Condo Media - January 2019 - 22

Recipe

FOR

SUCCESS

We posed these questions
to industry professionals
and scoured industry
publications, including
this one, to find the
answers. We didn't
ask every conceivable
question, so we didn't
find every possible
answer. But we think
board members looking
for ways to improve their
performance will find
some helpful guidance.
We've created four
broad categories for
the "ingredients"
we identified:
Communication,
Financial Management,
Governance, and
Decision-making.
Few boards, if any,
embody all of these
characteristics, but the
best boards exhibit
many of them.

CONDOMEDIA January 2019

COMMUNICATIONS
If we had to pick the single most important
trait shared by successful boards, it is this: They make
communication a priority and they are very good at it,
successfully conveying information to and obtaining it
from the members they represent. Effective boards:
l Keep owners informed of the issues board members
are considering, as well as the decisions they make.
l Adopt varied means of communicating with owners-via
newsletters, an association website, and especially email.
l Make information readily available and easily accessible to owners. "They are
as transparent as possible," Elaine Alexis, CMCA, AMS, vice president for
portfolio management at Brigs, LLC, AAMC, says. "They understand that the
more information they give owners, [the more supportive] owners will be."
l Hold open meetings and encourage owners to attend them.
Set aside a regular, limited time
for them to speak during those
sessions, and, equally important,
create informal opportunities for
owners to share their ideas and
express their concerns.
l Solicit input from owners.
Consider their ideas carefully,
take their concerns seriously,
respond quickly and appropriately
to legitimate complaints.

"Problems with owners
usually develop when
they don't understand
and appreciate what is
happening, or feel they
aren't able to participate
as they should."

The associations most likely to avoid litigation are the ones that "communicate most effectively with members," Tom Moriarty, a partner in Moriarty
Troyer & Malloy LLC, says. "Problems with owners usually develop when
they don't understand and appreciate what is happening, or feel they aren't
able to participate as they should." Even when confronting difficult situations-construction defects, dues increases, or the need for a large special
assessment, Moriarty notes, "the more you communicate with the owners,
the better they understand what is going on, the easier it is to contain problems, and the less likely they will spin off the rails."
Effective boards also communicate efficiently with the association's
manager, Alexis adds. To reduce demands on the manager's time, they designate one member to be the primary point of contact. "Instead of getting
five emails from five different board members with five different answers to
a question," she notes, "managers get a single email reporting the board's
consensus answer."

Condo Media - January 2019

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