Making sure that your voice is heard in the legislative process begins with building relationships with your legislators so that when you speak to them about a topic important to you, they are willing to listen and take you seriously. As with any relationship, it is much more fulfilling if it isn’t just one-sided.
Offering up your experience and expertise about community associations and how they actually function (not just what folks hear in the news or on Nextdoor) can go a long way toward building a solid foundation with your legislators. Whether you are a board member, manager, or business partner, your experiences and insights can provide a reality check for the real challenges facing community associations and help legislators understand the real-world implications of proposed and current laws affecting our community. When legislators receive consistent input from a particular demographic, such as HOA members, they are more likely to address issues pertinent to that group.
The first step is to identify your representatives, at https://caiclac.com/contact-your-legislator/, Then check out their website to see how you can stay engaged, such as receiving newsletters and following them on social media.
EFFECTIVE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE WITH LEGISLATORS
Engage Through Social Media: Use your social media presence to raise awareness for issues and pending legislation important to you. Follow, like, share, and comment. Both the Bay/Cen CAI Chapter and CAI’s California Legislation Action Committee (CLAC) have a social media presence that includes posts about hot legislative topics. Legislators are also very responsive on social media and they pay attention to what is trending.
Petitions and Collective "Calls to Action": Legislators are more likely to sit up and notice when they see collective support or receive a collective demand. You can organize petitions among your community to show widespread support for your position. You can sign up to receive CAI-CLAC’s "calls to action," which provide a quick and easy way to email your representative about a pending bill.
Personal Meetings: As a constituent, you can schedule an in-person or virtual meeting with your legislator or their staff. Most representatives allow you to schedule a meeting through their websites. Luckily, as a member of the Bay/Cen Chapter of CAI, you have access to ongoing legislative information and updates, and that can help you to build a team and to prepare you when visiting with legislators. In 2025, members of the Bay/Cen Chapter’s Legislative Support Committee will be fanning out across the Bay Area to visit their representative’s offices to discuss the challenges facing homeowner associations.
When you meet with your legislator, you may, in fact, be meeting with the legislator’s staff. This is not a bad thing. Staff are the ones who read all of the bills, and they often make recommendations to the legislator on how they should vote. Meeting with staff is a solid investment in getting your message to a place where it will persist and have action taken upon it.
TIPS FOR MEETING WITH LEGISLATORS AND / OR THEIR STAFF
- Be Prepared: Research the legislator’s positions on issues that are important to you. If you’re discussing a specific bill, check the status within 24 hours of the meeting to find out the latest on its progress. If you’re discussing an issue, research how they voted in the past and what bills they authored and sponsored related to community associations. You can look up where a bill stands in the process at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/, and you can visit your legislator’s website to find out what committees they sit on. If the representative has already voted on a bill of interest to you, either thank them for a "yes" vote, or if it was a "no" vote, ask them if there was anything they thought would improve the bill.
- Assign a Captain: Before the appointment, decide who will be the "point person" on each bill/topic you want to discuss. It is often easier for the legislator to follow if they have one main person to listen to, with examples and comments added by the other attendees.
- Protocols: The day of the appointment, respect the legislator’s time and office protocols. Be punctual and adhere to any guidelines provided by the office. Make sure that all of your members have arrived before you walk into the office. Hand the person at the front desk all of your business cards and let them know the time of your appointment, and who you are scheduled to meet with. When you meet with the staff (or legislator and staff) be sure to ask them for business cards so it is easy for each of your members to follow up with a "thank you" email after the meeting. Ask for a photo with the staff member or legislator. You can use that photo to post to social media with a "thank you" and tag the legislator.
- Assess and Educate: In the meeting, always start with the basics. "Have you had experience with a community association or HOA before?" You will often discover that they know very little about community associations and how they function, and you will need to go through some foundational concepts like how associations budget and assess for actual costs. If they have had a bad experience, or need advice about their HOA, offer to connect them with professionals who can help them. Avoid getting into the nitty-gritty and providing too much information at once. Focus on key points, but be ready to provide additional details if requested. Share how specific issues impact your community association or your client to humanize the data and highlight real-world implications. Explain the economic implications of the proposed legislation or issue and suggest solutions and feasible policy changes that address the issue.
- Goal: In general, the goal is to offer yourself as a resource for all things HOA for that legislative office. It allows you to continue to build that relationship and can be beneficial when they come to you for information, since you can give them the truth, as opposed to the spin they often get from special interests.
ATTEND YOUR LEGISLATOR’S EVENTS
An alternative to scheduling appointments is attending events and open houses hosted by your legislators. Go to their website to see when they have scheduled town-hall meetings, meet-and-greets, and other events. When you attend, be sure to introduce yourself to the legislator and the staff member in charge of housing. Get their cards and let them know you will follow up with them to schedule an appointment when they will have more time to talk.
Remember that you don’t have to do this on your own. You have CAI and members of the CAI-CLAC and LSC who are ready and willing to help you with legislative visits. It can be intimidating, so reach out and build a team to support you. Once you take the initial steps to build a relationship with your legislator, it only gets easier from there.