An HOA secretary plays a vital role in the community. Their duties contribute to the community’s overall organization and communication. The board members and residents need to understand these homeowners association secretary duties for efficient community management.
What is an HOA Secretary?
An HOA board secretary maintains and manages the community’s official records. These include recording, reviewing, and updating the meeting minutes, governing documents, and other community documents. They are also responsible for storing these documents safely and ensuring they are accessible to homeowners.
What Are the Duties of the HOA Secretary?
The community needs to understand all HOA secretary duties and responsibilities. By familiarizing themselves with these duties, community members can know who to turn to regarding documentation. Meanwhile, the board members will know who to elect for this officer position. Here is the full HOA secretary job description.
1. Accurate Record Keeping
One of the primary HOA secretary duties is keeping accurate records for the HOA. These records include almost all the community’s records, including membership lists, meeting minutes, and governing documents.
The secretary must ensure the documents are collected, organized, and properly stored. Doing so will allow the HOA to easily prepare these documents for inspection and copying upon homeowner request. However, sometimes an HOA may delegate these tasks to the management company to reduce the secretary’s workload.
2. Meeting Agenda Preparation
Every HOA meeting needs to have an agenda to keep things organized. Otherwise, the meeting could easily devolve into a chaotic discussion without solving community issues. This is where the HOA secretary comes in.
The secretary is often responsible for preparing the agenda items the community will discuss. They must also include the topics and objectives and when each topic will be discussed. They must prepare the agenda before they need to send out meeting notices. Usually, they work together with the HOA president and community manager to prepare the agenda.
3. Meeting Minutes Recording
One of the biggest HOA secretary responsibilities involves taking the minutes of meetings. They need to pay attention to the entire discussion and record all the actions taken, motions, who made the motions, and which motions were approved or denied.
However, the meeting minutes should include only some of the nitty-gritty details of the discussion. They must be brief and only include a summary of the entire meeting. This is why some communities may hire a recording secretary or community manager to organize the meeting minutes.
4. Community Updates
Homeowners have a right to know what’s going on in the community. They need to know about all the meetings, actions taken, and changes being made. The board is responsible for ensuring the homeowners are updated on all the board’s plans.
As you might have guessed, the HOA secretary is in charge of communicating these updates. They often use the community’s various channels to relay information, including mail, email, social media, newsletters, and websites. As such, the homeowners will know about monthly assessment increases, upcoming special assessments, or new projects.
5. Document Validation
The HOA secretary is often a witness to official documents. This means they put their signature on certain records to validate them. This can include management agreements, vendor contracts, and more. Some HOA secretaries are also in charge of approving certain documents like meeting minutes to ensure they’re official.
6. Form Filing
Though they aren’t businesses per se, homeowners associations are corporations. Thus, they must file various documents with specific state agencies. The HOA secretary is responsible for filing the necessary documents. They must also make sure all the paperwork meets the legal requirements.
Qualities of a Good HOA Secretary
What HOA secretary qualities should you look for? Assign someone with these characteristics to ensure the HOA’s documentation is all in order.
1. Organized
An HOA secretary must be well-organized. Their job involves a lot of filing, recording, and record-keeping. They cannot be haphazard or feel easily overwhelmed by the mountain of records and documents they need to handle. Moreover, they need to create or adopt a system that can keep all the records organized and manageable.
2. Responsible
HOA secretaries must have a good sense of responsibility. They have a lot of duties to fulfill, and so they must be responsible enough to perform all their tasks. You don’t want a secretary that abandons their duties halfway or performs them half-heartedly. Doing so could lead to a mess and even legal problems.
3. Detailed
Secretaries need to be detail-oriented. After all, they often need to record minutes and keep all the community’s records accurately. Missing even the tiniest detail could lead to liability and cost the HOA a lot of money.
4. Communicative
The HOA secretary must have top-tier communication skills as they handle many of the community’s communications. They send out meeting notices and inform residents of community updates. Thus, they need to be able to talk to residents and the board, often acting as an intermediary. They also need to know what to communicate and when.
5. Timely
The HOA secretary is in charge of sending out notices and filing forms. They cannot miss a deadline, or else it could have legal ramifications. The residents may complain about the HOA’s management methods and file a lawsuit. This could be detrimental to the association’s overall health.
An Important Part of the Board
The HOA secretary is indispensable to the board of directors. They play an essential role in documentation, meetings, and communication. Hence, the board must carefully select a person fit for the job. They must have the qualities and skills necessary to perform their duties.
However, some HOAs can’t find someone with the right qualifications despite their best efforts. That’s why many delegate the secretary’s duties to an HOA management company. Landmark Community Management is just the right company for the job. Call us today at 512-569-5527 or contact us online to request a proposal!
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