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June 29, 2007
Possible Model for Other Areas of the Country
A while back I ran across an organization out in Arizona that dealt with HOA's. Now usually when I see "Arizona - HOA - group" it means people who are mad at their association or associations in general. However, this one was different. In their own words "The Leadership Centre began because of one citizen's frustration and the need for assistance for her homeowner's association. Realization of this need for direct assistance for neighborhoods, HOA's and community associations led to collaboration and partnering with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Family Community Leadership program, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Community Associations Institute and the Town of Gilbert".
I'm now on their mailing list and I thought they deserved a plug for their efforts. Here's a list of the upcoming sessions:
Legal Aspects of HOA’s—Designed to provide participants with a practical foundation of the legal components of homeowner associations. This includes creation and enforcement of codes, covenants and restrictions (C, C & R’s), legal jurisdictions and obligations of homeowner associations, and rights of homeowners. As the laws are continually changing with respect to HOA’s, legislative updates are included. This class in facilitated by attorneys specializing in community association law.
Budgets, Financial Statements and Reserve Studies—As a business, your HOA’s success depends in part on the fiscal management of the HOA’s assets. Fiduciary responsibilities, reserve amounts, budgets and audits are covered by specialists in the homeowner association industry.
Advanced Community Association Finance—This class will help participants learn to read financial statements, understand what the elements of a successful audit entail, and how to make a budget become a tool for a successful community association.
Transition From Developer to Homeowner Control—One of the most critical phases of the HOA is this shift in control. This class will help participants learn a process whereby the transfer of asset ownership and responsibility can take place in an effective, smooth manner facilitated by attorneys specializing in the field of HOA’s.
HOA 101—This class is an overview of the responsibilities and challenges associated with running a neighborhood or homeowner association. Discussion includes the organization and structure of the HOA and obligations of the board of directors.
C, C & R Compliance—Codes, Covenants, and Restrictions are an area where many HOA’s face challenges. What is good policy? Can they be changed? How do you enforce C, C & R’s with fairness and the best interest of the community? The importance of community building is also discussed.
How to Conduct Successful and Peaceful Meetings—Topics include: Using Robert”s Rules of Order, how to address security issues (from calming techniques to when to call the police), creating an agenda that will work for you, ground rules, ice breakers, conducting regular board meetings and annual meetings, and keeping minutes.
Selecting a Management Company and Other Vendors—This class teaches the steps in selection a management company and other important vendors who work for the association (landscape companies, pool maintenance, etc.), how to determine specifications, request bids, review and analyze bids and make the final selections.
East Valley HOA Summit—This event provides an opportunity for HOA board members, committee members, residents, and professionals to network and address HOA issues.
Neighborhoods Arizona!—This annual state-wide conference brings together those who live in and work with neighborhoods to network and learn about neighborhood issues.
Application classes—are activity based designed to practice prior class information.
They'll even bring one of the classes to your association for $250 and some munchies.
For those of you looking for ways to help make associations better places to live, this collaborative model might be a way that could work. Visit their web site at:
http://www.theleadershipcentre.org/
Posted by joewest at 10:02 AM
June 18, 2007
The news just stays the same
From the fact that I haven't updated this blog in a while, it shows that I actually received my passport in time to make my trip. It arrived at the local FedEx office 4 hours before I was due to get on the plane. I was standing there waiting for it. Thanks to my local Congressman's office for pushing it out in time (barely).
I was able to check in on the news a couple of times, but nothing much had changed. Boards were still making good decisions and bad decisions; owners were still loving or hating their association; or each other; management companies were being bought and sold; hired or fired; and attorney's were still avoiding explaining gray areas in documents to their clients. The bad news seemed to outweigh the good, with foreclosures on the rise, and housing having a tough time in many areas of the country.
I want to comment on one area that popped up in today's news, about an owner that started up a web site to comment on the association he lived in. Now I don't have a problem with anyone starting up a web site to talk about their association, oe even to rant about it - that's free speech. I do have a problem with him using the assocaition name and logo on the site, and that's the association's fault. Associations should tradmark their name and logo. Its not expensive or very much trouble, and at least the owners will know which is the official web site and which one isn't. It wasn't too long ago that an owner trademarked the name and logo of a large association, claiming he was going to use them on T-shirts and ball caps to sell, and sent a note off to the association to stop using their name and logo since he had tradmarked them. This will probably be in the courts for a while. The point is to get yours registered before an angry owner gets there first. For more information about trademarks see the Wiki article
Just before I left I decided that I wanted to expand the news reporting of community association stories and so I changed servers and began using a new program. There are now 19 news feeds covering every part of the country as well as legal, industry, and international feeds now available. If you're interested in picking up these feeds, either as an RSS file for your own reading, or to place on your web site, contact us and we'll set you up with the codes. The news feeds can be very helpful as things that happen in part of the country tend to migrate to the rest rather quickly. Better to know what's coming and prepare, rather than react after the fact.
Posted by joewest at 7:13 PM