Boards of directors tend to fall into one of the following five categories.
1. Bad Boards
2. Dysfunctional Boards
3. Marginal Boards
4. Good Boards
5. Exceptional Boards
Bad Boards. Fortunately, truly bad boards are few in number. They tend to be self-serving and driven by personal agendas. It has been my experience they don't follow legal advice and I eventually withdraw from representation (a polite way of saying I fire them). Once their path of destruction is visible to everyone, they usually get sued or thrown out of office, or both. A good board is then elected to clean up the mess.
Dysfunctional Boards. Dysfunctional boards consist of directors who are at each other's throats. Nothing gets done because they are too busy fighting each other. There are strong personalities on differing sides of every issue and they are unyielding in their opinions. Sometimes they hate each other and engage in personal attacks. Each side develops a following and splits the community. Feelings run deep and it takes years to recover from the strife. Fortunately, dysfunctional boards are also few in number.
Marginal Boards. There are a fair number of marginal boards. Their directors serve because no one else will. They put in their time and try to avoid difficult decisions. They minimize rule enforcement and avoid spending money. They rationalize that doing nothing keeps dues down. Many owners get frustrated with such boards but not enough to volunteer their own time to serve on the board. It's not until some crisis hits that more qualified volunteers step up.
Good Boards. Most boards are good boards. They volunteer their time, address community issues, and generally make good decisions. They enforce the rules, repair the common areas, and fund the reserves. However, they can be slow to act and sometimes make mistakes. Even so, they care about the membership and their intentions are good.
Exceptional Boards. Exceptional boards are not the norm. Being on top of everything all the time, consistently communicating with members, responding quickly to complaints and never making mistakes is not sustainable. I've worked with many such boards over the years but the demands on their time and constant criticism from a minority of perpetually unhappy owners eventually wears them down.
All five categories have their detractors. Unhappiness with bad, dysfunctional and marginal boards is fully justified. If members have such boards, they should do something about it. See ten steps for dealing with bad boards.
Complaints about good and exceptional boards are most often from owners who don't like rules. They go ballistic when the board enforces rules against them. Too often they engage in whisper campaigns against directors and threaten lawsuits. They run up the association's legal bills and bully people until they get what they want. They complain endlessly about their "bad" board while directors struggle to bring the scofflaws into line.
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