Condo board of directors / 理事会

[akiaji]

I am curious if anybody has experience sitting on the board of directors / 理事会 for the condo they are living in. Any tips? Good or bad experiences?

[Petronius]

I sit on mine.
This is...uneventful. If you have ever worked in a big Japanese company with a lot of meetings then you are qualified.
We rely a lot on the management company (in our case Tokyu) for most of the important stuff, have long discussion about prioritizing what upgrade and fixing need to be done and once a year listen to the complains of all the other tenants that don't do shit but complain that they don't like the color of the new light switches.
Still, I can keep an eye on the repair fund and the expenses and be sure that nothing major will impact negatively the value of the place. It is also a good way to be accepted in the local community.
And when it snows I got to shovel the stairs because the other members are way older than me.

[RetireJapan]

Haven't yet but I think our turn will come up in the next couple of years.

Hopefully it won't be too much work!

[akiaji]

I sit on mine.
This is...uneventful. If you have ever worked in a big Japanese company with a lot of meetings then you are qualified.
We rely a lot on the management company (in our case Tokyu) for most of the important stuff, have long discussion about prioritizing what upgrade and fixing need to be done and once a year listen to the complains of all the other tenants that don't do shit but complain that they don't like the color of the new light switches.
Still, I can keep an eye on the repair fund and the expenses and be sure that nothing major will impact negatively the value of the place. It is also a good way to be accepted in the local community.
And when it snows I got to shovel the stairs because the other members are way older than me.

Yay! Found another one. I just joined mine at the end of last month. No volunteers, so me and others ended up joining due to the required rotations. The next round of major renovations, planning, and budget is a hot topic, so I might go in the deep end (if it is even possible). I am doing some reading and research and interested to learn a bit. Some past career experience may help as well. Sounds like a thankless job as you say though. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.