Achieving Your Association's Potential

Achieving Your Association's Potential Involving and Empowering Your Members Mr. LaMorte says that if you look at the structures of typical Florida associations, most of them are like triangles. The board of directors is typically at the top (i.e. the triangle's smallest point) and communicates 'downwardly' to committees, and staff (i.e. the broader base). Often, the decision-makers have little or no contact with the membership-at-large and don't really know what's going on. Whether it's a large association or small it is easy to see that relatively small groups of governing bodies are setting policies and creating programs based on limited knowledge and exposure - and the members have largely been left out. "There is something definitely missing between what members want and what their association is delivering," says Mr. LaMorte…

If you would like to learn more about my program, please call me today to set-up a free no-obligation meeting.

Frank LaMorte
Cell 561-707-4900
FrankLaMorteLLC@Gmail.com

Board of Directors Role

So what exactly do Board of Directors do for their association. Well that depends on the person. In associations where the boards are active the members do a lot. They run the day-t0-day activities, for example. Below is an excerpt taken from the Florida Division of Professional Regulation explaining the role of Boards of Directors.

The Board of Directors
The board of directors, initially appointed by the developer and subsequently elected by the unit owners, is responsible for managing the affairs of the association. The board may appoint committees to assist with the various duties of the association. Often such committees include a Bylaws Committee, Budget Committee, and Grounds Committee. Effective committees are important to a well-run condominium association because they help the board carry out its powers and duties.
A director is expected to carry out his or her powers and duties, as any other ordinarily prudent person would do under reasonably similar circumstances. Directors have a fiduciary relationship with the unit owners, and have the responsibility to act with the highest degree of good faith and to place the interests of the unit owners above the personal interests of the directors.
Although the board of directors is essentially the decision-making body for the condominium, the association’s effectiveness rests primarily with its membership -- the unit owners. For an association to be successful, unit owners must take an active part by serving in leadership positions on the board of directors and/or its committees, attending association meetings, voting, and assisting in other affairs of the association whenever possible. These roles are essential to an association’s success. Apathy on the part of the unit owners will render an association ineffective.
Each unit owner has the right to be informed and have a voice in the operation of the condominium. For this reason, Chapter 718, Florida Statutes, requires each condominium association to hold an annual meeting of its unit owners, provide adequate notice of meetings, allow unit owner participation at meetings, conduct elections,
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permit unit owner inspection of the official records of the association, and prepare and distribute a year-end financial report to the members. These are just some of the requirements that unit owners can expect to be fulfilled by an association’s board of directors.

Thinking of hiring a manager?

So you want a manager to help with the affairs of your association. You decided to research the possibility of hiring a manager. This researching has lead you to the conclusion that this journey might be a little scary.

Don't be scared. Be prepared and know that if you don't take certain precautions some interesting things will start to happen. What precautions should you take ? I suggest you start by writing out a detailed list of all association issuers you would like the manager to handle. This is a very important first step. The reason is that all managers are NOT created equal.

What I mean is certain managers / management companies have a certain personality / knowledge type. This personalty / knowledge type can mean a lot if you are looking for the manager to make certain your newly approved balcony reconstruction runs smoothly without delays and cost over-runs. Therefore; the manager MUST know construction planning; bidding process; time-lines and contracts. If your manager has never been involved in or had education in the above then your association could be heading down a very interesting road, and that road could cost you a lot on money.

So the moral of this story is for you to know the needs of your association and make sure the manager is equipped with the knowledge / expertise to handle the many obstacles that will come along.

If you would like help in hiring a manager, or if you have other questions regarding association management feel free to write me anytime.

Frank