I have volunteered with many organizations. I’ve been a soccer and baseball coach, scout leader, a Lions Club president and even an EMT with my town’s first aid squad. I’ve helped many different kinds of people, in many different kinds of situations. In these positions, the vast majority of people I helped appreciated it. I assume thousands, actually hundreds of thousands of other volunteers have had similar experiences.

Volunteering your time as a board member on an HOA or any other type of nonprofit organization might seem like a helpful way to selflessly spend your time, but are your contributions really beneficial? If some of these traits look familiar, your volunteer work might be doing more harm than good.