One Thing

17 responses to “One Thing”

1. Well, since you don’t seem to be asking this of homeowners who aren’t board members I won’t respond except to say that you should have opened this up to anyone who lives in an association.
2. Communication
3. i would ensure that homeowners always have the opportunity to participate in Board meetings and decisions
4. I strongly recommend legislation that members have to opt out from receiving all correspondence … including annual meeting notices and agendas, etc … in electronic form.
5. The one thing I would like all my condominium associations to have is a maintenance and insurance chart.
6. The question implies that you can’t do this one thing, but would, if you could. So here goes: Get everyone to read and understand the covenants. In my 21 years of managerial experience, I’ve learned that the vast majority of owners (and EVEN board members) do not understand what a common-interest community really is, how it functions, and the powers it has and doesn’t have. Nearly-every dispute could be avoided if people could only have this understanding.
7. Increase individual homeowner communication by Board members and the “Community Manager”. Recent dialogues between homeowners regarding grass watering on the street and at monthly Board of Directors meetings revealed what I have known for a long time.

   We walk through the neighborhood looking for violations by homeowners and turn a blind eye to infrastructure from grass to edging to shrub and tree replacement. For those items in these categories that we do note, we do not let homeowners know that we know of a problem and are working on it. We do not point out that we do not overwater, Mother nature has provided abundant “supplemental” water. We should let them know we water six days a week, but at only half the amount per day that neighboring communities use on a 3 day cycle.

   Simple communication(s) would alleviate 95% of the complaints. The other 5% you are never going to satisfy.

8. Single hauler, single day trash hauler to prevent ridiculous duplicative, inefficient, noisy, intrusive truck traffic
9. I wish our industry was more represented of all that we do for the client. I wish the homeowners /board members knew our job scope and why we should be paid more by the HOA’s .
10. I’d hold two annual “town hall”/social events…..no decisions made……here to listen and brainstorm…..and publicize them as a community celebration with food and door prizes.
11. communicate more effectively with tenants about whatever the board or asso. is dealing with. Give them the gift of
    understanding how we work, how it affects them, how they can participate, how they can be a community.
12. Have all association meetings (legally) on line!
13. Be kinder
14. People are very lucky to live in Colorado. Luckier yet because our taxes are low. Our subdivision is beautiful and offers peace. Sometime “Peace” produces folks who just settle in and forget to be a part of the subdivision. We are honored to keep out HOA fee very low. But, we will need to raise it soon if we don’t fill important chair positions with Home owners!!
15. I’d figure out a way to communicate in a way that really informs members, and doesn’t let people be swayed by unwarranted suspicions. I’d communicate in a way that helps trust to happen.
16. I would revise the bylaws/covenants to require annual training for all Board and committee members o n such things as fiduciary duty, maintain property values and community spirit, understanding and enforcing standards, etc. If I could do one more thing, I would revise the bylaws to include term limits. (we have a large HOA)

17. Hmm… I’m empathize with your sentiment. I hear from both side and management seems to be undervalued and homeowners seem to they are nickeled and dimed to bankruptcy. Seems like manager gets the complaints from both sides. Can I discuss with you offline about this subject?