Being on a board of an association is no picnic. There are tons of decisions to be made, disputes to settle, finances to keep track of and a chance of being sued for a slip-up. So why do so many people decide to serve on a board—some for years at a time? Even though it's easy to lose sight of them under the pressure and responsibility, there are benefits to being on a board.

Even long-serving board members—those individuals who get elected and re-elected term after term and have been in office since the Truman administration—enjoy giving back to their community and protecting their most important investment. There are, however, pros and cons for boards that have several long-term members on board.

Accentuating the Positive

Perhaps the biggest benefit of having a cadre of seasoned board members overseeing one’s association is the fact that they have unparalleled institutional memory. Knowledge of past successes and failures, familiarity of the various professionals along with the various roles of board members and professions and continuity of policies and procedures are the top three reasons why veteran board members are such a vital component to a successful board, says Arthur Bartikofsky, CPM, senior vice president of the high rise department of FirstService Residential in Eatontown, New Jersey.

Michael Pesce, PCAM, president of Community Management Corp. in Clifton, New Jersey, agrees. “Veteran board members obviously have the experience to know what works and does not work, which vendors are good and dependable and which are to be avoided, and how to conduct the business of the association, from running board meetings to understanding and handling the association’s finances,” Pesce says.

Multi-term board members also are important because they can hold down the metaphorical fort when new members join the board. In today’s world, running an association can be like running a small multi-national corporation—the stakes are high with hundreds of units and millions of dollars in play. It can take up to a full term for new board members to learn the ins-and-outs of procedures, bylaws, meeting rules and other details.

However, experts stress the necessity and importance of introducing new players who will breathe life into a stale board. “New board members can be beneficial because they bring fresh blood, energy and ideas to the board,” Pesce says. “In my experience, the best boards are a combination of old and new, with the new challenging the veterans to try new things, and the old stopping the new from going down dead end roads.”

Bonnie Bertan, president of Association Advisors in Freehold, agrees. “It is always nice to have new board members with a fresh perspective and renewed passion and interest. The balance of both is ideal,” she says.

While newcomers are learning, experts advise the more experienced board members shoulder the burden and at the same time, provide important mentoring opportunities—this is the perfect chance to help groom and cultivate new members. Veterans should make themselves available to novices to address any questions or concerns they might have regarding the position.

Management can also help ease the transition for newbies by providing them with necessary educational materials and resources that offer a background of the building, and a clear outline of the expectations they are supposed to fulfill.

Book Learning

“One of the things that a managing agent should do, and this is something that we do, we educate our boards and give our new board members every year—and even our incumbent board members—a board book, so they understand what their responsibilities are as a board member and what the fiduciary responsibilities are to the association,” Dan Wurtzel of New York City-based management firm FirstService Residential says. The booklet should contain “a list of documents which includes minutes, financial statements, lists of pending action items, accomplishments over the last year so they can ramp themselves up and understand what's been going on in the building and where to pick things up from,” he says.

Bartikofsky urges experienced members to share as much information as possible about past operations, including meeting minutes, agendas, financial reports, reserve studies and important aspects of the governing documents, including amendments and resolutions of the board.

Uncertainty of building knowledge and position requirements can be detrimental to productivity, Wurtzel warns.

“Otherwise, what ends up happening is you have new board members who come on and they have an agenda and they have some great ideas but it takes them a long time to understand the intricacies of how a board operates,” Wurtzel says. “They sort of sit on the sidelines or in the background until they feel like they have a good handle on things. That can create some inefficiencies and you want board members to be able to contribute when they come on, and not six months later.”

In pragmatic terms, long-serving board members also can help ease whatever difficulties an association board may have in recruiting new candidates to seek board positions. Because these positions are voluntary and because they can be so time-consuming, many residents these days choose not to run for leadership positions within their association. That means a fair number of board members may be seeking re-election term after term simply because there is no one else willing to take up the torch.

On the Down Side

Despite the myriad benefits that long-serving board members bring to the table, there are times when that longevity can be a detriment to the community rather than a positive. “It cuts both ways. If you have a board that has been standing for a while and everyone is happy with what's going on and there's no challenges, then there really isn't an issue unless somebody resigns or they don't run. There are other people running to fill that open position,” Wurtzel says. “Some boards can get stale. They can lose touch with what their shareholders and unit owners [think] is in the best interest of the building—sometimes that can happen.”

Bartikofsky agrees, saying, “ As the population of a building changes, the desires of newer homeowners are not always brought to the surface or given priority. Sometimes this is more perception than reality. There is sometimes a perception that board members that serve many years are not open to change. There is sometimes a perception that board members become complacent about seeking new professional and vendor relationships because they are comfortable with the current relationships.”

Breaking the Cycle

For any association unhappy with a long-serving member of the board, the easiest solution is simply to vote that person out at the next election. Sometimes, though, that is easier said than done. Board members reluctant to let go of power can make it difficult for their fellow residents to unseat them. And that can be self-perpetuating, until residents begin to believe that there is no way to vote someone out and so, they simply stop trying. Because of that, term limits might be included in an association’s bylaws.

Just as in federal, state and local governments, the debate on term limits arises from time to time. New Jersey does not have term limits for board members and he says that few if any associations do. “There are no laws requiring either term limits or staggered terms, but many governing documents do call for staggered terms,” Pesce says. “Less prevalent are governing docs calling for term limits. That concept is very rate in New Jersey,” he adds.

While there is no state law regulating term limits, it might be possible for an association to amend its by-laws and institute them for their own community, Pesce says.

Regardless of an association's rules on term limits and re-elections (experts say most community associations and HOAs don't implement term limits), it is advised to conduct elections in staggered terms in order to avoid losing experienced, qualified and interested members all at once. With residents' apathy at a high and free time at a low, it can be quite difficult to fill the seats of the board, Pesce says.

Perhaps the most effective way to ensure that all board members serve to the best of their ability no matter how many times they have been re-elected is for unit owners and shareholders to be vigilant in their own oversight. By attending meetings, reading minutes, scanning financials and keeping up with any and all correspondence coming from the board, residents can help keep their community on the right track and their board members functioning to the best of their abilities.

And for residents who are dissatisfied with aspects of their community and the way it is being run, they can make sure they vote in their board elections and get others to vote as well. Or, they can even take up the baton and run themselves, bringing fresh perspective and new energy in service to their fellow residents.

Thankfully, the benefits of having committed and long-serving members of the board seem to far outweigh the cons. There is no doubt that the role of a board member has gotten increasingly complex and time-consuming in recent decades, requiring significant energy, skill and experience to be successful. It can be a difficult load for new board members to bear. That is why boards that have that institutional memory in the form of long-serving members often flourish, finding that perfect balance between experience and innovation.

Editorial Assistant Enjolie Esteve contributed to this article.