What is a North Carolina resale certificate?

As a community association board member, one of your chief responsibilities is to protect the financial interests of your association and your fellow residents. That includes making sure that the association’s reserve and operating funds are carefully managed, protected and invested. Smart decision-making and sound financial stewardship are critical to the association’s long-term financial stability and health. Unfortunately, even the best-intentioned board members may not have the experience or financial knowledge to choose the right banking programs and products to meet their community association’s needs. What should you look for when choosing the best banking program for your association? Read on…

The principles to fiscal fitness and physical fitness aren’t that different: Don’t overindulge. Make smart choices. Keeping your community association’s finances healthy requires care and exercising good judgment. Follow our tips to help you do that.

Staffing your community association is both an art and a science. Your community’s culture and lifestyle are supported by the staff you choose, and it’s important to make sure that you’ve got the right people in the right positions, and enough of them. Properly staffing your community goes far beyond having people to answer the phone and handle packages or keep the pool clean and tidy. 

Budgeting is important, and it can be complicated. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to make the process as painless as possible. Read on to learn what those steps are.

Losing power is never fun. But it’s bound to happen at some point, so preparation is the best defense. Obviously, different types of communities are affected by blackouts in different critical ways: high-rises lose their elevators and water; resort-style gated communities lose the ability to operate their gates. For residents, a blackout may be a short-term nuisance. For a community association, it can be a major headache in terms of risk management, safety and potential equipment damage that can provide an unwelcome shock to your budget.

Congratulations are in order – you’ve just been elected to the board. So now the big question: What’s next? “The great thing about associations that are helmed by owners is that they have a vested interest in doing right by their community,” said Kirk Kowieski, CMCA, AMS, vice president of FirstService Residential. “But that also comes with challenges...many board members find themselves in this kind of position for the first time, so there’s a little bit of a learning curve.” Fortunately, FirstService Residential is here to help. Follow these new board member basics and you’ll soon be governing like a pro.

Mother Nature has quite the surprises to throw at us! Sometimes, there’s some notice and time to prepare. But often, there’s no warning at all. That’s why it is critical to the financial health of your community association that you have the correct insurance coverage in place. What can happen if your high-rise building or community association common areas aren’t properly covered? Unfortunately, nothing good. That's why it is important to make sure your Association is covered with insurance. 

Although you can’t predict emergencies, you can prepare for them. The most important thing that both board members and management can do to ready themselves for the unexpected is to create a customized emergency preparedness plan. A quality community association management company will have the experience, resources and knowledge to help you develop a plan that fits your specific situation.

How can your association avoid missteps and pitfalls when switching from one community management company to another? A great management company will have a depth of resources for your community, and that includes resources to help with your transition. To make sure that your transition goes well, you need to be able to rely on the skills of professionals in every facet of it.