Condo Media - December 2013 - 30

COVER STORY
COLUMN NAME
improvements; aging buildings and
outsized assessments punishing communities for inadequate reserve planning have driven that message home.
"But trustees can't always see the value
in creating a strategic plan," Brawley
says, and because of that, "they aren't
willing to devote the time required to
develop one."

hidden. "It puts everyone on the same
page," she says, or at least allows board
members to recognize the pages from
which others are reading.
The decision to replace an existing
management company is another ideal
time to tackle a strategic plan, Brawley
suggests, because it forces board members to consider in advance big-picture

A board election is one of the best times to begin the
strategic planning process, because it requires board
members to articulate priorities and disclose agendas
that might otherwise remain hidden.
Frequent turnover on the boards
also tends to discourage strategic
planning, suggests Marian Servidio,
CMCA, AMS, at Vermont-based Park
Place Management. "One group wants
the focus to be on keeping dues low;
another wants to focus on maintaining
the property. Everyone has different
ideas and different priorities," she explains. "And that makes future planning very difficult."

A Helpful Focus

But a strategic plan can actually combat
the push to change direction with every
election that can whipsaw boards and
their managers from one set of priorities to another, contends Thomas
Ducharme, CMCA, AMS, PCAM,
president of Evergreen Management,
Inc. The plan creates a helpful focus for
existing board members, he says, and
it requires new board members to consider how the changes they may favor
relate to priorities the board has already
identified. For that reason, reviewing
an existing plan or developing a new
one can be "a great way to orient new
board members," Ducharme says.
Brawley agrees. In fact, she thinks a
board election is one of the best times
to begin the strategic planning process,
because it requires board members
to articulate priorities and disclose
agendas that might otherwise remain
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Condo Media * December 2013

questions - what kind of management
company do they want and what went
wrong with the other one? - "rather
than stumbling from one bad relationship into another one."
For board members grappling with
a collections shortfall or trying to
find a landscaper to replace the one
who failed to respond to yesterday's
blizzard, identifying a vision for the
community's future - a key aim of a
strategic plan - can seem more than a
little "touchy-feely," ranking low, if at
all, on the list of more pressing priorities demanding their attention.
But a strategic plan "can make the
board's life much easier," Brawley says,
by creating a framework within which
decisions can be made. For example, if
priorities (beyond the immediate "todo" list) are clear, budget allocations
become clear as well, she explains. A
board that has made maintenance a top
priority will budget accordingly every
year; a board that has put improved
communications on the top if its longterm planning list will budget nearterm as well as long-term to accommodate that plan.

A Disciplined Approach

A well-conceived strategic plan imposes
a measure of discipline on the board,
Ducharme adds, reducing the risk that
decisions will be made based on "who

screams the loudest." The plan also creates a priority checklist for board members
and a scorecard for measuring the board's
performance. "That builds credibility with
owners," Ducharme says, "and it increases
their confidence in the board."
Perhaps most importantly, Brawley
suggests, a strategic plan "clarifies the
board's mission, so they don't get
bogged down in miscellany" that isn't
related to the priorities they've identified or the goals they have set.
The mission statement, defining the
board's purpose, comes first in the
strategic planning process, she says, followed by the vision statement, describing where the board wants the community to be in the future. The two
statements combined should specify
"who we are, what we do, where we
are as a community, where we want to
be, and how we're going to get there,"
Brawley explains.
There will be a generic component
to these statements, she acknowledges;
most boards will identify "preserving
and protecting" the property as their
primary purpose. But communities
differ in structure, age, stage, location,
personality, and demographics, and
those differences will produce different challenges and different strategic
planning options. For some, the mission might include "creating a sense
of community"; for others, it might
be pursuing "prudent financial management policies," building reserves,
or completing targeted renovations
within a specified period. "Everyone
will tweak these core statements a little
differently," Brawley says.

'SWOT' Analysis

The next step in the planning process
is what is known as a "SWOT" analysis, considering the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the
organization is facing. "It's a great
brainstorming tool," Brawley notes. "It
holds a mirror up to the property for
the board, [highlighting] what they are
doing well, what they could do better,
and what they have to fear. This gives
board members a broader vision of

Condo Media - December 2013

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