In the Boardroom: The Makings of a Great Board Member

Professional community managers are uniquely positioned to answer that question. As managers, we work closely with our community association boards and help facilitate many functions on their behalf. We see first-hand what qualities are key to success and what factors get in the way. We count on excellent board members as the recipe for our own success.

Whether you are already on a board or considering throwing your hat into the ring, there are a number of important character traits that can lead you to success as a community board member. Read on to understand what your community and community manager look for in board members and ultimately count on to achieve great outcomes.

BE COMMITTED Community managers experience the best results when working with board members that show commitment to their role on the board. Board members that commit to their role take their board meetings very seriously – taking the time to become truly informed on the issues of the agenda, preparing in advance to ask questions of the manager and coming prepared to make informed and timely decisions. Your meeting time is precious. If your community holds one meeting per month that lasts two hours, that is a total of 24 meeting hours for the entire year. Your community manager and community rely on the board’s commitment to attend the meeting well prepared and to execute critical decisions.

PROBLEM SOLVE WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE Associations in California have to meet many challenges head on, such as working with the drought, aging common area elements, complaint-driven communication and ever changing legislation. Managers depend on board members with a problem-solver approach powered by a positive attitude to help the community win and overcome these challenges. Deep within a professional community manager’s DNA is a true desire to help everyone and problem solve for the community. Managers come back meeting after meeting to better the community, and when those managers are supported by problem-solver board members with a positive attitude and that make informed and timely decisions, the sky is truly the limit! BY CLINT McCLURE, CCAM

RESPECT MANAGER’S TIME Great board members respect the manager’s time and the professional relationship. A professional relationship between the board members and management means the board understands that the association has delegated many tasks to the manager to service the community. Take a moment and think of the many tasks your manager accomplishes for your community, every day, every week, every month. Great board members realize unnecessary tasks, interference with association vendors or unnecessary e-mails to their manager interferes with their community manager effectively executing their duties. Community managers completely understand and support that board members have the ultimate responsibility for their community. To ensure you are receiving only the best management service for the association and its’ members, work with your manager to establish check-in times to discuss service and give your manager relationship-building feedback.

CONFIRM, LEAD AND DIRECT Board members need to know what is expected of managers and not assume the manager takes care of everything. Great board members have the leadership skills to recognize what is required in the contractual relationship with their professional management team. Community managers can do almost anything, but they can’t do everything. Therefore, board members need to confirm the community manager’s responsibilities and lead the community to be focused on the issues within the association’s bandwidth of responsibility. Community managers rely on strong boards to keep their focus on what needs to get done and what is the best for the community, even when it is unpopular. Successful board members understand this and direct accordingly. Board members, your managers rely on you to remain strong and steadfast with the conviction to lead by selflessly caring for the needs of the community above all.

Great board members understand that a team approach made up of the board, community members and great management is the proven way for their community to thrive!

Clint McClure, CCAM is President & CEO of MMI-McClure Management Inc. in Carlsbad.

CACM’s “In the Boardroom” feature is intended to provide key trends, tips and practical advice for association board members. For easy sharing, you can also access this and other archived articles online at www.cacm.org

MAKE THE EFFORT

If you provide a service – any type of service – on behalf of a community association, you’re probably focused on a number of

things related to executing your particular area of expertise. You want to be

BY SCOTT SWINTON

the best (fill in the blank) professional that you can be. You want to be efficient and provide a competitive mix of price and service. In other words, you want to do whatever you can to ensure you will continue to be the preferred service provider for that community.

Those are the types of things you probably think about a lot. Building a sense of community, however, probably is not high on your list of priorities. It may not be on your list at all. Isn’t that someone else’s responsibility … the association board, the community manager, the homeowners?

And, if you are a pragmatist, you may be asking: “Why should I care? It’s not my community.” Well, other than the obvious narcissistic problem with your position, there’s also the problem of maintaining a customer base. You need to keep in mind that working for CIDs is DIFFERENT. These are not normal customers (apply that statement privately as you wish). If you want to benefit from CIDs, then it would be wise to help build and become part of their sense of community.

What can you do? This isn’t rocket science. There are many small steps that you can take – or avoid – to contribute to that sense of community.

Don't Be Obnoxious.

• Don't loiter. • Don't take sides in internal community arguments. • Provide and use proper

“facilities.” Yes – that, but also don't drink out of homeowner's garden hoses or take breaks on their front porch.

Be Intentional.

• Show up on time. • Be obvious. Workers should wear clothing that clearly identifies them with your company and should be quick with identifying business cards or ID tags. • Post accurate notices –preferably before unavoidably loud or intrusive common area work begins.

Communicate Appropriately.

• Attempt to perceive who are: homeowners, board members and the community manager. Understanding how you should communicate to each of these people is key. If you don't know, ask the individual who sent you to the job site. • Return to your service vehicle to make phone calls – especially when

“problems” are the subject • Provide proactive solutions to managers. Photograph problem sprinkler heads, slimy green spas, or dangerously rotting arbors and forward the pictures to the community manager.

Manage Expectations.

Get to know the norms of individual communities, and don't promise what you can't provide. Avoid giving optimistic information, just to see the homeowner smile. Cultivate accurate expectations.

Finally, Be Nice.

Contrary to what your mother told you, being nice actually has hurt a few people. But, the instances are so few and far between that it's worth the risk.

So make the extra effort. You may just discover that it is your community after all!

Scott Swinton is the CEO of Unlimited Property Services Inc. in Richmond.

BY EMILY YOST

LECTRONIC

A COMMUNITY MANAGER’S GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

NGAGEMENT

Every community manager has the ongoing task of ensuring that the communities they serve are informed of every important fact that will impact their lives within the community. But how do you do that when some don’t use email and others don’t bother to read what you send out? If you could just get everyone to sign up for a FREE email account and actually use it, your life might be a bit easier!!!

You are not alone. Every industry in the world navigates this same slippery slope. But, believe it or not, there are some tricks to getting them to sign up for an email account, reading your emails and actually engaging with the content you provide them!

Electronic Engagement

Continued from page 35

Set your communities up for success!

Commit to printing a flyer and placing that flyer in the hands of every owner you service. Whether it be in an upcoming statement mailing or dropped off by a representative personally, it’s imperative that they hear that you are turning your communication attention to email in an attempt to increase efficiencies, while positively impacting their community’s bottom line.

Close that flyer with a strong call to action with a fun incentive such as, “Please submit your email to our office no later than XX date. Be sure to share with us a fun story of why you enjoy living at _________________. Every story shared will be entered in a chance to win dinner for two at ____________________ and who knows … you may find your story in the next communication!” Now you are ensuring that while you are sharing important information, you are building relationships within the community through sharing their stories.

Set your company up for success! CHOOSE A SOLID EMAIL MARKETING CLIENT There are many to choose from and they are becoming even more competitive amongst one another by building stronger and more detailed ways to break down communications. A few examples of such companies include GetResponse, Vertical Response, Constant Contact, iContact and MailChimp.

ANALYTICS ARE ESSENTIAL Choose an email marketing company that provides you with strong analytics. You need to be able to see what percentage of individuals are opening your mail, who isn’t and who is using it as a tool. Without proper analytics, you’ll never know if individuals are actually hearing what you have to say!

MOBILE FRIENDLY, PLEASE! According to the US Consumer Device Preference Report from MovableInk, 66 percent of all emails are now opened/read on smartphones or tablets and 34 percent are viewed on a desktop. We want engagement with our content to be quick and painless.

Don’t send meaningless email blasts! Always ask yourself a few questions before you hit send: • What is the goal of this email? Do you want them to come to a meeting or community gathering? Share their ideas? Login to their account and download documents? Whatever it is, just make sure you are clear on the goal of your email before you start writing. • Is this actually important to the homeowners? Do they need to have this information? Time is valuable. Be sure you are not wasting their time with meaningless email clutter. • What do I want them to do with this information? It’s all about ACTION. Whether it be clicking a link to find out more information, taking part in a survey that will give them a voice (without giving you a thousand phone calls!) or submitting a story, you want them to engage with you in some capacity.

Be prepared for the non-email homeowners

In your initial flyer, be sure to mention that they are welcome to drop by your office to pick up the most recently sent email newsletter or have them available in a certain location. Be consistent with making those available on a specific day and time. It will satisfy the NON EMAIL homeowners and give them a new incentive to jump on the electronic bandwagon saving them time, too!

Since you have them standing in front of you, offer up time to teach them how to sign up for and use email effectively. In fact, in your next newsletter, ask homeowners if they would be willing to volunteer to assist those who need training in email (and social media for that matter). A good number of homeowners do have time on their hands and might find this type of involvement much less taxing.