houses a distasteful color or park several commercial vehicles driveways, etc., we know it’s not all roses all the time.
Conflicts often arise, but a smart association can structure their organization and their meetings to prepare for both the best and worst of situations.
Part of planning for your St. Louis HOA’s success is getting to know your residents. We recommend to develop a file or profile for each family’s property in your neighborhood. When possible, try to do this before they attend a board meeting so they feel valued for you taking the time to get to know them in advance.
Suggested Information to Include on Resident Profile:
- Name of owners and/or spouse with a designation of primary decision maker
- Address and date of house purchase
- Contact phone numbers
- Email addresses of adults in the household
- # of all residents living in each household (along with names if possible)
- Ages of both homeowners and children living in household
- # and type of pets (and names for an added personal touch)
Your Resident Profiles can also include various points of information as your board sees fit to describe the family’s preferences. Gathering other information also will help you understand how to choices your HOA board makes will impact each family. Some of these other details include:
- The resident’s feelings on what the maintenance priorities and desired improvements are for common areas. Dowco suggests using pre-selected choices such as, “low cost”, “entrance enhancements”, “large field maintenance”, “playground equipment” etc.
- Record if they would have interest in serving on your HOA board or committees and when a good time to contact them might be
- Survey them to see if any family members have interest in specific HOA-sponsored social activities
- Suggested property maintenance vendors
- Plans on their length of residence in your community
- Meetings that they have attended
- Emails or calls that they have made to the board
What have you tried that worked for your St. Louis Homeowner’s association? Would you add any tips to this list?
