Condo Media - June 2017 - 64

Ask a Busy Person
How did you get into association
management? I backed into it. It wasn't
a direct route. I went to sea at 18, planning
to become a New York harbor pilot, but I
decided I wanted a career in business instead. I studied business in college and then
worked as a sales rep for a couple of years,
before starting a series of manufacturers'
rep and distribution companies of my own.
When I sold the last one in the late 1990s,
I didn't know what I wanted to do next, so
I moved to Vermont, where my wife and I
had owned a condominium for many years.
A developer in the area was looking for a
condominium manager. I'd been president
of my condo for several years and thought,
"I know how to do that." Well, I didn't really
"know how to do that," but I got the job and
learned. When TPW bought the management company in 2010, I stayed on and I've
been here since.
How did your sales background
prepare you for association management? There's more of a correlation
than you might think. When you're
working as a manufacturers' rep or running a distribution company, you are a
hired gun-you have many bosses. With
association management, you also have
many bosses. You have to wear many
hats and you have to be something of a
politician to manage them.
What do you enjoy most about your
work? I still manage some properties
and I like being on the front line. I also
supervise other managers, and one of the
things I enjoy most is working with them
when they need help thinking a problem
through.
What do you find most frustrating?
Building consensus among board members. In our communities, the only time
most board members talk to each other is
at meetings. They often don't know each
other very well, and that makes building
consensus a lot more challenging.
What's the most difficult problem
you've tackled as a manager?
That's easy - it was dealing with the

64

CONDOMEDIA

of my CAI work, especially advice and
assistance from other members. During
Hurricane Irene, when I called other
managers for help, their response, before
I even asked, was, "What do you need?"

DAVID BOSTON, AMS, PCAM
Vice President, Chief Operating Officer,
TPW Management, LLC
aftermath of Hurricane Irene in 2012.
We implemented TPW's disaster plan,
and it worked. We dealt with flooded
properties, washed-out roads, millions of
dollars in damages, flood insurance, and
the lack of it. I remember thinking at first,
"Our clients really expect us to figure all
of this out?" It was pretty intimidating,
but extremely satisfying to work through
the problems and see properties that had
been devastated recover completely.
How did you get involved in CAINE and why have you remained
involved? When I first went to
work for the developer's condominium
management company, there wasn't
anyone there I could bounce ideas off of.
I thought CAI would provide that sounding board. Claudette [Chapter Executive
Director Claudette Carini] suggested
that I join the Managers' Committee,
which I did. When I left the room briefly
during one meeting, someone made me
the chair. In addition to the Managers'
Committee, I've served a three-year
term on CAI-NE's board of directors
and just been appointed to serve another
year, and I'm still chair of the Vermont
Legislative Action Committee. I like
to think I contribute something to the
organization, but selfishly, I get a lot out

If you were beginning your career
today, how would you prepare? I always advise people to start by knowing
what they will do at the end, and work
backwards from there. That's what I did
with the companies I built. I'm not sure
exactly how that applies to preparing
for a management career. I backed into
it accidentally and maybe that's the best
way to do it.
What would it surprise people to
know about you?
I wanted to become a harbor pilot. I
was on the National Ski Patrol for 20
years-I'm an alumnus now. And I am
an Eagle Scout, but I'm not sure how
long I should continue mentioning that.
What do you enjoy doing in your
spare time? I'm still an avid skier.
I've found that to be much more effective than playing
golf as a means of
meeting and talking
to people. In golf,
you just spend a
few minutes riding in the golf cart
between holes-with
skiing, you have
that 10 minute ride
on the ski lift, and
people can't run.
If you could give a new manager
one piece of advice, what would
that be? Use technology wisely.
It's a great time saver-it makes us
more efficient. But I think we also
over-use it. I'm thinking especially
about e-mail. You can't convey tone in
e-mail messages, and so they can be
misinterpreted. Sometimes, it's better to communicate with people the
old-fashioned way, by picking up the
phone and calling them.
Condo Media - June 2017

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