Reasons why you should – and shouldn’t – get elected to your committee

It’s an interesting one. Depends is my answer. If you are up for it and have a good enthusiastic, commonsense committee: go for it. If more than half are old hands with little desire for change or ability to pay for it or record of acting for the good of all: don’t bother. You can stay less stressed by acting in the shadows or writing to the committee from arm’s length. Knowing your rights and state’s legislation is gold when up against mere hubris or entitlement.

I’d actually love to see time limits on tenure and a better way to screen the abilities and effect of individual members. I’ve seen good people come and go and the old ones that these folk won’t/can’t work with just think they are still there so they must be ok to continue doing their low value ways with impunity. When you value your apartment and multiply it by units in total you see the site’s total value and can’t help but think no other asset or business worth that much would put itself at such risk if managed by individuals with no skill requirement and all sort of agendas.

Having thought about it over time a good committee itself needs to do 4 things well: know their legislative requirements, be effective/efficient in their actions, have a sense of value, and take stakeholder relationships into account.

Good individual committee members tend to do 4 things well: have or get relative skills, act on things in a timely fashion, apply themselves all year, and have a sense of value for what/whom they buy and how long it lasts.

Would I go around again though? Currently I’m leaning towards the words of Oscar Wilde. He advised: ‘I’d never join a club that would have me as a member’. Perhaps we previously served on the same committee!