In addition, unless you have an onsite manager that dedicates full time hours each week to your community, your portfolio manager is spreading time across several clients. This means that the manager has to prioritize what she or he is doing for all of their communities, and while it may physically be possible for something to be done as requested, it may not practically be possible based on the manager’s workload and other demands. Even if you have an onsite manager, he or she may tell you at times that another task will need to be postponed if you want something else to be completed. This doesn’t mean that a board should expect slow or sub-par performance from the manager, but the board needs to understand the terms of the management contract or the employment agreement and know, perhaps from the manager’s supervisor, what the expectations should be.

Set your Priorities – Just as the manager needs to set the board’s expectations, the board needs to share priorities in order for the manager to manage time. There needs to be an understanding that not everything can be done immediately. Working on an annual business calendar can help provide perspective on what is reasonable; spread out your projects and set deadlines for major items that you know need to get done first.

Expect the Unexpected – You cannot plan for every contingency, but you can have a plan in place to handle the urgent, unplanned items. Particularly in light of recent case law, the board needs to be very careful in making decisions between board meetings. A management contract normally includes a provision for management to approve spending in the case of an emergency, but there may be a scenario where a decision needs to be made that isn’t technically an emergency, but still should not wait until the next board meeting. If the board plans in advance, it’s possible to approve a contract contingent on certain information, or pass a resolution to delegate the authority for certain decisions to an individual board member or the manager, in order to allow the community to continue having day to day progress instead of constant delays or special meetings.

Stay Educated – Part of what makes your professional community association manager so skilled is that she or he likely takes continuing education classes and makes sure to know about changing laws that can affect the community. The Board needs to learn the rules of the game, too. Take advantage of educational offerings from your local chapter of CAI and seek guidance from the professionals on your team; not just your community manager, but your attorney, auditor, insurance agent and others.

These tips for success can make your game of Monkey in the Middle into more fun than a Barrel of Monkeys. When your team members work together to achieve your community’s goals, everyone wins!

50 | COMMON INTEREST® • Summer 2017 • A Publication of CAI-Illinois Chapter