James Pfeiffer from ACCU gives five tips for community association managers: build a network of experts to rely on, read your management agreement carefully, prepare for board meetings in advance, finish minutes immediately instead of procrastinating, and don't accept disrespect from homeowners or board members.
Hello everybody. Welcome back. James Pfeiffer with ACCU. And today I've got 5 things that I think will help you become a successful community manager. Now, writing out these 5 things was pretty difficult because I could probably have my top 100 things. But these are 5 things that I think should be taken priority when you're considering being a community manager, or if you're currently a community manager. Step 1 is building your network. Many times as a community manager, you're going to be the one in the meeting with your board, and they're going to be looking at you to be the expert. Expert, but I promise you don't need to be the expert on everything. But what is going to be important is that you spend the time building your network of trusted individuals that you know that know how to perform that work. If you get asked a legal question, it's okay to tell the board, I don't have a license to practice law and I'm not able to answer that question, but I'm going to reach out to the association's attorney and find the answer for you. If you get asked a financial question that you don't have the answer to, it's okay to let them know that you need to reach out to the CPA to ask them about tax status, or perhaps you're being asked to get an RFP or to get bids for a large project. And as a manager, you may not know how to put together that RFP for roofing, how many squares you need, and what type of roof product is it. But you should have consultants or vendors that you know and trust that you can go to and help build an RFP for your community. You don't have to be the know-it-all at the table. And in fact, you're going to get yourself in a lot of hot water if you try and play that role. Next is know your management agreement. I would highly encourage you to be reading your management agreements on a consistent basis. Always refer back to them. Each community has different needs. They wanted to negotiate different things when choosing a management company, which may mean a certain number of site inspections, and you want to honor that and the agreement. A certain number of meetings per year, and you also want to make sure you're not being taken advantage of. Right? If the contract says that you only have 4 meetings a year and you find yourself having 12 meetings per year, you as a manager should more than likely be compensated for that extra work, and so should your management company. So be sure to be familiar with what your agreement says. Know what you're supposed to be providing to your community. Meet that standard of care for them, and also make sure that you're not overextending yourself as it relates to your management agreement. Next is preparation is the key to success. Be prepared prior to your meetings. Please be proactive during the month between meetings or the months between meetings. Go and get the information that the board had asked for in the last meeting and don't do it the days leading up to the meeting where you come with something that isn't prepared the right way and you're showing up with inaccurate or incomplete information and you're not helping guide your board the right way. So please, Be diligent in the work that you're performing. Get out there early. Be very proactive because preparation is going to be the key to that success. Next is stay organized and do not procrastinate. Trust me, meeting minutes. You get done with your meeting, it's late, you're tired. I get it. You're like, I'll put that off till tomorrow. Then you get into the office the next day and you let the day run away from you. You open your email, all of a sudden you have emails, and before you know it, the day's ended. You didn't write the meeting minutes. And that happens over and over again until days before the meeting and you realize the board packet needs to get out and oh darn, I didn't write those meeting minutes. And now you're trying to work in reverse and remember what happened a month, 2 months ago, 3 months ago, so on. Just be diligent. Do not procrastinate. When you're done with the meeting, if you can get it done directly after the meeting, that's what I recommend. But certainly the next day, make that a priority and also do the things that you don't want to do First, the reason you're scared to call that board member or the issue that's hanging over your head. If you get that out of the way, you're gonna have a much better career experience. If you leave those things to hang over your head on a consistent basis, this job is gonna eat you up. So be sure to get those done right away. Do not procrastinate. Last, don't take shit. You can bleep that out if you want to, but this is important. You're hired to be a professional. If you have a homeowner who is being difficult, Try and understand there's many different reasons for that. All right? Their hard day or what they're going through in their own personal life shouldn't be your problem. And also understand, through your career, you're probably going to deal with people that have different ailments. They may have some type of mental disorder, and it's not completely directed at you, so do not take it personally. But if you're a manager, pass that on to a superior. Let them handle it. They will work with your board on how to isolate that situation for you. So do not let anybody treat you bad. And if you have a bad board member who is treating you negatively or is making life very difficult, also take that to your other board members or to your superior at the office and allow them to work with the board to try and resolve that situation. You are here to have a good career, to be treated well. There may be times where they call you out for things that you haven't done. That's okay. But if they're being rude or inconsiderate to you, Don't take shit. Stand up for yourself. Make sure that your company is doing the same and you'll have a much better career. So with that, those are my top 5 things that I think you should know to be a successful manager. And until next time, my name is James Pfeiffer. I look forward to bringing you additional educational content. Thank you.
