Blog Posts

Three Quick Tips for Protecting Association Board Directors and Officers

Serving on an association board is an important job. Board directors and officers are just about always volunteers, who generously donate hours of their time in order to benefit their communities. They oversee important community needs, implementing policies as authorized by the association, and they approve the annual budget and much more. And as Board directors and officers, they deserve the thanks and support of the communities they serve. Unfortunately, being a board director or officer also poses personal risk. That’s because even though your association carries general liability insurance, individual board members may not be fully protected from liability arising from claims brought by community members. So, how can directors and officers protect themselves? The obvious answer is for associations to purchase Directors and Officers insurance that covers individual board members’ actions. If your association does not have this specific type of insurance, you need to have a serious conversation with your insurance agent. But are there steps board members can take to further ensure they never suffer the consequences of contentious litigation? …or to avoid being served with a complaint that forces you to file a claim on that Directors and Officers insurance policy? WPM’s President of Association Management, Barry Yatovitz, asserts that the overarching rule that ought to guide and can protect every board member is the Business Judgement Rule. “This Rule states that directors should always act in the best interest of the company, given all of the available information at the time. If a lawsuit were to come against a board member, a judge would determine if the board member acted as any reasonable person would have, given everything they knew at the time. If the answer is ‘yes,’ than the board member is protected,” says Yatovitz. In addition to this primary guiding principle, Yatovitz offers three tips to help protect Board members, so that they can do their important work with a little more peace of mind. Tip #1: Don’t Break the Law! “This seems so obvious, but it can be tempting for board members to ‘bend’ the rules, if they believe it will save the association money. I don’t need to remind you that it is never ok to break the law! Failure to follow the rules renders an association and its directors vulnerable to any number of consequences, including civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution. Saving money today is not worth the risk in the long run.” Tip #2: One for All and All for One! “Always remember that as a board member, you have a fiduciary responsibility to decide matters for the benefit of all homeowners in your community. To that end, you should be very deliberate and be reasonable with all decisions. Perform your due diligence regarding each decision, so that if you are accused of preferring one member over another, you have documented the data that supports why you made the decisions that you did.” Tip #3: Zip Your Lips! “As a board member, you are entrusted with confidential information that must be protected. Do not share board information with other homeowners or talk about them outside of the board meetings. Be careful with protected documents, as well. Share electronic files using secure servers and maintain any hard files in locked areas.” These simple tips don’t seem so difficult to follow – and they’re not. But they are frequently forgotten. If every board member follows them, your board will be that much closer to protecting itself, and your board members should be a lot more comfortable carrying out the essential services they provide to your community.

Benefits of Having a Community Website

Trying to remember the date of that upcoming neighborhood block party? Wondering when your next community association assessment is due? Can’t find the minutes from the last association meeting? The answers to these questions – and more – just might be on your community website. Community websites built with association management software can empower associations to do more with less. Here are just a few examples: Provide a portal of information for homeowners . A community website is the 24/7, one-stop spot where owners can find just about any information that pertains to their community. Owners can manage their own personal accounts, pay their community assessments online, check the community’s social calendar, get information on community amenities, review board meeting minutes, and track the status of architectural and other requests. What’s more, the transparency and simplicity a website provides can be a selling point for potential buyers. Save (and earn!) your association money . Disseminating your association’s mailings via email instead of snail mail saves you money on printing and postage. Even better, a website has the potential to make money for your community! By running advertisements on the site, you can turn your website into a revenue stream. And everyone benefits: residents appreciate ads that provide new travel and dining opportunities or merchant savings, and advertisers can lower their cost-per-sale by leveraging highly localized and targeted messages. Maximize your board members’ time and effectiveness . Boards are predominantly composed of volunteers, who donate their time and effort. A community website helps community managers maximize board members’ time by making it easier to access and update community information, as well as to communicate with homeowners. Foster a greater sense of community . Finally, community websites can help create a stronger, more interconnected community. When residents can communicate, plan activities, and become involved in the governance of their association, they tend to be more engaged and invested in community life. A Community Website Case Study: WPM Real Estate and SenEarthCo WPM Association Management Support Supervisor and Executive Assistant Rita Dore played an integral role in implementing SenEarthCo, an association website software platform. Thanks to her assistance, nearly half of WPM-managed communities currently use SenEarthCo; the goal is that all of WPM’s association communities will use this platform by the end of the year. Dore can attest to the benefit of the newly instituted websites: “It is so helpful to have all of the community information centralized in one location,” reports Dore. “Board members can keep track of their management responsibilities in real time, such as monitoring contracts, financial reports, delinquencies, work orders and repairs, architectural requests, etc. And residents appreciate the simplified account statements, their ability to pay association dues online, and creating maintenance requests virtually.” Dore does have one additional piece of advice, “The website needs to be regularly maintained in order to be effective. If it’s not, it will quickly become out of date and residents will no longer trust it as the primary source of community information.”

Online Reputation Management

How do you manage your community’s online reputation? The answer may surprise you. Brent Gratton, Director of Multimedia Marketing & Communications “When property management professionals ask me how they can improve their online reviews and feedback, one of the first things I point them to is the resident experience,” says Brent Gratton, WPM Director of Multimedia Marketing and Communications. “To ensure positive reviews on key websites such as ApartmentRatings.com, ensuring that the customer experience is positive is paramount.” Still, no matter how excellent the property management, there will always be the stray complaint or disgruntled resident. And thanks to social media and property rating websites, one resident’s displeasure can spread faster than mold in a flooded basement. That’s why WPM offers the following guidance to property managers about how to use both proactive and reactive strategies for managing customer feedback. Obviously, a proactive approach is the goal. Good managers anticipate residents’ needs before residents have the chance to blast their complaints online. Being proactive requires three things: Great service : By focusing on a great resident experience, managers can greatly influence their organization’s online image. Asking for feedback : While most residents are willing to provide feedback, very few are often asked. Creating a system for collecting residents’ responses is imperative. Quick responses to customer concerns : The more time that elapses between a complaint and its correction, the more likely a resident is to take air their frustration on social media networks. An open line of communication : Residents need to know whom they can contact with questions or problems. If they are unsure, they may seek advice online or default to complaining instead of addressing the issue through the proper channels. But when your first line of defense fails, you’ll need a workable set of reactive strategies. Remember, even if a resident’s poor experience goes viral, you can still salvage your image: First, respond to the reviews : Sometimes, people just want to be heard. When you respond to their negative review with a thoughtful, respectful explanation of what your company is doing to address the problem, you win the trust of the resident and points with the cyber audience. Then, make sure you do something about the problem. It’s not enough to make the public promise that you will fix the problem; you actually have to fix the problem. And quickly! As time passes, a disgruntled resident’s frustration is likely to spill over onto more websites. Finally, when working with unhappy residents, Gratton encourages property managers to remember Bill Gates’ advice: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Listen carefully to residents’ complaints – online or otherwise – and always try to see things from their point of view. Your online reputation is bound to improve… because your property will improve!

Budgeting and Forecasting

How to Use Historical Data to Create This Year’s Budget Imagine being able to gaze into a crystal ball, where your association Board could see the future clearly and accurately predict next fiscal year’s income and expenses. Well, there’s no crystal ball. But the next-best option is carefully interpreting your association’s historical data so you can create a fairly accurate model for the coming year’s budget. With a little practice and just a few tips from WPM’s President of Association Management, Barry Yatovitz, you, too, can learn to “see the future.” And it’s a lot less expensive than hiring a fortune teller. Forecasting 101 Predicting the future begins with a thorough understanding of the past. Yatovitz recommends that associations dig deep into past financial reports to understand not only what happened, but analyze the numbers to get the full story of why it happened. “Boards should review the details behind each line item on the financial statements to understand exactly what went into each account. Sometimes, these details will remind you of events you’ve long-since forgotten. Sometimes, you’ll find they’ve been miscoded and should be reclassified, so as not to skew your future expectations. Some larger expenses may even warrant establishing a new expense line on the general ledger, so you can more accurately anticipate large recurring expenses or isolate non-recurring expenses from subsequent budgets.” And it’s important to interpret historical data in the context of current-year information. For example, a line item expense for “elevator repairs” might be decreased or temporarily removed, if the elevator was recently modernized and the elevator has been placed under warranty. But don’t forget to put a note in the budget to remind yourself to reinstate that line item when the warranty is set to expire, or when repairs might become necessary again. Planning for Variables and Contract Changes Yatovitz also warns associations to carefully plan for variable expenses. “It’s important to analyze trends over several of the previous years to understand why a line item might be trending up or down. Budgeting for a variable expense like snow removal might require making an educated guess (especially in the context of the mid-Atlantic region’s unpredictable weather) despite years of preexisting data. But a careful analysis of historical trends helps justify the proposed budget number.” Yatovitz also recommends that associations review their vendor contracts well in advance of their budget planning process. “Look at all contracts and determine if they are accurate for the upcoming year. Determine with the Board if there is a need to bid out any of the current contracts, and if there is, initiate the request for proposal process as soon as possible. Initiating your contract reviews well in advance of the budgeting process helps to ensure your Board has enough time to review competitive bids and investigate the suppliers. Moreover, the incoming proposals will provide more current cost ranges for your contracted services, and your budget can reflect those updated rates.” Building a Budget After you’ve analyzed historical trends and accounted for variables and contract changes, you can begin to build your budget. Here again, Yatovitz offers some useful suggestions… “Start with a simple litmus test for each line item: ‘In light of everything we’ve learned, does this number seem reasonable?’ Next, review your association’s reserve study to find the recommended reserve contribution for the annual budget, and be sure to account for a sufficient contribution to keep your association on track with the study’s recommendation. (The contribution amount and the reserve study’s recommended year-end reserve balance will drive your reserve contribution.) Last, and only after all of the expenses have been determined, your amount of income needed figure will become clear.” Above all, Yatovitz advises associations to use common sense when planning their budgets. “If a line item is not easily explainable and justifiable to a Homeowner who is not on the Board, some additional analysis may be needed. Remember that a budget is a guide committed to paper, not an unyielding document carved in stone. We’re trying to tell the story of the Association through the budget.” With careful planning and a little bit of hard work, your association’s budget should keep your finances on track, even without that crystal ball.

Three Things Your Condo or HOA Should Look for in a Property Management Firm

Selecting a good property management firm is one of the most important decisions that your condo or homeowner association will make. Your new firm will be responsible for managing everything from daily tasks, like maintenance and assessment billing, to long-term strategy considerations, such as budgeting and capital improvements. As surely as a complacent firm can detract from the appearance and operation of your property, a proactive firm can add value, leading to satisfied Boards, owners and tenants. So given the importance of this crucial decision, what should you look for, when shopping for a property management firm? WPM Vice President and Director of Business Development James Dahlgren offers advice about three of the most important things your new firm should offer. According to Dahlgren, your property management firm should: Be present and proactive. Walking the property allows managers to get the true picture of how the property is operating. It also puts the onus on the property manager to make adjustments and repairs, instead of merely waiting and reacting to complaints from the Board or owners. “You can’t manage from behind a desk,” explains Dahlgren. “Managers need to do regular walk-throughs in order to get a real sense of what is going right or wrong with the property. Properties are tangible assets that need to be seen to be fully understood. If renovations or repairs are taking place, a property manager ought to be a regular presence to ensure that the association is receiving the full benefits of the contracted service. That’s why our managers are ‘out more than in.’ Technology allows them to stay connected while being physically onsite at properties. This is crucial.” Leverage Technology. Good management firms utilize existing technologies that allow them to push data, financial reporting and other news to residents and association boards in real time. “WPM uses the web platform SenEarthCo,” says Dahlgren “It’s a helpful portal that enables owners and property managers to communicate quickly about property information. For example, boards can receive real-time payment status on a resident’s account and have access to financial statements. This technology helps boards to make the most of their volunteer time.” Provide accurate and timely financial reporting. Meticulous and timely financial reporting is imperative for several reasons: It enables associations to collect dues on schedule. It gives boards the full financial picture so that they are armed to make good decisions for the community. It helps associations understand the short- and long-term needs of a property, to guide its strategy and budgeting. “At WPM, we take our fiduciary responsibility to our properties very seriously,” says Dahlgren. “Our accounting team boasts extensive experience and training. And as we manage many institutional clients, which require the highest level of financial statements, that standard of excellence translates to our clients across the board.”

The Purpose of a Board Meeting

Community Associations are far more likely to succeed if their Board meetings are organized and productive. But how do you ensure that your Association is making the most of its Board members’ time? Below is a discussion about the purpose of a board meeting, as well as some tips for making sure your Association’s Board is optimizing each meeting. According to David Grant, Community Association Manager for WPM Real Estate Management, the primary purpose of a Board meeting is to review important issues and for the Board to make decisions on behalf of the community. “At any given time,” says Grant, “the Board faces a number of decisions that affect the well-being of the entire community. These may include entering into contracts with vendors, addressing owner complaints, financial planning and more.” The Board’s job, Grant stresses, is to review the most pressing matters and make decisions that benefit the Association as a whole. This brings up an important consideration: how does the Board decide which matters are the most urgent? In many cases, Grant suggests, the key to a successful Board meeting is pre-planning. Effective Board leadership teams may have several meetings or discussions about the Board meeting agenda before convening the entire Board. This carefully planned agenda then becomes the road map for the meeting, ensuring that members do not stray off topic, discussing less urgent matters. And yet, despite the best of planning, discussions often veer off course. Sometimes less urgent matters gather the Board’s collective interest more than the pressing matters at hand. So how does a proactive Board Officer get the meeting back on track? Once again, the answer lies in a carefully planned agenda. The Board Chair should feel no reluctance to interrupting the conversation and requesting that it continue off line or in a future meeting. Finally, there is one other trait that often separates effective Board meetings from ineffective ones: civility. The overall tone of the meeting ought to be one of mutual respect and professionalism as well as keeping in mind that the Board meeting is a business meeting. Disagreement among Board Members is expected and even helpful for arriving at the best outcomes for the community. But disagreements among members must never become discordant. Remember, the Board of an association often comprises neighbors and friends. Civil Board meetings are not only imperative for smooth operation, they also set a tone of mutual respect that permeates the entire community.