Recruiting Volunteers

(00:01) INTRO: It's time for HOA solutions today. This is where you'll find news, tools and trends for condominium and association leaders.

There are so many things that are out of our control in the association industry where it's either hard or difficult or sometimes impossible to be able to do the right thing.

And now here's your host, Paul K. Mengert.

(00:24) PAUL MENGERT: Good afternoon. This is the HOA Solutions Today podcast on recruiting volunteers; and today I am very pleased to have a very good friend of mine and special guest with us today: Dr. Lori Baker-Schena. We're going to be talking about recruiting volunteers, which I believe is one of the most frequently asked questions of community leaders. Basically, Lori, they want to know how do they replace themselves? And I got to tell our guests, we're really lucky to have Lori with us. She is a leading expert on group dynamics and leadership, she's a long-term friend of mine, she launched her own marketing and communications company more than 30 years ago, she taught at the California State University, Northridge, for more than 25 years as a tenured professor, she taught about journalism and public relations and, basically a lot of the things we need to know about today. She now works as a leadership consultant and a professional speaker to the community association and other industries. Lori, how did I do on that?

(01:29) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: You did great, Paul. So great to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

(01:33) PAUL K. MENGERT: Well, I am so pleased to have you with us. And I know a lot of our guests have been anxiously awaiting this information. As I said, Lori, they work hard on the board of directors. Oftentimes you have people that have served on the board for 10 or 15 or even more years, and they want to know how do they replace themselves? Not that they're not doing a good job, but they're tired and they need reinforcements. What can they do to bring more people on board?

(02:01) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely. Well, you know, finding volunteers these days, Paul, is really a challenge. We have people who are super busy, who, sometimes there's a little bit of apathy. A lot of times they don't understand what it takes to be on the board. So, there's a lot of different factors that factor in to even try to find volunteers in the community. So, I think one of the challenges for boards is not only to find volunteers, but to recruit them, recruit the right volunteers, which we can talk about. And also, set up a succession plan so that the good work of a board continues. You don't want that to just fly off in the wind. It really needs some mindful selection and recruitment of volunteers.

(02:46) PAUL K. MENGERT: So. Lori, you know, I like to put everything into bullet points. The number one, we might make the number one bullet point, to have a plan. I mean, this isn't something, that I'm hearing, this isn't something that might just happen kind of automatically.

(03:00) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely. Paul, that is so important, to be mindful of the fact that you need good volunteers. You know, it's interesting, one of the problems that people have and the challenges of actually working on a board is that they don't want to do all the work themselves, and sometimes you get on a board and you realize you're the only one rowing the boat, and what you really need to do is figure out a way to get multiple people to row the boat. So, one of the things that stops people from volunteering is the idea that they have to do all the work themselves. So, by together as a board, figuring out A) how to recruit volunteers, who you want to recruit, when you want to recruit, and the strategy, I think that goes a long way in helping you actually serve on the board and, you know, steer the ship.

(03:48) PAUL K. MENGERT: Yes. It really, directors want reinforcements, but they don't want reinforcements that are going to take things off the rails.

(03:56) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely. And that can easily happen, as you know, in our industry. But with, you know, some really, really good preparation, I think it's very possible to really, you know, recruit some amazing volunteers.

(04:11) PAUL K. MENGERT: What about diversity in the recruitment? It seems like a lot of community association boards I see across the country, you know, it seems like they all, everyone serving on the board looks pretty similar. How does diversity lead into recruitment?

(04:29) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Well, I think we have to be mindful of the fact that we want our board to reflect the community. And so, we need to look at our community and then find representation that truly reflects it. And I'm not also talking about just ethnicity or race. I'm talking about age, too. You know, I hate to say it, but money boards skew a little older because older people are retired, or they have the time to do it. And one of the big challenges of boards across the country now is to find young people who are interested in taking this responsibility and running with it. And that's not as is easy as you would think. So, I think diversity, not only in terms of, you know, ethnic background, but also in terms of age.

(05:14) PAUL K. MENGERT: Sometimes we have communities that have different phases where some will have townhomes and single-family homes, and some kind of some geographical diversity. A lot of times it seems to me that everyone who serves on the board lives on the 12th floor and, you know, nobody lives on the penthouse, or nobody lives in the, you know, the garage apartments. I mean, so it's, you know, the geographical diversity, the ethnic diversity, the age diversity. These are all things that I think play into being more successful in your recruitment.

(05:47) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: And I want to add also, you're where you are in your family and in your age, you know, we'd like to have people with young kids, people with teenagers, you know, all sort of people with no kids. I mean, that kind of diversity to Paul is really important to reflect the needs of the entire community. Good. Good point.

(06:04) PAUL K. MENGERT: Lori. One of the things our podcast is known for is our HOA Solutions today news breaks and we have a news break up here. So, we're going to go to that for a moment and we'll be right back.

(06:13) SPEAKER: And now it's time for your HOA solutions today news break.

(06:18) NEWSBREAK: Imagine associations no longer being able to collect assessments from property owners to pay for maintenance. CAI leaders in North Carolina were able to introduce legislation to prevent a very real threat to associations from cases related to the Marketable Title Act. Visit HOAsolutionstoday.com for more information.

(06:43) PAUL K. MENGERT: Lori, we're back. I really appreciate you being here today. This is so fun chatting with you about how we recruit volunteers. So, I know it's difficult. We've talked a little bit about what might lead up to the process. What is the best way to ask people, to motivate people, to actually volunteer? What are some techniques that our listeners could use?

(07:10) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Well, Paul, before we even start there, I think we need to be strategic in what we want to have the volunteers be doing. And we've chatted about this for many, many years. But one thing a board wants to avoid is recruiting someone who has absolutely no experience to be on the board. Because if you really want to represent the community, you know, board work this these volunteer boards are so much work and it's so involved. I mean, you know, you really have to have some experience it’s really important. So how do you get that experience? So, one of the things that I kind of like the idea of doing and Paul, you've shared it with this with me over the years is create committees that volunteers can serve on and that way they can get their feet in the water. And once they're ready to be a board director, they'll know how things work. And I think by it also allows people to kind of get their feet in the water because being committee work is different from being on the board. So, I think that's the first thing that boards need to do is figure out what they want to do with their volunteers.

(08:20) PAUL K. MENGERT: Absolutely a great point. You often see people that would like to run for city council, having served on the zoning commission or the Parks and Recreation Commission. So, it's not usual to see people start off by serving on city council. Usually, they've done some volunteer work that leads up to that.

(08:42) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Great, great, great analogy. So one thing that you would you would want to do is I would think put out some kind of an email just encouraging people, showing them that there are certain positions open on these committees and in asking if they're interested in them, because you'll find that people who are interested in, let's say, landscaping, or interested in events, you know, the community events or interested in compliance. You will find that they will come to those committees, and so you'll get people who are very interested. So, one way I think is kind of an email blast inviting people to join the committees. Another really great idea is when people move into the community to reach out quickly and say, you know, we have a wonderful HOA community and we would love for you to volunteer, and these are some of the opportunities. And if you use the word opportunities, that makes it look like it's a really desirable thing to do. And so, I think just that wording about opportunities is great and allowing people to really have a way, have a say on how the whole community navigates through the world. So that kind of approach is good.

(09:55) PAUL K. MENGERT: I very much agree that it's a responsibility of the community leaders to make sure that this looks like it's fun and is fun. And we've got to really avoid the negative Nancy trap. Karen gets too much hate right now. I'm going to spread that around a little bit. But we really have to avoid this trap of believing that people are dissatisfied because, in fact, the studies show that a very high percentage of association members are, in fact, quite satisfied. So, the news media kind of has it wrong that associations are this hotbed of unhappiness because it's really not true. I mean, yes, we hear loudly from the people who aren't satisfied, but most of the residents, statistically speaking, are very, very satisfied. So that's some good news in recruiting. I love the idea of going to people who are brand new to the community because they just selected that community over all other possible communities they could have moved into. So, I think that is a great idea. And I would like to, while I very much agree with the idea of doing an e-blast to discover where interest may lie. I really think this is one of the things that takes personal contact. It really is going to require a phone call or a cup of coffee with the current leaders to involve new leaders. This isn't something that can be put on autopilot or on a social media blast. It really does take personal contact.

(11:29) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely, and I think the email blast can serve as kind of like an educational raise, awareness of the opportunities followed up by personal contact. I also like the idea of having a community event where you have the community of people who coming to the community event of fun event, taking that opportunity to recruit volunteers too, because if they're at the community event, they're obviously interested in their community. I think that's a really to your point, Paul, about that personal touch.

(11:57) PAUL K MENGERT: So, I'm going to some of this up by saying, number one, we have a plan. And number two, we've got to have a strategic approach to how we recruit volunteers. And you mentioned something interesting a few minutes ago, you said about getting their feet in the water. And while I agree with that, I want to caution our listeners based on the news break we're going to go to now. So, this is the HOA Solutions Today Newsbreak for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

(12:29) SPEAKER: And here's another HOA Solutions today news break.

(12:33) NEWSBREAK: In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, an HOA reportedly refused to mow around the detention pond. The homeowner, wanted the area trimmed and took it upon himself to do so. Apparently, not only did the homeowners association not want the area trimmed, but neither did the alligator living in the pond. The alligator was much less friendly than the HOA. The alligator attacked the homeowner and drug him into the detention pond. Sadly, he died from his injuries. Who do you think is liable? Let us know your opinion by leaving a comment at HOAsolutionstoday.com. Need more information? Check out our related articles.

(13:13) PAUL K. MENGERT: So, Lori, we're back from our news break. I am sure you want to clarify that you didn't mean that people should literally stick their feet in the water.

(13:21) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Especially if you're in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach.

(13:26) PAUL K. MENGERT: Florida. I don't know if you've got any alligators out there in Olympia, Washington, where you and Carl live, but over here on the East Coast, we do have to sometimes be careful about alligators. And I would encourage all of our association members to steer clear of detention ponds where there might be alligators, snakes or other things within those ponds and rely on the experts to take care of those. Lori, back to our area of expertise. Let's drill down a little further on. We've talked about having a plan for volunteers about making it strategic. Talk to me now about how you roll this out. We've done an e-blast. We've had coffee with some folks, and they've signed up to be on committees. What do we do now?

(14:11) LORI BAKER-MENGERT: Well, I want to also emphasize Paul, talking a little bit about the fact that the news media is often negative about associations. I have to tell you that most people absolutely love living in community associations. They come there because they want their all the benefits of our community associations. And so, I think that expressing to volunteers how great it is to A) live in the association and B) volunteer to keep the price values up to keep that quality of life. It's all part of what they can be doing. So, I love the idea of taking an incredibly positive approach to every single part of what it takes to run a community association. And again, we can't express enough how we need to counter that media image of negativity because quite frankly, it is absolutely wonderful. I live in a community association, and I can't imagine not. Our community is beautiful. So that being the case, we really need to have volunteers be positive and we need to be sure that through everything that we do, that we understand that what this is all about is a very positive experience.

(15:34) PAUL K. MENGERT: Yes. At the end of the at the end of the day, our mission is always to preserve, protect and enhance the value of the community association, and that can take a lot of different a lot of different forms. One of the things our managers have found makes a real positive difference, whether it be formal or informal, but for is for committees to have a charter. Talk to me a little bit about what a committee charter looks like and why that's a valuable thing. I've always recalled a story of an association appointing a landscape committee, thinking they were going to get some landscape bids from a few different companies, and they came back with a price list of tractors they were going to buy and how much it was going to cost to hire tractor drivers. So went in a totally different direction than the board envisioned. How can a charter keep us on track with that?

(16:29) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Well, of course, we all need to get together with our charters and realize our goals and our objectives for each committee and we also need to spell those out. So, a couple of things we need to do is we need to get that charter, so we know what the purpose of the committee is. And then I strongly urge our boards and our directors to mentor the people that come into it. You can't just let these volunteers’ kind of like do their own thing in the beginning. You need to sit there in the committee, help guide them, mentor them, teach them how to be an effective volunteer. So that's a really key step. And then make sure that these committees are on the right track and doing what the goal is, of the board. So, I guess what I'm saying, Paul, is it has to be super interactive. It has to be you have to be very proactive as a board member. It's nothing that you can just delegate and let it go. The more active you stay and the more mentoring you can do, you can really grow a beautiful community of volunteers.

(17:31) PAUL K. MENGERT: Well said, Lori. And just as you're saying that I'm sitting here thinking that if I can encourage the community leaders to make sure they're doing everything you're saying with a smile on their face and enjoying what they're doing and inspiring others to enjoy what they're doing. You know, I understand from a friend of mine who specializes in customer service training that he puts mirrors in front of everybody's desks, because when people look at themselves, they smile, and when they smile, they have a more positive outlook. And I know we don't publish it to our visitors, but you and I have a screen here where we can see each other. And, you know, while I'm saying this, I see you smiling. So, you know, it makes me it makes me happy. And, you know, happiness is an important part of leadership in this area.

(18:22) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely. And it's contagious.

(18:25) PAUL K. MENGERT: It truly is. So, I think our third point I might sum up by saying you've got to understand the goals and objectives and those be communicated and shared, whether it's a formal written contract or a charter or whether it's just a discussion of, hey, Joe and Sally, we appreciate you volunteering to pick the flowers. We anticipate that they're going to be a cost of not more than X, and it's going to be flowers from a certain nursery, and whatever the whatever the details the association might be concerned about. I love the story about the committee accidentally buying or going off studying, buying tractors, because, you know, really, that would not be necessarily a wrong way to accomplish landscaping. It just wasn't what they had in mind.

(19:14 LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Exactly.

(19:16) PAUL K. MENGERT: So, we're ready for our third HOA Solutions Today newsbreak.

(19:21) SPEAKER: And now, our final HOA Solutions Today Newsbreak.

(19:25) NEWSBREAK: Bloomberg.com reports a legal showdown over Section 8 discrimination is brewing in Dallas, Texas. An HOA is banning renters who receive federal housing aid and setting up a high stakes civil rights battle over fair housing and racial discrimination. This isn't the first time that rental restrictions have received fair housing scrutiny. Let us know how you feel about rental restrictions by leaving your thoughts and possible suggestions at HOAsolutionstoday.com

(19:54) PAUL K MENGERT: Lori, we're back from our news break. I know that you and I have spent a lot of time educating community leaders on the aspects of fair housing, but some of it doesn't become quite so clear. Just like recruiting volunteers, these things can be complicated.

(20:12) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely. And knowing that, going in, being sure to be in touch with people, professionals who understand what they're doing and can help you in all sorts of ways, getting a strong volunteer force. These are the things that make boards not only successful and associates not only successful, but really a joyful and very enjoyable experience. So that kind of, you know, looking to professionals who can help you to have a very robust volunteers board, having a positive attitude, all these things can really help enhance communities. It's very exciting.

(20:53) PAUL K. MENGERT: It truly is. And I just I want to touch on this surveying that the CAI: Community Association Institute has done of community members and on satisfaction. I know you're familiar with that, and I think it helps inspire community leaders, when they understand the high percentage of people that live in their community that are, in fact satisfied? Unfortunately, the community leaders often hear from the small percentage that are dissatisfied, and that can become demoralizing. As hard as community leaders work on doing a good job and just my decades of experiences that almost all the community leaders do it in good faith, whether we totally agree with what they're doing or not. I do believe what they're doing is done in good faith with the mission of trying to help their association, and when we can when we can keep a smile on their face by realizing that 90% of the owners are maybe more truly are appreciative. That's really helpful.

(21:57) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Absolutely. You know, they say that this might be a thankless job, but I think in many, many communities, boards are thanked and are appreciated. And I know I certainly see that all over in my work that we have a lot of appreciation. And I believe that we need to continue to understand what an important job we have, what a positive impact we can make and have and have those goals of really creating community.

(22:25) PAUL K. MENGERT: Lori, thank you. If I can follow up just a little bit and then I welcome any closing comment you may have, but I've kind of kept a few notes as we've chatted this afternoon. And my bullet points are to have a plan, to be welcoming and open minded, to be strategic in our recruiting and make personal invitations, particularly to new residents, to understand the goals and objectives and define tasks carefully to make sure that all the all the participants are on the same page. That would be my cliff notes to our discussion today. Anything you'd like to add?

(23:08) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: That was amazingly terrific, Paul. You really sum that up very well. And I think in general, I always encourage my boards to be sure that they understand their goals for their community and to have a goal and have objectives and have a mission. Because when a community has a mission, people can rally around that mission. And it really makes for some deeper relationships, more effective action steps. It's really exciting. So having that mission together, creating that and realizing what they're doing for the greater good, it's, it's just it's almost magical Paul.

(23:45) PAUL K. MENGERT: Lori I see an opportunity to do a few other podcasts out of this because I just couldn't agree more. And unfortunately, we see a lot of associations spend far more time on where the dog pooped or where the car parked than on what their goals and objectives for the association really are. So, I think that deserves a whole other discussion about keeping a balance of how much time they spend in their leadership on the real goals and objectives versus the most recent complaint that they got. And I think at some point you use sum this up as, gosh, I'm going to miss the words, but the difference between what is what seems urgent and what is important. So, if I'm saying if I’m picking the right, the dog poop may be urgent, but it's not nearly as important as increasing the value of the community.

(24:40) LORI BAKER-SCHENA: Well said, Paul. Absolutely.

(24:43) PAUL K. MENGERT: Lori, it's always great chatting with you and I'm so appreciative of you being our special guest today on the HOA Solutions Today podcast. It's always a pleasure. I hope you'll come back. Very honored to have had Dr. Lori Baker-Schena with us this afternoon and appreciate her expertise in community management and group dynamics and leadership. I'm Paul Mengert and we thank you for listening. We'll see you next time on the HOA Solutions Today podcast.

(25:16) OUTRO: Thanks for listening to HOA Solutions today. Find more information on today's topic online at HOASolutionstoday.com.

(25:27) PROMOTIONAL: This podcast is a production of BG Ad Group. Darren Sutherland Executive Producer. Jeremy Powell Creative Director. Jacob Sutherland, Director Producers. Jason Genter. Ola and Matt Golden and Kezia May, Copywriter. All rights reserved.

Key Notes:

• Have a plan – be mindful that you need good volunteers-- your plan should include who to recruit and when to recruit.

• Be strategic in recruiting - make personal connections when inviting volunteers – be welcoming and open minded.

• Make sure to understand the goals and objectives of your HOA and be sure those can be communicated and shared with all involved.

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