Condo Media - June 2021 - 28

Planning for the Future
l Take time to make a plan
Address the need directly employing
the " hit by a car " rationale. If your
association has a strategic plan, make
sure that it includes a section on succession. If not, then focus on creating
a succession security plan. Your goal
will be to clearly identify the process
you will follow to replace a key player
and detail each of the steps you will
take to minimize the disruption to
the community's operation. It is of
utmost importance to remember
that by taking steps to create succession security at your property,
you can limit problems when people
move on and transition is necessary.
l Know your stuff
How much do you depend on your
key personnel for historical and empirical knowledge about your facilities? Your community should have a
propriety manual that contains all the
information necessary to keep things
operating smoothly. Often concern
about job security causes a staff or
board member to resist explaining
and/or memorializing the important
details at a community. ( " If everyone
knows how to do this, I will not be
as important and will be easy to
replace. " ) Capable board members
and property managers make it a
practice to document the location
of plumbing and sprinkler shutoffs,
along with contractor and service
provider contact numbers and other
property specific information to
make their lives easier and the management of the property as seamless
as possible every day, but especially
in an emergency situation. Make
sure that you have access to all the
necessary documentation about your
self-managed community. Maintaining the information in a readily accessible format so that it can be shared
with your chosen replacement staff
or board member is also key.
l What's the SOP?
What happens day-to-day in your
association? You need to know the

CONDOMEDIA June 2021

standard operating procedures (SOPs)
that are in place, along with any software and IT platform access codes,
account numbers, and passwords, to
keep your community operational.
Just as with facilities issues, there
are tried and true methods of dealing
with ongoing administrative concerns.
Ideally, these policies and procedures
should be documented, kept in an
active file, and reviewed from time-totime to make sure that they are still
effective. Knowing the SOP will also
help the board by making resolution
of issues more time-efficient.
l Cashing in
Budgets get drafted and implemented, condominium fees get paid (or
not), invoices come in are approved
for payment and checks are mailed.
How do those things actually happen
in your self-managed community?
Do you utilize an in-house financial
system or is there an agent who handles AR and AP (Accounts Receivable
and Accounts Payable)? Who makes
the bank deposits? Who reconciles
the bank statements and prepares the
monthly reports? If you lack the information you need to steer the ship
and keep financial operations underway, your self-managed association
will be dead in the water.
l Formalize and memorialize
Who speaks to unit owners and
residents about problems? Who
answers their questions? Who deals
with requests for 6(d) certificates
and questionnaires from mortgage
companies and real estate brokers?
Who handles delinquent unit owners
and sends them to collections?
Establishing clear job descriptions
and charges for task and responsibility
is critical in property management.
Without them, you cannot be sure that
the job will get done. There is often a

difference between what someone
does and what the board thinks he or
she does. Frequently, there are differences between what the job description states and the actual day-to-day
work. Utilizing a job description is essential to the successful operation of a
self-managed association. If there are
no job descriptions for staff or trustees,
then the board must create them. The
person who does the job knows best
what it entails, so start with a generic
description for the position, i.e., site
manager, bookkeeper, finance trustee,
and have the individual fine tune it as
to his/her specific position. Have them
create a script of the interactions so
that if they are not available, someone
else will be able to answer the questions accurately. Staff responsibilities
are ever-changing, so job descriptions
should be updated every year at the
time of performance reviews.
l Knowledge is power
Ignorance is bliss, so it is said, but
when the unimaginable " what if " happens and your self-managed community is struggling to deal with the loss
of a key person, what you don't know
can really hurt you. Having a succession plan in your pocket could mean
the difference between a smooth
transition and things falling apart.
One of Community Associations
Institute's goals is to provide self-managed boards with all the information
necessary for governing the association
and being successful. Take advantage
of the resources that are available to
you and your community by contacting
www.caine.org.
n PATRICIA BRAWLEY, CMCA,
AMS, PCAM IS THE OWNER OF
CENTRAL MANAGEMENT &
CONSULTING SERVICES.

Condo Media - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - June 2021