Communication Advice for Community Associations
By: Nena Groskind
January 2010
“Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens, we have to keep going back and begin again.” - André Gide This is our way of warning you that we’re going to be talking about communication — again. It’s not because we don’t think you’ve been listening, it’s because communication is so important. It is the cornerstone on which successful board governance and effective management are based and the essential ingredient in communities that thrive, the missing ingredient in those that don’t. Pick almost any topic Condo Media has addressed in the past year (or the past five years, for that matter) — contracts, management relationships and rules enforcement, to name just a few — and you will find that communication is almost always part of the discussion and often central to it.

Slippery Conditions - Preparing the Association's Winter Budget
By: Nena Groskind
December 2009
When it comes to planning for winter snow removal, Pete Garrett, CMCA, AMS, a principal in Maine Properties, Inc., has a definite edge. He can predict with close to 100 percent certainty when the first snow will fall. Every year, he takes a two-week vacation sometime in early December; and every year, the first significant snowfall of the season comes while he is away. “It never fails,” he says. While Garrett’s crystal ball may be more accurate than most —at least in predicting the first winter storm — he is no better than other association managers at predicting when snow storms (after the first one) will occur, how much snow and ice they will deposit, or how severe they will be. These factors —unknown and unknowable — make budgeting for snow removal costs and structuring those contracts perpetually challenging and frustrating for community association managers and boards. The goal is to allocate sufficient funds to cover the costs, avoiding the need to levy a special assessment without paying for snow removal services that aren’t used. This is a financial balancing act few communities are able to manage consistently, if at all.

Associations Must Know What Management They Need
By: Nena Groskind
November 2009
The Rolling Stones told us, “You can’t always get what you want.” The larger problem for many community associations is not getting what they want, but defining accurately what they need and then finding a management company that will provide those services without making board members and residents want to sing another Stones song: “I can’t get no satisfaction.”

Condo Association Loans Can Work Well for Lenders & Borrowers
By: Nena Groskind
October 2009
Although the economy seems to be improving or at least moving incrementally in that direction, financial institutions thus far are keeping a tight grip on the credit spigots. By most accounts, loans for consumers and businesses are hard to find. That’s not the case for loans to community associations, however. Banks may be sitting on their hands when it comes to other types of loans, but they are greeting applications from homeowner associations with open arms.

Finding Great Vendors
By: Nena Groskind
September 2009
In any gathering of two or more condominium board members, the discussion will almost always turn to vendors – some described in glowing terms, others in language that is considerably less flattering and often unprintable. Tales of vendors who regularly go above and beyond the requirements of their contracts – the plumber responding to a leak at 3 in the morning or the snow plow driver helping to dig out owners’ cars – are uplifting and not nearly as rare as you might think. But the other stories -- vendors who do inferior work, regularly find reasons to charge more than they estimate, don’t show up when scheduled (or at all) – those stories are familiar, too.