January 27, 2025 • 32 mins
Get ready for key HOA trends for 2025 and learn how board members can better prepare to lead their associations with confidence and efficiency.
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As we step into 2025, the HOA industry faces new trends that will shape the way associations are managed. Join me, Julie Adamen, and Robert Nordlund as we discuss the evolving role of professional management and the challenges board members face, from homeowner aggression to post-pandemic impacts. We share practical solutions, including connecting with other boards, leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT, and adopting clear communication strategies. Whether it’s managing abusive communication or building strong support networks, these insights will help HOA boards navigate 2025 with clarity and success.
Chapters from today's episode:
00:00 Your Manager Should be Your Filter for Your HOA
00:44 Introduction to HOA Trends You Should Expect to See in 2025
03:49 Why HOA Boards Members Are Limping to the Finish Line
07:18 Building Community and Support Among HOA Board Members
14:55 Tools and Resources for Board Members
17:28 How Healthy HOAs Create Success
20:20 Ad Break - Our FiPhO
22:51 Leveraging AI and Technology for Board Efficiency
24:54 Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
28:17 It’s okay for HOA Board Members to Say “No”
The views & opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts & Guests, intended to provide general education about the community association industry. The content is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or organization. Please seek advice from licensed professionals.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie Adamen (00:00):
Especially if you have management, if you have
(00:01):
professional management, eitheron site or through a portfolio
management type situation, allof that type of correspondence
should be going through yourmanagement company anyway. They
should be your filter. Yourmanager should be your filter.
You'll get what you need toknow. Otherwise. Here, it's over
here, so utilize that tool,
Announcer (00:20):
Hoa Insights is brought to you by five companies
that care about board members,association, insights and
marketplace, association,reserves, community, financials,
Hoa invest and Kevin Davis,Insurance Services. You'll find
links to their websites andsocial media in the show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:36):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of association
reserves, and
Julie Adamen (00:39):
I'm Julie Adelman of Adam and Inc. And this is HOA
Insights, where we promotecommon sense
Robert Nordlund (00:44):
for common areas. Welcome to episode number
90, where we're again speakingwith management consultant and
regular co host, Julie Adelman.
Today we're talking about thetrends you should expect to see
in 2025 trends will help you beprepared for what is about to
come. We want to help you beboth informed and prepared,
which is going to help you havesuccess leading your association
(01:05):
into the future, and perhapsgive you a little more time to
consider how to appropriatelyrespond to these changes. We
want your association to thrive,and it starts with leadership at
the top, and that's you. Well,this is a follow up to episode
number 89 where we had a greatchat with Russell Munz, one of
the sponsors of this podcast,and the owner of a financial
(01:26):
services company. We spoke onthe range of options available
to associations in between selfmanagement and full management,
if you're struggling withmanaging the affairs of the
association all by yourself, orif at the other end of the scale
you have a capable board andfull professional management,
but you feel squeezed by costleft and right, this episode
(01:50):
will provide you some greatinsights and food for thought
about taking advantage of thesein between support services.
Well, if you missed thatepisode, take a moment after
today's program to listen fromour podcast website, hoe
insights.org, or watch on ourYouTube channel, where you can
give it a LIKE, or better yet,subscribe from any of the major
(02:12):
podcast platforms so you don'tmiss any future episodes. Well,
those of you watching on YouTubecan see that I've got my
favorite HOA insights mug here Igot from Oh,
Julie Adamen (02:26):
sorry, it's in the dishwasher. It's in the
afternoon. I'm done drinkingcoffee by that time, there
Robert Nordlund (02:32):
you go. Okay, we learning more about Jubilee
and I than you needed to. Sorry,people anyway, you can look for
mugs from our HOA insightswebsite, or the link in our show
notes, that's where you find.
The merch store. We've got somegreat free stuff, like board
member zoom backgrounds, andespecially items for sale, like
the mugs. So go to the merchstore, find the mug you'd like,
and if you're the 10th person toemail podcast at reserve
(02:55):
study.com with your name andaddress and mug choice. I'll
send it to you for free. Okay,so we enjoy hearing from you
responding to the issues you'refacing at your association. So
if you have a hot topic, a crazystory, or a question you'd like
us to address, you can contactus at 805-203-3130, or email us
again at podcast at reservesid.com this episode is our
(03:24):
choice, simply due to time ofyear. We want to get you
thinking about the trends thatyou need to prepare to face in
2025 So Julie, start us off withyour thoughts on how
professional management ischanging in 2025
Julie Adamen (03:42):
well, you mean professional as management
companies or
Robert Nordlund (03:45):
Yeah, okay, so how they're treating board
members, how they're workingwith their board members?
Julie Adamen (03:50):
Well, I'll tell you, I had a really interesting
conversation with a thepresident of a very large
management company out inSouthern California, okay, and
I'm doing a board retreat forthem coming up in the beginning
of next year. And, you know,they're talking to me about what
they'd like to talk about andwhat they want me to talk about,
and something came up that Ihadn't really heard yet, but it
makes sense they were telling methat even in the last four to
(04:14):
five years, at the most, justthis amount of time, that they
are spending a tremendous amountof time bolstering their board
members. I mean, really tryingto keep their spirits up and
giving them as many tools asthey possibly can. Because in
previous years, I mean, backwhen I was actually physically
managing low these many yearsago, it was, you know, you'd
(04:35):
have board members that wouldcome on the board, and they'd
stay on for two, three, youknow, if there were no term
limits, four or five, you knowdifferent cycles, right? So they
could be on the board, termboard members? Yes, long term,
10 years, 15 years. Now, therecertainly can be downsides to
that, but at least staying onfor two terms is really great,
because the board has somestability, and there's corporate
(04:59):
memory going on, right? In withthat? Yep,
Robert Nordlund (05:00):
continuity, institutional knowledge. Yes,
lots of good things,
Julie Adamen (05:04):
exactly, all kinds of it. But now that is just
about a thing of the past. Theyare saying that they are limping
people to finish their terms,and as soon as that turns up,
boom, they're gone, or they quitin the middle of their term. And
the reason is the homeowners andthe residents and their attitude
and honestly, how nasty theyare. And I thought that actually
(05:28):
makes a lot of sense. And soafter I got off the phone with
him, I made reached out to someother management company folks
that I know, and they saidabsolutely they hadn't really
thought about it that way untilI talked to them about it. It's
an ongoing problem now, but Idon't think it's going to get
much better. And just briefly, Ithink the two main reasons that
we don't need to beat them todeath, but this is the way it is
(05:49):
right now, and why people arethe way they are. I think
everyone watching probablyagrees. Number one is COVID and
that whole thing. Number two ispolitics, and I mean national
and regional politics, peopleare still so divided. It is just
it's just made people think likethey have no boundaries. They
don't really need to not yell atsomebody. They feel like they
(06:13):
have a right to yell at somebodyor get in your face or make
threats, and I think we'venormalized it as a society. I'm
forgetting talking about thatpart. I think that's the
problem. It's normalized in alot of places, and thus it
bleeds right over into HOAmanagement. Because we really
are a microcosm of largersociety. Each Hoa is just a
(06:34):
microcosm. I can see it, and Idon't think it's going to go
away. It may get better in thenext year or two, if the economy
gets better, I think that willhelp some. So I was thinking
about how to, you know, giveboard members tools to bolster
their attitudes and to not takethings quite so personally. And
again, these are the exact samethings we used to tell managers.
(06:57):
I used to supervise managers,and you would always have to do
this with and it's like, it'sokay, you're not alone. And for
you board members out there, thefirst thing I want to tell you
is you are not alone. You arenot in this alone. There are
1000s of board members acrossthe country and across the world
going through the same types ofthings. So how do we get you to
(07:20):
know that you're not alone.
Well, the first thing I wouldsuggest is that if you,
especially if you're a presidentor in leadership role somewhere,
and the board is that reach outto other local associations. And
I mean, they're not going to betoo difficult to figure out who
the board president is.
Oftentimes, they're members ofour professional organizations.
Cai, national professionalorganization if you're in
(07:42):
Northern California, I think alot of our listeners are there.
Echo, E, C, H, O, echo.org, Ithink that's a huge organization
for board members only. But ifyou can get together with other
board members, either at aprofessional function or even
even informally, you know yourassociation holds a little
cocktail and cheese kind ofparty for two others, or vice
(08:04):
versa, and you can talk to theseboard members, see how they're
handling it. I think the worstpart is thinking you're alone.
And you know, Robert, from allof the correspondence we've
gotten and phone calls we'vegotten from homeowners and board
members over the last, you know,year and a half, two years or
so, I think, do you not thinkthat the one thing that comes
(08:24):
out like they just they they'reall alone, thus they don't know
where to go or what to do? Wouldyou agree with that?
Robert Nordlund (08:31):
Yes. And for the listeners who hear Kevin
Davis's voice, he often talksabout trying to lower the
temperature, because, again,homeowners are getting nastier.
They're getting pickier. Theyit's very different. He says
they can be much more aggressivewhen they're behind a computer
(08:51):
screen, rather than what theylearned as a kid, being polite,
being nice to the people aroundyou, social graces, and when you
first said that this wasstarting maybe four years ago, I
go back to that takes us back to2020, and COVID, and we got
defensive. I heard another voicethat was talking about how
(09:17):
starting with COVID, when thegovernment came in and said,
This is what you need to do tostay safe. That made us feel
like someone else was protectingus, we perhaps softened our self
sustaining skills. And selfsustaining skills have to do
with working with your neighborsand being polite in comfortable
society, social graces, thosethings like that. And I think
(09:42):
when you're left to your owndevices, you lose some of those
skills. I was almost alarmed. Igot a Christmas card from an old
friend, and at my age, he wastalking about how he retired two
years ago, but he's. Reallygoing to be retired at the end
of the year, because that's whenhe'll finally get off his HOA
(10:05):
board, which has been adisaster, and that's that's my
industry. He He's hitting thenail on the head. So like Julie
said, if you think it'sstressful leading your
association, it's not you. It'snot your problem Association,
it's an industry wide thingthat's going on. We've got this
(10:26):
community here, the podcastcommunity, to encourage and
equip you on a weekly basis. Sowe're here. We get it, we hear
the words, the voices. But todaywe want to try to see if we can
point you in the rightdirection, things that you can
do. And I'm thinking about, Ithink it was two years ago when
(10:48):
we did some Homer models. Welived in a we rented a condo for
a year, and along our road therewere three others right next to
ours, and it would have been soeasy to reach out to those board
members and say, Hey, we'rewithin a half mile of each
other, if not a quarter mile ofeach other. And are you seeing
(11:13):
this at your place too? And justhave that community where maybe
you go out to dinner every othermonth, maybe you go out to
dinner once a quarter, your kidsare probably on the same
football team. So maybe you goto the high school football game
and sit in the same section,whatever it is, but community is
a big deal. So Julie, thank youfor pointing that out.
Julie Adamen (11:33):
Well, I just think it's something that, you know,
the boards don't, they don'tthink about doing that, because
it's just and for you and forme. Robert, I mean, it's so easy
for me to say, Oh, do this, youknow, but, but honestly, it's, I
think, for everyone out there,Robert and I, we're not so close
to it that we, you know, we wecan see the forest and the
trees, but when you're deep inthe trenches like you are, and
(11:55):
you're doing yeoman's work,you're trying to do everything
correctly, and the people arecoming at you from all sides,
and you're just like, oh my god,I just feel alone, but you're
not. And so this communicationwith other board members is, I
think, very, very helpful also.
CI, our national professionalorganization, has chapters all
over the country, I mean, and ifyou're in a larger state, like
(12:17):
California or, you know, here inArizona, Arizona, we only have
one that takes up the two majorareas. But, I mean, California,
how many you have? Like, six inSouthern California alone,
Robert Nordlund (12:28):
and there's five in Florida. Oh, there's
more than that. I think
Julie Adamen (12:32):
there's more, like nine, but okay, but yeah, yeah.
So there's so many Georgia, NewYork. It doesn't matter where
you are. There is some form of aCI presence somewhere, and you
can look it up online at Caionline.org, that's the that's
the umbrella organization, andit'll show you where the
chapters are. But if you can goto any kind of meetings or
(12:52):
luncheons, they may not evenexactly be geared toward board
members, but board members willbe there, and that's a way to
start, you know, shaking hands,introducing yourself, and asking
what they're doing, and justcreating that relationship. So
there's also, there's thepersonal forum, but there's also
a professional forum for you to,you know, meet other folks who
are doing this. Also, back toCai, I not trying to be a
(13:17):
commercial for CI, but it is ourmajor organization. So they do
have all kinds of board toolsand online courses for board
members through their website,and I think, I think most of
them are online, as well as inperson, especially if you're
near a larger section of theorganization. Those things are
good tools to get you tounderstand your job as board
(13:40):
member, which always, you knowthat that platform for
performance and what your realduties are is always a great
thing to start with, but thatemotional side you maybe need to
deal with, or, you know, justthat, oh my god, I can't deal
with these people anymore. I getit. I totally get it. Is that
it's, it's to talk to otherpeople who are having the same
thing. It's like, you know, it'slike, if you're it's like being
(14:01):
an alcoholic. The only personwho can talk to you about what
it's really like is another one,you know, or somebody, or anyone
who's had a disabled child, orjust go through the litany of
human experience, you're goingthrough something like that. So
I think it's really good tounderstand that you can connect
with other folks. Yeah,
Robert Nordlund (14:17):
well, let's go a little bit further. Talking
about the management company,they are probably beginning to
be sensitive to this. Are, dothey have any tools to help
board members, or is that beyondwhat we should expect of a
management company?
Julie Adamen (14:31):
Well, you know, I think this is something that's
developing, because this is forthem. This is a new experience
as well. I mean, I was talkingto an executive who's been in
the industry for how long isprobably almost as long as I am.
Probably not quite that long,maybe 25 years. 2025, years. And
then I talked to my buddy, Rolf,and he's been in it about that
(14:51):
long, or no, 30 like me, morelike 3035, and so the business
is so quick and fast anyway,that I think. It's something
that there everyone's starting,just starting to recognize this
is becoming a problem. And if itwould be my recommendation that
though it's probably not acontractual issue for you as
management companies, but if youget ahead of this a little bit
(15:14):
and give your board some tools,and that can be everything from,
you know, operational, you know,guidelines, how to how to help
them learn how to do thingsbetter, so they feel like they
have a basis for operations intheir own heads, in within their
own boards. But also, if you canhave a quarterly all boards
meeting like, kind of, it couldbe a giant therapy session, but
(15:36):
it could be yes, have everyonecome together and let them chat,
and then maybe have a speakercome in and talk about, you
know, everyone loves to have thelawyers come in and talk about
the new laws that are beingwritten or coming down the pike,
whatever it is like thisassociation, I'm their speed.
I'm their main speaker to comein and, you know, do give board
therapy, but it's, it's thosetype of retreats. But I would
(15:57):
say, do them more than once ayear if you can. I mean, I would
try, even if you have to dosmaller things quarterly, and
make sure you're staying intouch as executives, especially,
make sure you're staying intouch number one, with the
managers underneath you, butalso with those individual board
members. Now, obviously,executives don't have time to
talk to every single person, butI think there's a pretty good
(16:18):
way to get a beat on what'sgoing on through the managers
and through the boardpresidents, which is someone you
should have somewhat of arelationship anyway, if you took
a survey of then, what do yousee as your greatest challenges
with your homeowners? Just justthree points. What are they? And
take that and run with it. And Ithink you could have other
(16:39):
speakers come in. You could justhave a wine and cheese party,
whatever it is to let thesepeople have some time to vent
and give them some more toolsand some moral support, yeah,
Robert Nordlund (16:49):
yeah, to let them know it's not them, yeah,
it's not their association. It'sthe industry. And here's some
tools we can have so you canblow off some steam, yeah, and
make some friends and have thatcamaraderie and community with
what you were saying. I just wasthinking I got invited to speak
to a bunch of a managementcompany's board members in
(17:10):
February, and I'm thinking, Oh,that's probably what they're
doing. They're giving theirboard members a community forum,
bringing in an outside speaker.
I don't know who's going tospeak in January or March or
April or May, that kind ofstuff, but they're probably
doing those kinds of things. AndI I believe we're probably going
to be seeing more of that as themagic companies are trying to,
(17:33):
as you say, get ahead of thisand realize that for the
association to succeed, theyneed a healthy board. Healthy
board needs to be able tosustain their time as a board
member. You have a pipeline ofboard member candidates coming
in, which means healthycommittee structure, and there's
so many different parts to it.
(17:55):
The other parts are successfulmeetings. So when homeowners do
come to the board meetings, theyrealize, oh, we have a
functioning community here, andthey see that they could be a
part of this. Julie, we'vetalked about those kinds of
things before, right? Manytimes,
Julie Adamen (18:10):
many times, I think we just all this is, is
just another layer in thoselayers we've talked about with
healthy meetings and healthycommittees, developing a
pipeline, but this is just onemore thing where now you've
thrown in the wild card of it'sthere's always the human wild
card. But this is one that'sbeen born of some external
issues that have gone on in ourcountry and indeed the world,
(18:34):
but for our purposes and justfor the country. And don't
forget everybody, yourassociation is simply a
microcosm of what's going on inthe greater world. I mean,
there's just no two ways aboutit, and you can't wish it away.
You can't legislate it away.
It's human beings. So what canwe do to maybe channel it if we
can, or what can we do to makeit easier for ourselves as board
(18:55):
members to function and get itmore? How about this? Less less
dysfunctional? Not that you guysare dysfunctional. Maybe you
are, but not that. If you guyscan as board members, if you can
provide any kind of of solid, Icould say your solid operating
(19:16):
platform. But also that makesthe homeowners feel like there's
a solid platform. You know, backto Robert, what's my favorite
subject, regular communicationbetween boards and and the
homeowners and so that is that'salways a big problem, and
everyone doesn't have time. Butagain, like the management
companies trying, or hopefullygoing to try, and get out of
(19:36):
front of this issue, because Ithink we're already about two
years behind, but it takes awhile for things to catch up. If
you understand this, how can youget in front of this issue, you
know, as a board, how are yougoing to help alleviate some of
this? And you can't fix crazy.
You cannot fix crazy, but youcan fix to some degree.
(19:59):
Describe. Told for no reason.
Yeah. And there's a lot ofpeople that are disgruntled for
like, really no reason,
Robert Nordlund (20:04):
yeah. Well, Julie, thank you for that. I
think it's good time now to takea break and hear from one of our
generous sponsors, after whichwe'll be back with more HOA
insights, and we'll talk aboutwhat you can do to try to lower
the temperature at yourassociation.
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Robert Nordlund (20:51):
Now we're back.
Well, Julie, we spoke about kindof the problems out there, but
how can we start to move forwardand lower the temperatures,
smooth things out at theAssociation. We're talking about
some resources, but what elseare the tools that board members
can avail themselves of to startmaking progress? Yeah,
Julie Adamen (21:11):
I said, as we said, that Cai has them. They
have all kinds of informationthat is free downloads from for
board members. So they have thatCai online.org and I also have
some integrated into my website.
So if you out there, if youwould like to go to my website,
admin, inc.com, if you can'tremember that, just google me,
and you will find it. Julie Adamand I'm everywhere. So get to my
(21:34):
website, click on the Educationtab and scroll down to board
member education, click throughto the educational platform
where, yes, we have board membereducation that as well and their
videos. So it's a terrific thingto do, but also embedded within
that are several tools for boardmembers, everything from
operational policies tocommitment statements to
(21:56):
committee guidelines that youcan take and use however you
wish, and board member jobdescriptions as well as
foundational
Robert Nordlund (22:06):
things that will help it be not your
problem, but this is who we areas an organization, and
Julie Adamen (22:11):
it gives everyone something to hold on to. You
know, it's, oh, this is how thisworks. Okay, not Well, I don't
know how that works. Let's trythis. And instead of, you know,
just kind of willy nilly doingsomething, these will give you
some platforms for performance.
You know, the the biggestproblem, I think that happens in
associations is because we turnover very quickly. You know,
board members come and they go,just like we're talking about,
(22:33):
even in good times, but all of asudden your corporate memory is
gone. But when you have thoseeducational and those, sorry,
those foundational documents ofboard, policies, commitment
statements to job descriptions,etc, etc. You have that stable
platform. The more stable theboard is, the more stable the
community tends to be. If theboard is chaotic and and running
(22:54):
around not knowing what they'redoing, or you that kind of
thing, then the commit thecommunity looks at you guys and
says, well, there don't evenknow what they're doing, even
though you may, but what'scoming out to them isn't. And
the next thing, of course, isalways, always, always
communication, and clearcommunication. Oh, and this is
the one thing I did want to
Robert Nordlund (23:14):
talk about, good, good, good. 2025,
Julie Adamen (23:17):
2025. Is for those you folks who have been out of
the workforce for a little whilethis this be like, Oh my God, I
don't want to deal with it, butit's actually incredibly easy
get your grandkids or your kidsto show you how to do it. But if
you want to put out a decentmissive or newsletter that goes
out to the homeowners, and noone has time to write it, and
(23:37):
you certainly that's not yourforte anyway, all you have to do
is put together just some bulletpoints of things you want
covered. Plug it into chat, GPT,and you just Google that, and
it'll put it. You can do it forfree. Plug it in there and say,
make this a 200 word articleabout what we're doing. And you
(23:58):
put those bullet points in andboom, it'll pop out in about a
minute and read it over makesure it all fits you. But it is
an astonishing tool time saving.
I use it all the time now forthings I that would take me
three or four hours to correctand write and go back and do,
and it just been amazing. Sothat is that's another huge
trend in 2025 is the use of AI,and it has grown exponentially
(24:20):
in the last six months, and it'sgoing to go even faster this
year. Take advantage of it,
Robert Nordlund (24:26):
yeah. Can you also just say, do it again, but
a little friendlier. You
Julie Adamen (24:30):
can check that once it's up there and it spits
it back out. You just type inthere, ooh. Make this sound a
little less professional andmore friendly, or more
professional and less friendly,or whatever it is. And then, if
it's too many words, you say,This is too long. Redo this, but
take out 200 words or whateverit will do it. It's It's
astonishing. And they could justcopy and copy it and put it on
(24:53):
piece paper, and there you go.
Robert Nordlund (24:54):
Fantastic.
Well, as I'm listening to I'mhearing you say two things. One
is, there's. Foundation of knowwho your association is and be
able to articulate it. Have thatfoundation so it's not just
willy nilly, the five crazyboard members off on the side
who meet in secret, but that'sthe whole point. Have the
foundation and, number two,communicate what's going on,
(25:16):
because when people don't know,they have concern. And I think
we were living in an environmentnow when, any time they don't
know, then they are fearful. Andthat started with COVID. I
remember the first couple ofweeks, I was thinking, Can I
touch the mail? My wife wantedto go out to this and I said,
(25:36):
Okay, make sure you wash yourhands when you come back. And
you know, we thought it was ablack death. We were fearful
until we realized that level offear wasn't justified. So the
more you're communicating, andone way or another, a note on
the front door. I went in to doa site inspection, and they had
(25:57):
a box of donuts in the lobbysaying from your board of
directors, happy Tuesday. By theway. Here's the meeting notes
from last month's meeting. And Iwas like, nice. They they were
doing checking the little boxes.
It doesn't have to be an emailblast. It doesn't have to be a
fancy newsletter, but just themore you communicate, there's
(26:18):
going to be an election Tuesdaynext week. We're going to have
to turn the water off inbuilding number two to fix that
long standing problem of thegrass outside of that building
being soggy, whatever it is orit could be. We are finally
going to get pest waste stationsinstalled. Thank you for all
your suggestions that willhappen the 15th of next month.
(26:41):
Whatever it is, communicate.
Communicate. It allows you to bea stronger platform, that
foundation, and then to fill inthe community communication gaps
where people may generate theirown fear. May they do good
point,
Julie Adamen (27:00):
you know, a vacuum. You know, nature awards
a vacuum, and it's going to befilled with stuff that's not
pleasant, typically, well, andit and integrating with other
board members last one, right?
Okay,
Robert Nordlund (27:11):
there's that, because we know inflation is
real. It seems like thegovernment is getting that more
under control. It seems like theinsurance costs are high, and
they'll probably continue to goup. So we know those things, and
you have a choice. You can facethe problem of not having enough
(27:31):
money, or the problem of raisingthe assessments at your home.
And as a board member, I thinkwe're going to suggest that they
the lesser problem is raisingthe assessments so you have the
right amount of money. We talkabout the well, the four C's,
they keep growing, but careabout your association. Be
(27:52):
curious, what do we need? Becourageous, communicate and by
golly, if you need more money,if your budget is tight and
that's a source of stress. Youneed to generate more income. So
there's some things in yourcontrol, some things outside
your control. Legislation,there's more around every
corner. Yeah, yeah. There's alot of things swirling around
(28:13):
us. So think about what you cando and what you can't do
Julie Adamen (28:17):
and what you have to let go of. But one last thing
I wanted to tell for boardmembers out there, there are
times it's okay to say no, andthat is typically when people
are abusing you via email or onthe phone or in person. You do
not have to deal with that nortake it. And in fact,
associations often send thosepeople a cease and desist if it
(28:39):
gets pretty bad, even if it'snot to that level, and you just,
and this person is just tobother all the time about that
that's become personal to you,then it's time for you to just,
I'm sorry this is not going tobe answered. It's going to go
directly to our management. Andespecially if you have
management, if you haveprofessional management, either
on site or through a portfoliomanagement type situation, all
(29:00):
of that type of correspondenceshould be going through your
management company anyway. Theyshould be your filter. Your
manager should be your filter.
You'll get what you need to knowotherwise. Here, it's over here.
So utilize that tool. Justbecause someone says rabbit
doesn't mean you have to jump atevery time you need to manage
that. And you've if you want tobe on the board for a longer
(29:21):
term than one term or one yearor three months, you have to
manage that incomingcommunication that's coming to
you. You don't have to absorb itall. You do the best you can
with what pertains to you, butthat continual bordering on
abuse. Just funnel that rightoff to somebody else, meaning
(29:43):
your management staff, manager,management staff. If you don't
have it, you should have apolicy on how to deal with that
type of thing and publish it toall the members. This is what's
going to happen if you know, weget continual communication that
is abusive, blah, blah, blah,that type of thing,
Robert Nordlund (29:58):
because we under. And you as board members,
are there to help. You're thereto run the association. You're
volunteering. You're giving timeto the Association for the
betterment of the community, tosustain the community. And you
shouldn't have it shouldn't haveto be something where you wear
armor all the time. We hopeyou're leading forward and
(30:19):
building up the board memberrole at your association to that
of a respected position where,again, you're doing a good job
helping the community goforward. Thank you, Julie,
always a pleasure chatting withyou. Any Thank you. You too. Any
more, any more closing thoughtsat this time? No,
Julie Adamen (30:34):
I think I we covered all the big ones. But
the one thing I do want to sayis that everybody, if you could
just create a relationship withyour community, your board with
another one or two or even threeother boards that are around
you, and I guarantee you, unlessyou're out in the middle of
nowhere, there are other boardsout there. Create a
relationship. Sit down, havecoffee on Wednesdays or
(30:55):
whatever, or wine and cheese onThursday nights, whatever it is,
and create that relationship soyou can bounce things off of
each other, but mostimportantly, to understand
you're not alone. You are notalone. Yeah,
Robert Nordlund (31:07):
you don't have to carry this burden yourself.
Well, we hope you learned someHOA insights from our discussion
today that helps you bringcommon sense to your common
areas. We look forward to havingyou join us for another great
episode next week,
Announcer (31:24):
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(32:09):
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Especially if you have management, if you have
(00:01):
professional management, eitheron site or through a portfolio
management type situation, allof that type of correspondence
should be going through yourmanagement company anyway. They
should be your filter. Yourmanager should be your filter.
You'll get what you need toknow. Otherwise. Here, it's over
here, so utilize that tool,
Announcer (00:20):
Hoa Insights is brought to you by five companies
that care about board members,association, insights and
marketplace, association,reserves, community, financials,
Hoa invest and Kevin Davis,Insurance Services. You'll find
links to their websites andsocial media in the show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:36):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of association
reserves, and
Julie Adamen (00:39):
I'm Julie Adelman of Adam and Inc. And this is HOA
Insights, where we promotecommon sense
Robert Nordlund (00:44):
for common areas. Welcome to episode number
90, where we're again speakingwith management consultant and
regular co host, Julie Adelman.
Today we're talking about thetrends you should expect to see
in 2025 trends will help you beprepared for what is about to
come. We want to help you beboth informed and prepared,
which is going to help you havesuccess leading your association
(01:05):
into the future, and perhapsgive you a little more time to
consider how to appropriatelyrespond to these changes. We
want your association to thrive,and it starts with leadership at
the top, and that's you. Well,this is a follow up to episode
number 89 where we had a greatchat with Russell Munz, one of
the sponsors of this podcast,and the owner of a financial
(01:26):
services company. We spoke onthe range of options available
to associations in between selfmanagement and full management,
if you're struggling withmanaging the affairs of the
association all by yourself, orif at the other end of the scale
you have a capable board andfull professional management,
but you feel squeezed by costleft and right, this episode
(01:50):
will provide you some greatinsights and food for thought
about taking advantage of thesein between support services.
Well, if you missed thatepisode, take a moment after
today's program to listen fromour podcast website, hoe
insights.org, or watch on ourYouTube channel, where you can
give it a LIKE, or better yet,subscribe from any of the major
(02:12):
podcast platforms so you don'tmiss any future episodes. Well,
those of you watching on YouTubecan see that I've got my
favorite HOA insights mug here Igot from Oh,
Julie Adamen (02:26):
sorry, it's in the dishwasher. It's in the
afternoon. I'm done drinkingcoffee by that time, there
Robert Nordlund (02:32):
you go. Okay, we learning more about Jubilee
and I than you needed to. Sorry,people anyway, you can look for
mugs from our HOA insightswebsite, or the link in our show
notes, that's where you find.
The merch store. We've got somegreat free stuff, like board
member zoom backgrounds, andespecially items for sale, like
the mugs. So go to the merchstore, find the mug you'd like,
and if you're the 10th person toemail podcast at reserve
(02:55):
study.com with your name andaddress and mug choice. I'll
send it to you for free. Okay,so we enjoy hearing from you
responding to the issues you'refacing at your association. So
if you have a hot topic, a crazystory, or a question you'd like
us to address, you can contactus at 805-203-3130, or email us
again at podcast at reservesid.com this episode is our
(03:24):
choice, simply due to time ofyear. We want to get you
thinking about the trends thatyou need to prepare to face in
2025 So Julie, start us off withyour thoughts on how
professional management ischanging in 2025
Julie Adamen (03:42):
well, you mean professional as management
companies or
Robert Nordlund (03:45):
Yeah, okay, so how they're treating board
members, how they're workingwith their board members?
Julie Adamen (03:50):
Well, I'll tell you, I had a really interesting
conversation with a thepresident of a very large
management company out inSouthern California, okay, and
I'm doing a board retreat forthem coming up in the beginning
of next year. And, you know,they're talking to me about what
they'd like to talk about andwhat they want me to talk about,
and something came up that Ihadn't really heard yet, but it
makes sense they were telling methat even in the last four to
(04:14):
five years, at the most, justthis amount of time, that they
are spending a tremendous amountof time bolstering their board
members. I mean, really tryingto keep their spirits up and
giving them as many tools asthey possibly can. Because in
previous years, I mean, backwhen I was actually physically
managing low these many yearsago, it was, you know, you'd
(04:35):
have board members that wouldcome on the board, and they'd
stay on for two, three, youknow, if there were no term
limits, four or five, you knowdifferent cycles, right? So they
could be on the board, termboard members? Yes, long term,
10 years, 15 years. Now, therecertainly can be downsides to
that, but at least staying onfor two terms is really great,
because the board has somestability, and there's corporate
(04:59):
memory going on, right? In withthat? Yep,
Robert Nordlund (05:00):
continuity, institutional knowledge. Yes,
lots of good things,
Julie Adamen (05:04):
exactly, all kinds of it. But now that is just
about a thing of the past. Theyare saying that they are limping
people to finish their terms,and as soon as that turns up,
boom, they're gone, or they quitin the middle of their term. And
the reason is the homeowners andthe residents and their attitude
and honestly, how nasty theyare. And I thought that actually
(05:28):
makes a lot of sense. And soafter I got off the phone with
him, I made reached out to someother management company folks
that I know, and they saidabsolutely they hadn't really
thought about it that way untilI talked to them about it. It's
an ongoing problem now, but Idon't think it's going to get
much better. And just briefly, Ithink the two main reasons that
we don't need to beat them todeath, but this is the way it is
(05:49):
right now, and why people arethe way they are. I think
everyone watching probablyagrees. Number one is COVID and
that whole thing. Number two ispolitics, and I mean national
and regional politics, peopleare still so divided. It is just
it's just made people think likethey have no boundaries. They
don't really need to not yell atsomebody. They feel like they
(06:13):
have a right to yell at somebodyor get in your face or make
threats, and I think we'venormalized it as a society. I'm
forgetting talking about thatpart. I think that's the
problem. It's normalized in alot of places, and thus it
bleeds right over into HOAmanagement. Because we really
are a microcosm of largersociety. Each Hoa is just a
(06:34):
microcosm. I can see it, and Idon't think it's going to go
away. It may get better in thenext year or two, if the economy
gets better, I think that willhelp some. So I was thinking
about how to, you know, giveboard members tools to bolster
their attitudes and to not takethings quite so personally. And
again, these are the exact samethings we used to tell managers.
(06:57):
I used to supervise managers,and you would always have to do
this with and it's like, it'sokay, you're not alone. And for
you board members out there, thefirst thing I want to tell you
is you are not alone. You arenot in this alone. There are
1000s of board members acrossthe country and across the world
going through the same types ofthings. So how do we get you to
(07:20):
know that you're not alone.
Well, the first thing I wouldsuggest is that if you,
especially if you're a presidentor in leadership role somewhere,
and the board is that reach outto other local associations. And
I mean, they're not going to betoo difficult to figure out who
the board president is.
Oftentimes, they're members ofour professional organizations.
Cai, national professionalorganization if you're in
(07:42):
Northern California, I think alot of our listeners are there.
Echo, E, C, H, O, echo.org, Ithink that's a huge organization
for board members only. But ifyou can get together with other
board members, either at aprofessional function or even
even informally, you know yourassociation holds a little
cocktail and cheese kind ofparty for two others, or vice
(08:04):
versa, and you can talk to theseboard members, see how they're
handling it. I think the worstpart is thinking you're alone.
And you know, Robert, from allof the correspondence we've
gotten and phone calls we'vegotten from homeowners and board
members over the last, you know,year and a half, two years or
so, I think, do you not thinkthat the one thing that comes
(08:24):
out like they just they they'reall alone, thus they don't know
where to go or what to do? Wouldyou agree with that?
Robert Nordlund (08:31):
Yes. And for the listeners who hear Kevin
Davis's voice, he often talksabout trying to lower the
temperature, because, again,homeowners are getting nastier.
They're getting pickier. Theyit's very different. He says
they can be much more aggressivewhen they're behind a computer
(08:51):
screen, rather than what theylearned as a kid, being polite,
being nice to the people aroundyou, social graces, and when you
first said that this wasstarting maybe four years ago, I
go back to that takes us back to2020, and COVID, and we got
defensive. I heard another voicethat was talking about how
(09:17):
starting with COVID, when thegovernment came in and said,
This is what you need to do tostay safe. That made us feel
like someone else was protectingus, we perhaps softened our self
sustaining skills. And selfsustaining skills have to do
with working with your neighborsand being polite in comfortable
society, social graces, thosethings like that. And I think
(09:42):
when you're left to your owndevices, you lose some of those
skills. I was almost alarmed. Igot a Christmas card from an old
friend, and at my age, he wastalking about how he retired two
years ago, but he's. Reallygoing to be retired at the end
of the year, because that's whenhe'll finally get off his HOA
(10:05):
board, which has been adisaster, and that's that's my
industry. He He's hitting thenail on the head. So like Julie
said, if you think it'sstressful leading your
association, it's not you. It'snot your problem Association,
it's an industry wide thingthat's going on. We've got this
(10:26):
community here, the podcastcommunity, to encourage and
equip you on a weekly basis. Sowe're here. We get it, we hear
the words, the voices. But todaywe want to try to see if we can
point you in the rightdirection, things that you can
do. And I'm thinking about, Ithink it was two years ago when
(10:48):
we did some Homer models. Welived in a we rented a condo for
a year, and along our road therewere three others right next to
ours, and it would have been soeasy to reach out to those board
members and say, Hey, we'rewithin a half mile of each
other, if not a quarter mile ofeach other. And are you seeing
(11:13):
this at your place too? And justhave that community where maybe
you go out to dinner every othermonth, maybe you go out to
dinner once a quarter, your kidsare probably on the same
football team. So maybe you goto the high school football game
and sit in the same section,whatever it is, but community is
a big deal. So Julie, thank youfor pointing that out.
Julie Adamen (11:33):
Well, I just think it's something that, you know,
the boards don't, they don'tthink about doing that, because
it's just and for you and forme. Robert, I mean, it's so easy
for me to say, Oh, do this, youknow, but, but honestly, it's, I
think, for everyone out there,Robert and I, we're not so close
to it that we, you know, we wecan see the forest and the
trees, but when you're deep inthe trenches like you are, and
(11:55):
you're doing yeoman's work,you're trying to do everything
correctly, and the people arecoming at you from all sides,
and you're just like, oh my god,I just feel alone, but you're
not. And so this communicationwith other board members is, I
think, very, very helpful also.
CI, our national professionalorganization, has chapters all
over the country, I mean, and ifyou're in a larger state, like
(12:17):
California or, you know, here inArizona, Arizona, we only have
one that takes up the two majorareas. But, I mean, California,
how many you have? Like, six inSouthern California alone,
Robert Nordlund (12:28):
and there's five in Florida. Oh, there's
more than that. I think
Julie Adamen (12:32):
there's more, like nine, but okay, but yeah, yeah.
So there's so many Georgia, NewYork. It doesn't matter where
you are. There is some form of aCI presence somewhere, and you
can look it up online at Caionline.org, that's the that's
the umbrella organization, andit'll show you where the
chapters are. But if you can goto any kind of meetings or
(12:52):
luncheons, they may not evenexactly be geared toward board
members, but board members willbe there, and that's a way to
start, you know, shaking hands,introducing yourself, and asking
what they're doing, and justcreating that relationship. So
there's also, there's thepersonal forum, but there's also
a professional forum for you to,you know, meet other folks who
are doing this. Also, back toCai, I not trying to be a
(13:17):
commercial for CI, but it is ourmajor organization. So they do
have all kinds of board toolsand online courses for board
members through their website,and I think, I think most of
them are online, as well as inperson, especially if you're
near a larger section of theorganization. Those things are
good tools to get you tounderstand your job as board
(13:40):
member, which always, you knowthat that platform for
performance and what your realduties are is always a great
thing to start with, but thatemotional side you maybe need to
deal with, or, you know, justthat, oh my god, I can't deal
with these people anymore. I getit. I totally get it. Is that
it's, it's to talk to otherpeople who are having the same
thing. It's like, you know, it'slike, if you're it's like being
(14:01):
an alcoholic. The only personwho can talk to you about what
it's really like is another one,you know, or somebody, or anyone
who's had a disabled child, orjust go through the litany of
human experience, you're goingthrough something like that. So
I think it's really good tounderstand that you can connect
with other folks. Yeah,
Robert Nordlund (14:17):
well, let's go a little bit further. Talking
about the management company,they are probably beginning to
be sensitive to this. Are, dothey have any tools to help
board members, or is that beyondwhat we should expect of a
management company?
Julie Adamen (14:31):
Well, you know, I think this is something that's
developing, because this is forthem. This is a new experience
as well. I mean, I was talkingto an executive who's been in
the industry for how long isprobably almost as long as I am.
Probably not quite that long,maybe 25 years. 2025, years. And
then I talked to my buddy, Rolf,and he's been in it about that
(14:51):
long, or no, 30 like me, morelike 3035, and so the business
is so quick and fast anyway,that I think. It's something
that there everyone's starting,just starting to recognize this
is becoming a problem. And if itwould be my recommendation that
though it's probably not acontractual issue for you as
management companies, but if youget ahead of this a little bit
(15:14):
and give your board some tools,and that can be everything from,
you know, operational, you know,guidelines, how to how to help
them learn how to do thingsbetter, so they feel like they
have a basis for operations intheir own heads, in within their
own boards. But also, if you canhave a quarterly all boards
meeting like, kind of, it couldbe a giant therapy session, but
(15:36):
it could be yes, have everyonecome together and let them chat,
and then maybe have a speakercome in and talk about, you
know, everyone loves to have thelawyers come in and talk about
the new laws that are beingwritten or coming down the pike,
whatever it is like thisassociation, I'm their speed.
I'm their main speaker to comein and, you know, do give board
therapy, but it's, it's thosetype of retreats. But I would
(15:57):
say, do them more than once ayear if you can. I mean, I would
try, even if you have to dosmaller things quarterly, and
make sure you're staying intouch as executives, especially,
make sure you're staying intouch number one, with the
managers underneath you, butalso with those individual board
members. Now, obviously,executives don't have time to
talk to every single person, butI think there's a pretty good
(16:18):
way to get a beat on what'sgoing on through the managers
and through the boardpresidents, which is someone you
should have somewhat of arelationship anyway, if you took
a survey of then, what do yousee as your greatest challenges
with your homeowners? Just justthree points. What are they? And
take that and run with it. And Ithink you could have other
(16:39):
speakers come in. You could justhave a wine and cheese party,
whatever it is to let thesepeople have some time to vent
and give them some more toolsand some moral support, yeah,
Robert Nordlund (16:49):
yeah, to let them know it's not them, yeah,
it's not their association. It'sthe industry. And here's some
tools we can have so you canblow off some steam, yeah, and
make some friends and have thatcamaraderie and community with
what you were saying. I just wasthinking I got invited to speak
to a bunch of a managementcompany's board members in
(17:10):
February, and I'm thinking, Oh,that's probably what they're
doing. They're giving theirboard members a community forum,
bringing in an outside speaker.
I don't know who's going tospeak in January or March or
April or May, that kind ofstuff, but they're probably
doing those kinds of things. AndI I believe we're probably going
to be seeing more of that as themagic companies are trying to,
(17:33):
as you say, get ahead of thisand realize that for the
association to succeed, theyneed a healthy board. Healthy
board needs to be able tosustain their time as a board
member. You have a pipeline ofboard member candidates coming
in, which means healthycommittee structure, and there's
so many different parts to it.
(17:55):
The other parts are successfulmeetings. So when homeowners do
come to the board meetings, theyrealize, oh, we have a
functioning community here, andthey see that they could be a
part of this. Julie, we'vetalked about those kinds of
things before, right? Manytimes,
Julie Adamen (18:10):
many times, I think we just all this is, is
just another layer in thoselayers we've talked about with
healthy meetings and healthycommittees, developing a
pipeline, but this is just onemore thing where now you've
thrown in the wild card of it'sthere's always the human wild
card. But this is one that'sbeen born of some external
issues that have gone on in ourcountry and indeed the world,
(18:34):
but for our purposes and justfor the country. And don't
forget everybody, yourassociation is simply a
microcosm of what's going on inthe greater world. I mean,
there's just no two ways aboutit, and you can't wish it away.
You can't legislate it away.
It's human beings. So what canwe do to maybe channel it if we
can, or what can we do to makeit easier for ourselves as board
(18:55):
members to function and get itmore? How about this? Less less
dysfunctional? Not that you guysare dysfunctional. Maybe you
are, but not that. If you guyscan as board members, if you can
provide any kind of of solid, Icould say your solid operating
(19:16):
platform. But also that makesthe homeowners feel like there's
a solid platform. You know, backto Robert, what's my favorite
subject, regular communicationbetween boards and and the
homeowners and so that is that'salways a big problem, and
everyone doesn't have time. Butagain, like the management
companies trying, or hopefullygoing to try, and get out of
(19:36):
front of this issue, because Ithink we're already about two
years behind, but it takes awhile for things to catch up. If
you understand this, how can youget in front of this issue, you
know, as a board, how are yougoing to help alleviate some of
this? And you can't fix crazy.
You cannot fix crazy, but youcan fix to some degree.
(19:59):
Describe. Told for no reason.
Yeah. And there's a lot ofpeople that are disgruntled for
like, really no reason,
Robert Nordlund (20:04):
yeah. Well, Julie, thank you for that. I
think it's good time now to takea break and hear from one of our
generous sponsors, after whichwe'll be back with more HOA
insights, and we'll talk aboutwhat you can do to try to lower
the temperature at yourassociation.
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Robert Nordlund (20:51):
Now we're back.
Well, Julie, we spoke about kindof the problems out there, but
how can we start to move forwardand lower the temperatures,
smooth things out at theAssociation. We're talking about
some resources, but what elseare the tools that board members
can avail themselves of to startmaking progress? Yeah,
Julie Adamen (21:11):
I said, as we said, that Cai has them. They
have all kinds of informationthat is free downloads from for
board members. So they have thatCai online.org and I also have
some integrated into my website.
So if you out there, if youwould like to go to my website,
admin, inc.com, if you can'tremember that, just google me,
and you will find it. Julie Adamand I'm everywhere. So get to my
(21:34):
website, click on the Educationtab and scroll down to board
member education, click throughto the educational platform
where, yes, we have board membereducation that as well and their
videos. So it's a terrific thingto do, but also embedded within
that are several tools for boardmembers, everything from
operational policies tocommitment statements to
(21:56):
committee guidelines that youcan take and use however you
wish, and board member jobdescriptions as well as
foundational
Robert Nordlund (22:06):
things that will help it be not your
problem, but this is who we areas an organization, and
Julie Adamen (22:11):
it gives everyone something to hold on to. You
know, it's, oh, this is how thisworks. Okay, not Well, I don't
know how that works. Let's trythis. And instead of, you know,
just kind of willy nilly doingsomething, these will give you
some platforms for performance.
You know, the the biggestproblem, I think that happens in
associations is because we turnover very quickly. You know,
board members come and they go,just like we're talking about,
(22:33):
even in good times, but all of asudden your corporate memory is
gone. But when you have thoseeducational and those, sorry,
those foundational documents ofboard, policies, commitment
statements to job descriptions,etc, etc. You have that stable
platform. The more stable theboard is, the more stable the
community tends to be. If theboard is chaotic and and running
(22:54):
around not knowing what they'redoing, or you that kind of
thing, then the commit thecommunity looks at you guys and
says, well, there don't evenknow what they're doing, even
though you may, but what'scoming out to them isn't. And
the next thing, of course, isalways, always, always
communication, and clearcommunication. Oh, and this is
the one thing I did want to
Robert Nordlund (23:14):
talk about, good, good, good. 2025,
Julie Adamen (23:17):
2025. Is for those you folks who have been out of
the workforce for a little whilethis this be like, Oh my God, I
don't want to deal with it, butit's actually incredibly easy
get your grandkids or your kidsto show you how to do it. But if
you want to put out a decentmissive or newsletter that goes
out to the homeowners, and noone has time to write it, and
(23:37):
you certainly that's not yourforte anyway, all you have to do
is put together just some bulletpoints of things you want
covered. Plug it into chat, GPT,and you just Google that, and
it'll put it. You can do it forfree. Plug it in there and say,
make this a 200 word articleabout what we're doing. And you
(23:58):
put those bullet points in andboom, it'll pop out in about a
minute and read it over makesure it all fits you. But it is
an astonishing tool time saving.
I use it all the time now forthings I that would take me
three or four hours to correctand write and go back and do,
and it just been amazing. Sothat is that's another huge
trend in 2025 is the use of AI,and it has grown exponentially
(24:20):
in the last six months, and it'sgoing to go even faster this
year. Take advantage of it,
Robert Nordlund (24:26):
yeah. Can you also just say, do it again, but
a little friendlier. You
Julie Adamen (24:30):
can check that once it's up there and it spits
it back out. You just type inthere, ooh. Make this sound a
little less professional andmore friendly, or more
professional and less friendly,or whatever it is. And then, if
it's too many words, you say,This is too long. Redo this, but
take out 200 words or whateverit will do it. It's It's
astonishing. And they could justcopy and copy it and put it on
(24:53):
piece paper, and there you go.
Robert Nordlund (24:54):
Fantastic.
Well, as I'm listening to I'mhearing you say two things. One
is, there's. Foundation of knowwho your association is and be
able to articulate it. Have thatfoundation so it's not just
willy nilly, the five crazyboard members off on the side
who meet in secret, but that'sthe whole point. Have the
foundation and, number two,communicate what's going on,
(25:16):
because when people don't know,they have concern. And I think
we were living in an environmentnow when, any time they don't
know, then they are fearful. Andthat started with COVID. I
remember the first couple ofweeks, I was thinking, Can I
touch the mail? My wife wantedto go out to this and I said,
(25:36):
Okay, make sure you wash yourhands when you come back. And
you know, we thought it was ablack death. We were fearful
until we realized that level offear wasn't justified. So the
more you're communicating, andone way or another, a note on
the front door. I went in to doa site inspection, and they had
(25:57):
a box of donuts in the lobbysaying from your board of
directors, happy Tuesday. By theway. Here's the meeting notes
from last month's meeting. And Iwas like, nice. They they were
doing checking the little boxes.
It doesn't have to be an emailblast. It doesn't have to be a
fancy newsletter, but just themore you communicate, there's
(26:18):
going to be an election Tuesdaynext week. We're going to have
to turn the water off inbuilding number two to fix that
long standing problem of thegrass outside of that building
being soggy, whatever it is orit could be. We are finally
going to get pest waste stationsinstalled. Thank you for all
your suggestions that willhappen the 15th of next month.
(26:41):
Whatever it is, communicate.
Communicate. It allows you to bea stronger platform, that
foundation, and then to fill inthe community communication gaps
where people may generate theirown fear. May they do good
point,
Julie Adamen (27:00):
you know, a vacuum. You know, nature awards
a vacuum, and it's going to befilled with stuff that's not
pleasant, typically, well, andit and integrating with other
board members last one, right?
Okay,
Robert Nordlund (27:11):
there's that, because we know inflation is
real. It seems like thegovernment is getting that more
under control. It seems like theinsurance costs are high, and
they'll probably continue to goup. So we know those things, and
you have a choice. You can facethe problem of not having enough
(27:31):
money, or the problem of raisingthe assessments at your home.
And as a board member, I thinkwe're going to suggest that they
the lesser problem is raisingthe assessments so you have the
right amount of money. We talkabout the well, the four C's,
they keep growing, but careabout your association. Be
(27:52):
curious, what do we need? Becourageous, communicate and by
golly, if you need more money,if your budget is tight and
that's a source of stress. Youneed to generate more income. So
there's some things in yourcontrol, some things outside
your control. Legislation,there's more around every
corner. Yeah, yeah. There's alot of things swirling around
(28:13):
us. So think about what you cando and what you can't do
Julie Adamen (28:17):
and what you have to let go of. But one last thing
I wanted to tell for boardmembers out there, there are
times it's okay to say no, andthat is typically when people
are abusing you via email or onthe phone or in person. You do
not have to deal with that nortake it. And in fact,
associations often send thosepeople a cease and desist if it
(28:39):
gets pretty bad, even if it'snot to that level, and you just,
and this person is just tobother all the time about that
that's become personal to you,then it's time for you to just,
I'm sorry this is not going tobe answered. It's going to go
directly to our management. Andespecially if you have
management, if you haveprofessional management, either
on site or through a portfoliomanagement type situation, all
(29:00):
of that type of correspondenceshould be going through your
management company anyway. Theyshould be your filter. Your
manager should be your filter.
You'll get what you need to knowotherwise. Here, it's over here.
So utilize that tool. Justbecause someone says rabbit
doesn't mean you have to jump atevery time you need to manage
that. And you've if you want tobe on the board for a longer
(29:21):
term than one term or one yearor three months, you have to
manage that incomingcommunication that's coming to
you. You don't have to absorb itall. You do the best you can
with what pertains to you, butthat continual bordering on
abuse. Just funnel that rightoff to somebody else, meaning
(29:43):
your management staff, manager,management staff. If you don't
have it, you should have apolicy on how to deal with that
type of thing and publish it toall the members. This is what's
going to happen if you know, weget continual communication that
is abusive, blah, blah, blah,that type of thing,
Robert Nordlund (29:58):
because we under. And you as board members,
are there to help. You're thereto run the association. You're
volunteering. You're giving timeto the Association for the
betterment of the community, tosustain the community. And you
shouldn't have it shouldn't haveto be something where you wear
armor all the time. We hopeyou're leading forward and
(30:19):
building up the board memberrole at your association to that
of a respected position where,again, you're doing a good job
helping the community goforward. Thank you, Julie,
always a pleasure chatting withyou. Any Thank you. You too. Any
more, any more closing thoughtsat this time? No,
Julie Adamen (30:34):
I think I we covered all the big ones. But
the one thing I do want to sayis that everybody, if you could
just create a relationship withyour community, your board with
another one or two or even threeother boards that are around
you, and I guarantee you, unlessyou're out in the middle of
nowhere, there are other boardsout there. Create a
relationship. Sit down, havecoffee on Wednesdays or
(30:55):
whatever, or wine and cheese onThursday nights, whatever it is,
and create that relationship soyou can bounce things off of
each other, but mostimportantly, to understand
you're not alone. You are notalone. Yeah,
Robert Nordlund (31:07):
you don't have to carry this burden yourself.
Well, we hope you learned someHOA insights from our discussion
today that helps you bringcommon sense to your common
areas. We look forward to havingyou join us for another great
episode next week,
Announcer (31:24):
you've been listening to Hoa insights, common sense
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(31:47):
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the views and opinions expressedin this program are those of the
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(32:09):
about the community, associationindustry. You'll want to consult
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