A Series: Roles of Each Position on a Board of Directors – The Treasurer

Treasurer

The following is a part in a series of a description of the roles and duties of each officer on a Board of Directors. Previously, we wrote about the role that a President, Vice President and Secretary play on a Board of Directors and in this article we will discuss the role of a Treasurer.  An effective Board of Directors works together as a unit in carrying out the duties, roles and responsibilities of the Association.  The Association Documents and state statutes define and set forth the duties and roles of each Board member.  Each and every Board member has a function and a role for their Association to function and operate well.  

First, each Board member should read and understand their Association Documents, as the articles and bylaws should be specific in what is expected of being on the Board and exactly what their fiduciary duty will be.  For associations that have poorly written documents that exclude officer duties, I suggest reading Robert’s Rules of Order, as they have great information on this to follow and guide you.

Each Officer should have a place on the Agenda for Reports of the Officers, and for their report they will detail the activities of their position at each Board meeting.  It is also a good idea to have each officer be on each Association committee, or at least, have each committee report to a certain Board member.  The following is a description of the roles and duties of the Treasurer on a Board of Directors of a community association. 

First and foremost, the Treasurer is in charge of all association funds.  This would include overseeing the billing to the unit owners, collections and the disbursement of all Association funds.  As part of their duties, the Treasurer will present to the Board of Directors each year a proposed operating budget and reserve allocations and throughout the year the Treasurer will also monitor the budget and report to the Board on this throughout the year. 

The Treasurer may have additional duties which may include putting various contracted services and reserve items out to bid and the monitoring of those services.  The Treasurer would also be involved and oversee year-end reporting and any audits, if required by statute or per the Documents.  Yes, many of these duties would normally be handled by a management company but the Treasurer still has to oversee that they were being handled properly and in accordance with the Governing Documents and good business practices.  Therefore, whether there was a management company involved or not, the Treasurer has the overall responsibility to see that the Association funds are billed, collected, invested, accounted for and reported properly and accurately. 

Next to the President’s position the Treasurer’s position is the most active and most time consuming.  The Treasurer should have at least some knowledge of bookkeeping or accounting and be able to devote the proper amount of time it takes to properly fulfill this position as a fiduciary for the Association.

Tagged as: Board Members, Board of Directors, Community Association, Robert's Rules of Order