Education is key to becoming a good HOA board member

Congratulations. You have been elected to the board of directors of your homeowners' association. You now have the awesome responsibility to serve your community, and to serve it well.

Establishing board roles and responsibilities and keeping it focused on governing wisely is paramount to helping ensure the board's and an association's success.

Every homeowners association board has three primary fiduciary responsibilities: to support governing documents, uphold interests of the association and to act as if the resources of the association are his or her own.

You must also remain updated on current issues, attend meetings and ask questions.

In response to many HOA board members' desire and need to be as informed as possible in all aspects of governance, the CAI offers a series of homeowner seminars on a variety of different topics.

CAI's educational programs are held in Las Vegas and Reno. Homeowner classes for 2011 include budgets and reserves, rules enforcement, ethics, meetings and elections, landscape, building communities, fines, collections and foreclosures, how to structure a request for proposal, risk management and a class called ABC's: Essentials for Board Members

The Nevada chapter of CAI has also established a designation for board members that can be earned by attending a series of specialized classes to educate them about the goals of an HOA, as well as their roles and responsibilities.

Called the DCAL, dedicated community association leaders, designation, the program has proven to be a big success

There are currently 58 board members in the state who have earned this title and are proud to serve their associations.

Sun City Aliante is proud that all seven of its board members recently earned their DCAL designations. They are the first board to achieve this status.

Additionally, CAI offers a series of classes for community managers to obtain continuing education credits to maintain their license, and also to earn nationally recognized designations, including CMCA, certified manager of community associations, AMS, association management specialist and PCAM, professional community association manager.

For a schedule of these classes, contact CAI Executive Director Mary Rendina at info@cai-nevada.org.

Classes and seminars will also be offered this fall covering changes made to NRS 116 and NAC 116 during the current legislative session.

Keeping up-to-date on these changes is critical to being an effective board member and manager.

Patricia Taylor is board president of the Community Associations Institute, a national membership organization for HOA management companies, volunteer board members and other professional service providers and business partners. She can be reached at ptaylor@tamhoa.com.