Mahassen Mahmoud Property Manager Rapport Management and Communication
Democracy
Winning by Pulling Together Direct Democracy and Civic Engagement are Crucially Important to the Process
Challenges and Opportunities YCC76 is one of the largest, if not the largest, in Ontario with 1420 units and it is a model of social diversity with a large population of newcomers and people from various ethnic backgrounds and age groups. Moreover, it is a self-managed corporation. Decisions regarding the budget, which is over 9 million dollars, and the overall operations are made by the board members who are volunteers. YCC76 has 2 property managers, one of them is senior, which are supervised by the Board of Directors. The number of board members is 12, which is quite exceptional. The buildings, comprising 3 high-rises and a number of town-homes are aging, with over
40 years passed since they were built, and there are several building envelopes and repair projects going on. The buildings are adjacent to Crescent Town, which has been designated as a priority area by the City of Toronto, which has a strategy regarding integration of different communities including those who are more affluent and those who are lower income earnings. Having a vision, mission and guiding principles is a necessity to identify priorities, set up partnerships, make decisions on budget and operations. Moreover, it is important to ensure board cohesive action considering the large number of board members. History and Process At the 2017 AGM the writer of this article, and board member of YCC 76, obtained the consent of the board to conduct a “data collection” exercise. Flip-charts were posted at the AGM which were titled “questions about our priorities, items to be included on our planning objectives,
successes, improvements needed and action items”. A process of analyzing data took place along with a report that was submitted to the board. At the following 2018 AGM, 4 flip-charts were posted that focused on identifying values, guiding principles and committees that owners volunteered to join to provide recommendations to the Board of Directors. In the beginning of July 2018 the Community Engagement Forum was held and presided by YCC 76 Board President at that time, Mahassen Mahmoud, and a participatory development process had been established to set up values, vision and mission as well as operational planning priorities. Issues and owners’ groups covered re-branding, exterior and interior appearance, communication and accountabilities. Guiding principles discussed were: 1. Transparency and effective communication 2. Accountability CONDOVOICE SPRING 2019
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ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE MURRAY
At 2 consecutive AGM’s at one condo corporation, namely YCC76, an experiment in participatory development took place. Direct democracy and civic engagement are crucially important not only to ensuring a democratization of decision-making process but also to enhance social inclusion.