Community Association Management

OK… this topic could cover a huge number of perspectives and I expect to share my thoughts from several of them over time. There is a new California Law SB528, effective November 2007, which addresses posting agendas and board decision making. In this blog, I am specifically talking about working documents and internal communication processes rather than the legal aspects of that law.

One of the reasons that I moved from being a board member to becoming a manager was the amount of time that I spent working with an every rotating series of account managers. I was an Organizational Development Consultant at the time, working from home and trying to balance all those activities that a small, home based consultant has to do: marketing, networking, client meetings, program development and delivery, invoicing, and the normal office tasks of filing, etc. Then, there was volunteering on the board and, eventually, assuming the mantle of President.

Over the span of 2 years, we had 4 different account managers. Given my bias for organizational systems, it made me crazy that we didn’t get manager’s reports before meetings, tasks went months without follow up, new account managers had more questions than answers about the property, and “training” the account manager, I felt, fell to me. In 1987 I offered to resign from the board and manage the association – one I still manage today.

My first task was to organize board communications via the Manager’s Report. True to meeting management principles, I created a format that simply expanded the agenda categories and tracked items within them from month to month until they were completed. I used the same format to transform the Manager’s Report to Minutes, purging extraneous details and recording motions and board direction/decisions. Following is a basic Agenda on the cover of the manager’s report from 2003 – a format that has changed little over time:

7:00 PM Call to Order

7:02 PM Review Manager's Report
1. Board Business
2. Financial
3. Architectural Controls
4. General Business/Violations
5. Landscape & Maintenance
6. New Business

8:00 PM Adjournment

Inside the Manager’s Report, each category (1 – 6) is expanded to reflect the business of the meeting. A simple example of how this might work is that under Board Business, item 1 is always to review and approve the minutes of the prior meeting. Item 2 might be “recruiting new board members”. This item will remain on the Manager’s Report until new members are recruited (including who is responsible for approaching candidates, etc.). It will report on board applications received, transition activities, and election of board positions once new members are elected by the membership. Once all related activities have been completed, the item would be closed and not appear on future reports. (Note: I am specifically not addressing what information would be transferred into the minutes here since the Manager’s Report is a working document and the actual Minutes are a legal document.)

Item 3 under Board Business is usually to review the 90 day calendar. One of the biggest benefits to having an HOA specific management database (www.campro.us) is that instead of reporting on activities within the Manager’s Report, I can now attach a simple report. The reports developed in the database were driven by the items I used to include in the Manager’s Report, so the 90 day calendar includes upcoming meetings and events, contracts coming up for renewal and major scheduled maintenance activities and helps give the board and management a “heads up” on upcoming tasks.

These reports also help the board understand the scope of work completed by management without making the Manager’s Report excessively long. Yes, I know this is self-serving, but one of the problems I think boards have is in truly understanding just how much managers do that goes unacknowledged. One report includes Architectural Approvals (anything outside standard specifications would be on the Manager’s Report). One is Completed Maintenance; one, Outstanding Work Orders. Not only does the board see that you are on top of taking care of the property, they also get to see who does, what, how much it cost and what kinds of maintenance is being done.

A CC&R Activities Report let’s the board see how many letters were generated, how many members complied with requests, and when needed, specific history on a problem unit or issue. This is really helpful when there is a board hearing and a homeowner is trying to tell the board they are the “only one” being picked on about their dog barking, for example. When the manager can cite that 30 letters have been written to owners about dog issues over the last 2 years, these homeowners suddenly lose their steam.

The Manager’s Report is one of the primary methods of communication we have with our Board. I believe the more informed a board is, the more trust develops between board members and the manager. The more detail you can provide, the better the understanding and communication. And yes, it is a balancing act to provide that level of detail without overwhelming your board members.

How do you manage it? Whether your system is a word document, a table, a spreadsheet, or a custom database, or combination, this level of communication can pay big dividends in helping create the sense of an informed and effective team. Next blog, I’ll discuss more on how I use the Manager’s Report to create meeting minutes and continuity between meetings.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Your questions can also help me direct my blog. We often work in isolation so this is a way we can also share things that work for each of us. Please email me at Gayle@campro.us if you have anything to share.

Gayle J. Hasley,
Community Association Manager
Community Association Homeowner
gayle@campro.us
www.campro.us

Last week, I talked about Manager’s Reports and my process for tracking items for my boards. This week, I wanted to build on that and explain how I use that Manager’s Report to create my meeting minutes. Basically, it is a cut and paste process in Word. I have a folder for each year with all reports and minutes in it. You could, of course, split this into 2 folders within the main year folder but I find it helpful to view the year at one time. The naming convention always starts with the 2 digit year, the document name and the month.

I open both my current report and last month’s minutes. I save the current manager’s report as next month’s Manager’s report. My format is 08_ManRep_06.doc which is then saved as 08_ManRep_07.doc [year/document type/month].

Then I copy the content from 08_ManRep_06.doc and paste it into the 08_Mins_05.doc and save that as 08_Mins_06. Now I have 2 Manager’s Reports and 2 sets of Minutes open. I close both last month’s minutes (used just to capture formatting) and next month’s manager’s report [08_ManRep_07.doc] which I will come back to update at a later time thus eliminating confusion.

I update information in the new minutes document by recording members and guests present, time meeting called to order, and the meeting date. Remember, this information is all there since this it is a copy of last month’s minutes so it takes very little time to update all this. Then I proceed to the change the wording to record the actions taken by the board, purge info only items and any repetitive general information I’ve provided in the report. The goal is to cut down on the length of the minutes while still addressing business discussed, motions and reports and following the Manager’s Report format for consistency.

Called to Order

1. Board Business
2. Financial
3. Architectural Controls
5. General Business/Violations
6. Maintenance and Repairs
7. Landscape
8. New Business

Adjournment

There is a fine line between overstating and simply recording the most basic information. It is important to remember who may be reviewing your minutes since the entire audience could include owners, buyers, realtors, lawyers, etc. Since Roberts Rules of Order provides a basic guideline for managing meetings and recording minutes, their website is a helpful guide. Check out their FAQs at: http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html#15

Here is what they say about minutes: “Not only is it not necessary to summarize matters discussed at a meeting in the minutes of that meeting, it is improper to do so. Minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, not a record of what was said.”
Minutes (other than Executive Minutes) should be readily available in a separate minute book. Never keep in the minute book as permanent records. Of course, laws governing associations differ state to state so it is vital that you are aware of the current laws governing your association processes.

I try to immediately go back to the Manager’s Report for my upcoming month, change the dates, update as much information as possible and make my “to do” list. Of course, if there are priority items from the meeting, I’ll complete those before working on minutes but I seldom wait to create my “to do” list. This entire process takes less than 30-45 minutes and is one of the most important tasks I use to stay organized and on top of things.
Next blog, I will talk about communicating with vendors and using technology to help you stay on top of those all important “to do” lists.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Your questions can also help me direct my blog. We often work in isolation so this is a way we can also share things that work for each of us. Please email me at Gayle@campro.us if you have anything to share.

Gayle J. Hasley,
Community Association Manager
Community Association Homeowner
info@campro.us
www.campro.us

Last week, I talked about Minutes and my process for recording them in a specific and repetitive format for consistency and effectiveness. This week, I want to talk about working with vendors and the technology available to help us help them.

First and foremost in working with my vendors is the relationship. As in all good relationships, this means communication is key to our working together. Every service provider has “hiccups” in service. I know I have had incidents when I missed a deadline or messed up a communication – we are all human. So why do we hold our service providers to any other standard? Of course, we all want to be professional, effective, efficient and exceptional in the service we provide our customers. If you don’t believe that about your vendor, it is time to change.

Many boards and management companies have the policy best described as “in with the new and out with the old.” I subscribe to the policy that everyone wants to do a good job and in 99 cases out of 100, if the vendor isn’t doing a good job, I need to look at myself.

Am I communicating my expectations?
 Do I issue Work Orders and expect a reply?
 Do I follow up on outstanding work orders?
 Do I call my vendor when there is a problem?
 Do I pay them on time?
 Do I accept responsibility when I make a mistake?
 Do I hold them accountable when they do the same?
 Do I take the time to really talk to them when I do call or email?
 Do I appreciate them for the work they do for me and my clients?

I learned the most effective method of communication is the “love sandwich”… and it took some time to learn.

In the past, I would just dash off the email request with no “dressing” nor did “close” well. Here is an example: (wrong) ___________________________________________________________

Katrina,

Can you cut a special check for the disposal company? They are such idiots. I need it tomorrow.

Gayle

Here is the same example using the “love sandwich” method:

Hi Katrina,

Hope your weekend was great! Little Bella must be growing like a weed these days.

The disposal company is having issues in applying payments. I really appreciate your calling them to get this resolved and would like to pick up a special check that I will hand deliver by the end of the week.

I understand the issues are on their end and that you always pay our bills. It must be as frustrating for you as for us. Please call when the check is ready.

Thanks! Gayle
_____________________________________________________________________________

Yes, it takes a little more time to dress up your emails or a few more moments on the phone (where I use the same approach.) When I first started, I would write my email, then have to go back and put the “sandwich” part into it. It took energy to think about really personalizing emails and making them feel good to the recipient. Now it is a habit and it has really helped in all my communications resulting in better relationships, both personal and professional.

The golden rule is “treat others as you would like to be treated.” It builds relationships when you meet your vendors on walk throughs and point out what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong. I ALWAYS want to do a better job when my board thanks me and acknowledges how much I mean to them after a meeting – and they do let me know this after every meeting without fail.

It helps to own your own frustration and not take it out on others. When there is a particularly difficult letter to write I will draft it and let my anger come out then put it aside. I’ll go back and laugh at how outrageous I was because I was angry and clean it up. Then, just to make sure that nothing “leaks”, I’ll ask my assistant or a board member to review it and give me feedback before it goes into the mail. If the board or my actions are the subject of the letter, it comes from the board president, not me!

How, you may ask, does “technology” fit into this blog? History is the key! We log all calls and emails into the call log and the work orders are also generated by our management program. Then, when I meet with a vendor, I can take reports of outstanding work orders and a history of emails or calls in a simple report format so I don’t have to struggle to remember details…they are at my fingertips. I’ll take an extra copy of the report for the vendor so we can make notes and those notes are summarized in a follow up email recorded in the database. Without this kind of organization and history, it is a “he said/she said” world.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Your questions can also help me direct my blog. We often work in isolation so this is a way we can also share things that work for each of us. Please email me at Gayle@campro.us if you have anything to share.

Gayle J. Hasley,
Community Association Manager
Community Association Homeowner
info@campro.us
www.campro.us