Making the Most Out of Your Partnership—A Partnering Assessment Tool

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PARTNERSHIP

A PARTNERING ASSESSMENT TOOL

An effective partnership between an association’s Board and its manager/management company is critical to the efficient, effective, and successful operations of a community association. The Board is dependent on the property manager and management company professionals to guide and assist them, and to perform the specialized functions that are needed to support the Board in governing the association. The association manager and the management company professionals are dependent on the Board to provide guidance and direction on the operations in the community and identify needs. These are very vague statements; did one of our community association attorneys provide this non-committal guidance?

All joking aside, what do they really mean? To boil it down, it’s communication, expectations, and accountability that make an effective partnership. First, the roles and responsibilities of the Board and the manager/management company need to be clearly defined; then the expectations of duties and performance for both the Board and manager/management company need to be outlined; and each party needs to be held accountable for their responsibilities.

For a little background: I relate our association and its search for the right management company to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. First, we had a smaller management company that didn’t have as many resources and required a lot of work, input, and oversight by the Board. Next, we had a large management company with more rigid policies and procedures that didn’t give us the flexibility we needed for our particular needs. Finally, we found a management company that was just right for us, and we’ve been working with that same management company since 2009.

However, about 18 months ago, the relationship became strained due to several events, including: • A decision by the management company to change banks and go to a new financial system; • The community’s website and mass communication’s email system were no longer going to be supported by Yahoo Groups; • And yes, it was 2020. Frustration was being experienced on the part of the Board and the manager and management company staff. However, we didn’t want to change management companies! After numerous discussions to attempt to resolve issues, we decided we needed to clearly define roles & responsibilities, job duties, expectations, and set times for responsiveness. This led us to develop a “tool” that would measure and evaluate the performance of both the Board and the manager/management company

I relate our association holding each accountable for their and its search for the right responsibilities. First, we contacted management company our Chesapeake Chapter to see if they to Goldilocks and the Three Bears... we found a had a template for us to use, but they could not find one for us. However, one of our Directors had experience management company that using an assessment tool for vendors was just right for us, and in her past work experience, so we’ve been working with we started with that as a template. that same management That director and our management company since 2009. company manager, working with our management contract as the baseline, developed a draft of the “Partnering Assessment Tool” last fall. It was sent to the Board for review and comments, and then the entire Board and our management company manager (who is also the owner of the management company) dedicated a Board meeting to going through the tool item by item to ensure that definitions, timeframes, and