Below is one individual’s account of becoming HOA Board Certified. This account provides insight into the actions of the Grandin Lake Shores directors since their certification. Although they announced that the directors are certified, the certificates have yet to be displayed on the HOA website, as mandated by law. The directors are also required to complete four hours of continuing education annually. Not a single director has adhered to this State Statute or provided a rationale for their non-compliance. Transparency is not a priority for them. It’s our understanding that it will be quite some time before the directors will be able to comply.
In March of last year, the directors were under the impression that they had 90 days to get certified after being elected to the board for their three-year term. Consequently, they all decided to get certified right away instead. In reality, they had four years to get certified if they served those years uninterrupted. The 90 days are applicable to directors newly elected or appointed to the board after the law took effect on July 1, 2024 to avoid the unconstitutional retroactive application of a statute to an existing contract.
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I'm now the proud owner of the above HOA Board Member Certificate. I signed up for the on-line seminar, signed on at the time I was told and signed off after 4 hours of Internet "education?". After the experience of attending their on-line seminar. I have to give the folks at the Division an A for trying to educate board members, but an F for failing to do so.
Let me explain why I came to this conclusion: During the 4 hours of Internet education, I most often barely listened to the presentation. I actually went into the pool, did my daily gym in the pool, I made and ate lunch and wrote my Weekly News on Constant Contact while my laptop was running in my office. Once in a while I actually looked on the screen of my laptop. I even made some telephone calls having to silence my laptop.
During the 4 hours of education, I sometimes saw questions popping up -- questions I was supposed to answer. On one occasion I didn't answer at all, twice I answered totally incorrect -- on purpose. Guess what? It didn't matter!
I GOT THE BOARD MEMBER CERTIFICATE!
Zoom and Internet seminars are useless. There is no way for anybody to control if the person who signed up is actually listening. Is that what the Florida legislators had in mind when they enacted the new community association laws containing mandatory education for board members?
I honestly don't think so!