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April 30, 2005
Why Not Ask?
The way things are these days, you're lucky if you know your neighbors name, much less everyone in your community association. So it stands to reason that unless someone is in your face, you probably don't have a real good idea about what the owners feel about the community. The squeaky wheel may get the grease, but that doesn't necessarily mean the majority feels that way.
Why not simply put together a survey once per year, and ask the owners what they think. A Board's reluctance to change might be supported by the owners, or they might find out that some policy is getting seriously out-of-date and begin the process of change.
The survey can be very simple--do you agree with certain rules? Would you prefer to see them changed? How are we doing? Publish the results and tell them what you plan to do or not do. If people like the way things are, those who want change will at least know they have some work to do to convince others. If people want change, you can start it in an organized way--not as a reaction to pressure. Change is inevitable, documents weren't written in stone.
You may not get a lot of responses, but at least you're asking. Just showing that you are interested in what they think will go a long way in helping a community to feel confident that their board is a part of the community, not some disassociated entity periodically tossing thunderbolts at rule violators. Its a small thing, but it can have great results.
Posted by joewest at 3:40 PM
April 26, 2005
Stupid Amendment of the Year Award to Arizona Legislature
I was scrolling through various state legislative web sites looking for updates when I ran across HB 2482 in the Arizona Legislative site. Someone had added an amendment to the bill that I had to read three times just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Here it is:
D. THE ASSOCIATION SHALL PROVIDE ON A WEB SITE THAT IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET A COPY OF THE ASSOCIATION'S RULES AND A COPY OF ITS SCHEDULE OF FEES AND FINES. THE ASSOCIATION SHALL ALSO PROVIDE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE WEB SITE ADDRESS FOR THESE PUBLIC POSTINGS. ANY ASSOCIATION THAT FAILS TO NOTIFY THE SECRETARY OF STATE OF CHANGES IN ITS WEB SITE ADDRESS OR THAT FAILS TO ACCURATELY REVISE ITS WEB SITE POSTINGS WITHIN TEN DAYS OF ANY CHANGES IS CIVILLY LIABLE TO EACH MEMBER OF ITS ASSOCIATION FOR ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR EACH VIOLATION AND ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS PER DAY FOR EACH ADDITIONAL DAY OF VIOLATION.
I cut and pasted it to make sure I didn't miss a word. First it requires every association that falls under the Planned Communities Act to have a web site that shows its rules, fees and fines. It then has to notify the Secretary of State of the web address, and if they make a change to the rules, fee, or fines and fails to notify the state and change the web site, the association will have to pay each member of the association $1,000 per violation and another $100 per day for each additional day of violation.
So an association is going to have to special assess each owner $1,000+ in order to pay each owner $1,000+. Exactly who does this legislator think pays when an association owes money? Duh!
It may be early in the year, but I think this amendment will be hard to top. Here's the link in case you don't believe me. Anyone top this?
Posted by joewest at 10:33 AM
April 24, 2005
News Stories About Associations Rarely Reported Well
Take a look at the story about a minor celebrity moving into a HOA. This is typical of stories that appear all over the country. There are a number of items you can usually count on when you see this type of story:
The owner will be (pick one or all of the following):
- a veteran
- retired and scraping by
- grew up poor and just wants to enjoy their hard-earned wealth
- single mother
- widow
- physically, mentally or emotionally disabled (according to their doctor)
- a celebrity, or thinks they are one, so a different set of rules apparently apply
The owner will claim (pick one or any of the following):
- constitutional rights are being violated
- property rights are being violated
- human rights are being violated
- civil rights are being violated
- handicap rights are being violated
- association has too much power
- couldn't read the documents because they were too busy with their new home
- everybody else breaks the rules and they're being singled out and picked on
- the association is un-patriotic and un-American
- they didn't know the association regulated this
The owner will not say, and the reporter apparently doesn't ask or print (pick one or any of the following):
- why they spent $400,000 and didn't read the paperwork
- why their agent or attorney apparently didn't explain the meaning of moving into an association
- why they didn't bother asking the association before spending the money to make their changes
- why they didn't pay their association assessments in the first place
- why they shouldn't be held accountable for their actions
- why, after signing their name and promising to abide by the association rules, they decided the rules didn't apply to them.
- why a democratically-elected board shouldn't be allowed to make those decisions
- what part of "No pets" (or whatever) didn't you understand?
I guess if a reporter actually asked any of the questions in the last group, they wouldn't have a story.
Posted by joewest at 3:00 PM
April 18, 2005
Blogs I'd Like to See
Did a search on Google last night. We came up #1 under "condo blog" and "hoa blog". That's not saying much as there are very few out there now. That will change as people find out how easy it is to put one's thoughts out into the world.
One scary item I ran across during the search is that a well-known anti-hoa site has registered and set up at least four blogs for HOA's, Lawyers, Vendors and Managers. Nothing there so far, but it won't be long before they find a way to produce their unique brand of "content". I can only hope that positive, productive blogs keep them down on the list.
From my perspective I'd like to see blogs from people with knowledge to pass along within the industry. I'd love to see a "case law" blog. There is no open, public place on the internet that provides interested parties, not just lawyers, with a place to learn about what's going on in the courts.
I'd like to see a legislative blog, specifically for those states with constant activity regarding condo's and HOA's, with someone in each of the states keeping the rest of us aware of what's going on in their corner of the country.
I'd love to see a couple of manager's blogs, passing along tips from people who have survived and thrived in the industry.
Along the same lines, it would be great to have a blog for board members, again, informing others of successes and failures.
One I will probably be starting is a technology blog. This industry is very far behind when it comes to using technology to add value to their services.
Just about any person or group can get a blog going. I's a lot easier than you think. What's hard is constantly coming up with content, so having multiple contributors would probably be the best way to go.
If anybody's interested, I'll be more than happy to help. We have a standing offer to host blogs for free, as long as they aren't just a commercial pitch for a single company. Blogs are going to continue to grow and expand, becoming more and more sophisticated as time passes. The question to consider is whether you want your clients reading a blog from a competitor or from you?
Drop me a note at jwwest@communityassociations.net if you'd like to consider starting a blog. We're happy to help.
Posted by joewest at 9:41 PM | TrackBack
30 Years - Why Am I Still Here?
Hi, my name's Joe and I'm a condo addict.
April marks my 30th anniversary in the community association industry. I graduated from college with a degree in History and planned to be a teacher, right at the time schools were no longer hiring. I had a maintenance background from my Navy days and answered an ad for an on-site (actually resident) manager's position at a nearby condo. I got the job and my life changed forever.
Looking back over the years, one of the things that still continues to amaze and bewilder me is the number of people, like myself, that once bitten by the condo bug, remain infected. No matter how often we threaten to leave, or change positions, or completely re-locate with the intent of starting fresh, we always seem to find ourselves drawn back into the web. When I tried a new career with a computer store, I found myself building systems for condo attorneys and managers. When I decided the I wanted to create a future in the internet, guess who the first people who came calling for web sites were.
There is something about this industry that keeps us coming back for more. Maybe because its still new enough that everyone thinks they can make a difference. We haven't yet reached that "regulated-to-death" stage yet and so we're relatively free to try new ideas in a growing market. Or maybe I'm just nuts.
Posted by joewest at 4:15 AM
A Reminder About Why CAI Is a Good Thing
The local chapter of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) had its annual conference and trade show a short while back and it helped remind me of what the organization is capable of. The homeowners loved the education that was available, as well as the access to professionals and vendors beyond the few they normally deal with. Managers who hadn't talked to each other in years attended sessions run by competitors, asked good questions and complimented people they'd been trying to run out of business the day before. People who had most recently seen each other at opposite tables in a courtroom engaged in civil conversation about the state of the industry. Speakers gave away information that they could have charged significantly for. An excellent keynote speaker challenged the attendees with new and exciting concepts to think about. In other words, this was what a good conference should have been.
This was CAI's original goal, to bring all of the interested parties together to inform and learn. It's had its ups and downs through the years, but the people kept the exchange of information going, either formally, through the organization, or informally, through a network of friends or professional acquaintances they had developed over years of attending conferences like this one. This was always the underlying strength of CAI.
I don't know what actual changes will be occuring with CAI's new structure, but the local chapter conference reminded me that it's the people, not the structure, that make an organization worth belonging to.
Posted by joewest at 3:29 AM | TrackBack
April 8, 2005
The Perfect Board President
As baseball season gets under way it reminds me that there should be a Hall of Fame for board members of community associations. Hundreds of thousands of selfless volunteers give of their time and abilities and receive very little in the way of recognition, even from their own association. It would be nice to acknowledge those special board members who not only volunteered but made a major, positive impact on their association.
When I was a brand new manager (way back in the prehistoric days of condos), I was assigned to manage a very nice site and given the warning that they had a very "active" board. I took this to mean they were going to dump a ton of work on me and then micro-manage my efforts to complete it. So it was with no little trepidation that I visited the site for my first on-site inspection with the President. I met him at his unit where he offered me a cup of coffee and a seat to chat. He was 5'4", 120 pounds, 70 years old, a widower and spoke very quietly, so that I had to pay close attention when he was talking. My mind was saying "Napoleonic complex with too much time on his hands", but I couldn't have been more wrong. In what would become a weekly habit, we started out on a walk around the complex. Each of us would take turns pointing out things that needed to be checked out or fixed. I wrote them down, he never did, but remembered every item. We would meet 10-15 people on our walk, and all would come over to say hi. He would introduce me and then chat for a short while, but never standing still for more than a minute. Some just wanted to talk, some had questions and others problems. Each would be treated with a friendly and polite response. If a promise was made to follow-up, I learned that it was always kept.
Now and then we'd meet an owner looking for an argument. As the person approached, the President would say quietly to me, "This person has a problem, let me handle it". He would welcome the person, shake their hand and then invite them to discuss the problem while continuing our walk, explaining that I had to finish my work. It was here that I learned that you really can't have a confrontational argument while "strolling". Its when you're face-to-face that things can get heated, when no one wants to back down. Walking side-by-side it quickly becomes a conversation rather than an a fight. I never saw anybody go home mad.
The first board meeting I attended looked like it was going to be a long one. The President was the only retiree on the board and the rest straggled in looking harried and tired. I looked forward to a long night of reviewing things that I had already written in my management report to bring everyone up to speed. But it didn't happen. He knew that they didn't have much time so he had taken his time to contact them and bring them up to speed before the meeting. Our board meetings were quick and effective.
He had a great ability to convince people to help out. He knew they were busy so he didn't ask them to serve on a committee. He simply asked them to help out with a single task and they almost always said yes. He knew what was important and what wasn't. When the siding began to pull away from the buildings he knew it was going to eventually happen to all of them, so while I was gathering bids from contractors, he went out and found a retired master carpenter and asked the board to let him work on one building as a trial. The man did spectacular work and was hired to do all of the buildings. When I moved away five years later, not one nail had popped.
There were many other things that I learned from this man that served me well with other associations and in my life. Too many to list here. Let me just end this by saying that if there ever is a Hall of Fame for board members, I would like to nominate Russ Caplin of Greenbrooke Parkhomes, in Southfield, Michigan for immediate consideration, unfortunately posthumously.
Posted by joewest at 3:21 AM