November 17, 2025 • 35 mins
Learn how mission statements & vision statements unite your HOA board and guide better decisions.
✅ Is a Reserve Study right for you? 👉 https://www.reservestudy.com/
What makes an HOA board truly effective? In this episode, Robert Nordlund and Julie Adamen discuss how clear Mission Statements and Vision Statements transform how communities operate. Mission and vision statements can be guiding principles to improve communication, unify your board, and keep your HOA focused on long-term goals instead of daily chaos. We hope this conversation shows how to turn your community’s values into real results that foster connection, trust, and teamwork!Â
Chapters:
00:00 What is the purpose of an HOA’s mission and vision statements?
03:34 How do mission and vision statements complement governing documents?
05:40 What makes a vision statement aspirational and effective?
06:21 How does the mission statement become the roadmap to the vision?
07:21 Why should vision and mission guide community events and decisions?
09:45 How can HOAs shift from enforcing rules to fostering community?
11:27 What happens when a board develops these statements together?
14:30 How do mission and vision strengthen board cohesion and communication?18:58 Ad Break - Kevin Davis Insurance ServicesÂ
19:27 How can a board start creating mission and vision statements?
21:43 What simple exercises help smaller HOAs get started?
23:16 How can words and phrases shape your community’s identity?
25:05 Why should these statements evolve as your HOA changes?
27:31 How do you keep mission and vision language current and relevant?
29:06 Why are slogans not enough to define your HOA’s values?
30:17 Why shouldn’t attorneys facilitate this process?
31:23 Who can help guide your board through creating these statements?
32:03 Why do mission and vision statements bring clarity and cohesion to communities?
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):
The vision statement is not operational,
(00:01):
like pool hours, and you knowhow many employees we're gonna
have tonight, but it's it'saspirational, but I would say
most communities have some ideaof what they would like their
community to be, and maybe whatthey already are. I mean, so
they can bring that in. Butalso, where do we want to go?
Announcer (00:17):
HOA Insights is brought to you by five companies
that c (00:19):
Association Insights and Marketplace, Association
Reserves, Community Financials,Kevin Davis Insurance Services,
and the Inspectors of Election.
You'll find links to theirwebsite and social media in the
show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:32):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of Association
Reserves, and
Julie Adamen (00:35):
I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen Inc, and this is HOA
Insights, where we promotecommon sense
Robert Nordlund (00:40):
for common areas. Well, welcome to episode
132 where we're again speakingwith management consultant and
regular co host, Julie adamant.
Today we'll be diving intoanother pair of guiding
documents, actually vision andmission statements. You know
you're founding legal documentstelling you what to do, but now
we're going to spend a littlebit of time talking about the
important question of why, andwhat does that actually look
(01:03):
like when you have some guidingprinciples, and what those
guiding principles do for yourcommunity? Well, last week's
episode 131 featured a greatconversation with a Florida
attorney, Ms Marnie Dale Reagan,and she spoke specifically about
Florida legislation, but byextension, that applies to all
other states. But what Iappreciated was much of what she
(01:27):
had to say focused on boardmembers, not legislation. So
much of success at anassociation like you know, I
don't have to tell you, has todo with board member behavior.
And good board behavior comesfrom the individuals, not the
state's legislative demands. Soif you missed that episode or
any prior episode, take a momentafter today's program to listen
(01:48):
from our podcast website, Hoainsights.org, I can say that
blindfolded, or watch on ourYouTube channel, but better yet,
subscribe from any major podcastplatform so you don't have to
miss any future episodes. Andthose of you watching on YouTube
can see the HOA insights mugsthat got you have careful? Yes,
(02:08):
the
Julie Adamen (02:11):
merch? Yeah, no, actually have coffee in there.
You can see my lips, terrible,careful.
Robert Nordlund (02:15):
Both of us got that from our merch store, which
you can browse through from ourHoa insights.org website or the
link in our show notes, you'llfind we have some great free
stuff there, like the boardmember zoom backgrounds and some
specialty items for sale, likethe mugs you just saw. So go to
the merch store, download a freezoom background, take a moment,
look around, find the mug you'dlike and email me at podcast, at
(02:39):
reserve study.com with yourname, shipping address, mug
choice and mentioning episode132 mug giveaway, and if you're
the 10th person to email me,I'll ship that mug to you free
of charge. We enjoy hearing fromyou responding to the issues
you're facing at yourassociation. So if you have a
hot topic, crazy story, or aquestion you'd like us to
(03:01):
address. You can always contactus at 805-203-3130, or email us
at podcast at reserve. Study.comWell, today's program comes from
many questions listeners.
Listeners have asked wantingJulie to speak more about the
mission and vision statements.
She's mentioned many times onthe show. So Julie, tell me how
(03:25):
vision and mission statementscomplement an associations
governing documents, why they'revaluable and how they're used.
Julie Adamen (03:34):
They're incredibly valuable. Not only are they
useful day to day, once you havethis in have these statements in
place. But the actual process ofgetting too aboard developing
vision and mission statements isextremely important. So okay, so
first, let's talk about what isthe vision. The vision statement
should come first. The vision iswhat you want your community to
(03:57):
be, and it's always a it's anaspirational goal, like the best
community. We were just Robertand I were just talking the best
community in Calabasas,California to promote
inclusivity and, you know, atfreeway access or whatever it
is, but, but usually they'remore aspirational and less
practical, like that. I did onefor a large scale property down
(04:17):
in the Palm Springs area severalyears ago, and they ended up
being, they wanted to be thebest, you know, golf community
within the greater Palm Springsarea, promoting inclusivity, you
know, and camaraderie andfriendship, that type of thing,
which is a really great way tobe. And then we cut, that's
where you start. And then, well,
Robert Nordlund (04:36):
actually, that's interesting, because you
still had that's where you end,but you start to start with the
end in mind, I've heard thatsaid so many times, and so
you're thinking, Who are we? Andthat's all defined by your
ccnrs, not who are we, but yeah,the legal documents, yeah, what
are we? Are 71 units. This ishow many board members we have.
(05:00):
It. This is how elections are.
This is what common areas are.
Blah, careful. I know there'sattorneys listening, but blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, lot ofpages yet that doesn't say
what's inviting about us. What'sWhat are we trying to accomplish
here? What do we want to be?
Yeah, what do we want to become,and that can be so important, as
(05:21):
you're dealing with, I want tosay the minutia of running the
association. It's summertime.
What should our pool hours be?
They could be anything. But isthis why you look to a vision
statement to say, Okay, who dowe want to be? And everything
backs up into that,
Julie Adamen (05:40):
yes, the mission, the vision statement, is not
operational, like pool hours andyou know how many employees
we're gonna have, but it's, it'saspirational. Yes, who do we
want to be? Who do we want tobe? What do we want to be? Yes,
so it's not that defined thing,like your documents are, but I
would say most communities havesome idea of what they would
like their community to be andmaybe what they already are. I
(06:03):
mean, so they can bring that in.
But also, where do we want togo? I mean, what's the saying,
Robert, that you'll never,you'll never reach the moon,
unless you shoot for the starsand something like that. So you
want to get out there, right?
And then next you want to go onto the mission statement. Now,
Robert Nordlund (06:18):
sure, sure.
Well, yeah, I've got a lot ofthoughts, but we'll come back to
that. Give it, give us
Julie Adamen (06:21):
the framework here. So the mission statement
is what's considered the roadmapto the vision. So if you want to
be the most inclusive golfcommunity or whatever your
Association wants to be thethat's your vision. That's where
you want to be, and the missionstatement is how you're going to
get there. Let me see you hadone right here, Robert, I'm
going to look at it. Yes, here'sone that Robert put out. It's to
(06:43):
enhance our quality of life bymaintaining our common areas and
upholding our covenants,declarations and bylaws. As
representatives of thehomeowners, we will take an
ethical and objective approachin building community and
maintaining strong propertyvalues. That's quite good,
actually. Okay, and then so ifyour vision, though, that's
that's the roadmap to get whereyou want to be with the vision.
Now, Robert had put together avision as well, and I want to
(07:04):
say this is very aspirational.
It's great to build a truecommunity of friendly, caring
and respectful neighbors whocooperate with each other to
affirm and grow the value ofboth our property and our
friendships. Beautiful,aspirational statement. You're
going to get there through themission statement. Okay?
Robert Nordlund (07:21):
So if you have a vision statement that says, We
want to grow the value of bothour property and our
friendships, and that means thatwhen you come to budget time,
and I'm sensitive to this,you're going to set aside enough
money in reserves. And whenyou're thinking about what time
of year it is, we're recordingthis in the fall. So we are
thinking about, should we have aHalloween event? Should we have
(07:43):
a Thanksgiving event? Should wecelebrate decorating homes for
holidays? You know, if you wantto build friendships, then you
will do those things that leadto those friendships. Okay,
Julie Adamen (07:55):
if building friendships is one of your
things, you can have a veryactive social committee that for
sure, either wants to celebratethe holidays or they just want
to have a regular, you know,regular cocktail parties or
barbecues, whether it is like ablock party, that type of thing,
it just depends on where youwant to be and where you want to
go. Yeah.
Robert Nordlund (08:13):
And I was thinking it could be specific.
It could be the birthday for theassociation, yep. Could be, you
know, March or May 18 is whenour association came into being.
Julie Adamen (08:23):
It's big birthday party, exactly. Or, let's say
you're a community, and thereare so many of these now, who
everybody has dogs. Thecommunity I live in, we've got a
dog. Everybody has dogs. Theybuilt the dog. People built a
dog park. They paid for it.
You're especially I mean, I'm ina 55 and better community. So, I
mean, there's a lot of peoplehave their animals, and you know
what they do in the summertime,when there's not a lot of people
(08:46):
on the golf course because it'shot here in the summertime, they
have something called yappyhour. So the dog people can take
their dogs in a specific area onthe golf course. They'll bring
their own beverages, and theywill intermingle with each
other. Dogs are on a leash, butyou keep them you're out there
on the ground, and I don't knowabout your dog, but where I
live, I live out in the desert,so I don't have no lawn. And
(09:07):
none of the houses have lawn atall unless you put it in your in
the back, on your own, nothingin the front. So the dogs love
to roll around in the grass andso but you know, a yappy hour.
So that would be promotingfriendships. It would be
promoting, you know, responsibledog ownership. You know, not
just clean up after your dog allthe time and the rules and
regulations, but so it's, it'smore of a again, we're back to
(09:29):
the aspirational part of whatyou want for your community and
how you build that
Robert Nordlund (09:36):
interesting well, just the way you said it,
the rules are a lot of don'ts,and the mission could be a lot
of do's, this is what we do.
Julie Adamen (09:45):
Yes, this is what we do. It's not a don't. And,
you know, and I don't want tobag on associations for this,
because I've been in thisbusiness, Robert, I realized
it's been 40 years. I was saying30 something for forever, and I
realized it was 40. But, youknow, we are. Are, you're on the
board, or if you're in themanagement end of it. I was in
the management end of it. I'vealso sat on boards myself. We
(10:06):
are the no police, no parking,no pets. Pick up after your dog.
I mean, just on and on and on.
Bring your trash cans in, bringyour trash cans. And if not,
we're going to find you. If it'snot, I mean, and I understand
all that, because you have to beso think about that, that you
don't always want to be the nopolice. You're going to have to
be somewhere along the line. Butto be positive and give people
(10:27):
something positive to do, tobuild friendships, to socialize.
Like I said, the community I'min, there's so many clubs, you
wouldn't believe it if you ifyou're bored, you must want to
be bored. But of course, Iactually still have a job, so I
guess, I guess I'm not bored
Robert Nordlund (10:43):
bouncing around here got me thinking. I thought
I had this figured out. The thenthe vision is perhaps, what do
we want to be known
Julie Adamen (10:53):
for, even among yourselves, among yourselves,
yes, okay,
Robert Nordlund (10:57):
is that you leaked it right at the very
beginning. If you don't havethese kind of guiding thoughts,
the mission and visionstatement, then I expect it
would be very valuable for theboard to sit down and say, Well,
what do you value about ourassociation? Who are we? And
begin to create that. And thatwould be just fascinating, and I
(11:21):
would imagine that that wouldthen provide, can I say,
stability into the future? Well,
Julie Adamen (11:27):
hopefully, I mean, it's all a it's all a platform
for operations. That's reallywhat you're you're cementing
more of a platform foroperations. And any community
that has good operationalguidelines and aspirations, is
always going to be a more wellrun community. It's definitely
going to be easier for the boardto run, because we're all I'll
(11:48):
tell everybody what you and Italked about before I did this
with a large scale Association,and I was the facilitator. And
it's big. The place was big. Ithad golf and food and beverage
and just everything out inSouthern California. And this is
several years ago. Anyway, theywere complete dysfunctional
mess, and had been forever. Wefinally got some new board
members in there who wanted tochange things. They wanted to be
(12:09):
aspirational. They wanted to getthe old guard out which needed
to happen. And so anyway, I wastheir facilitator. We spent four
hours doing this go ahead
Robert Nordlund (12:18):
committees that needed to die or board members
that needed to cycle out
Julie Adamen (12:22):
the latter and the former, both all of the above.
Let me check those boxes,because it had been run by the
same people for many, manyyears. They had zero reserves,
and they were over 30 years oldout. So yeah, I know. Really.
Ouch. So this, these people werebigger thinkers, and they really
wanted to make things right. Soseven member board, one was a
crazy person, and so that didn'tcount. But one other person was
(12:46):
she's sorry. You all know youhave the crazy person. Don't
look at them.
Robert Nordlund (12:50):
One out of seven is actually, it's
Julie Adamen (12:54):
better than three out of seven. But anyway, and
another person, they thought shewas an enemy towards wanting to
do this, and she wasn't. By thetime we were done with this, we
did two days, four hours eachday. After four hours, you get
meeting fatigue. And so thefirst day, we did vision. And so
I'm facilitating. So I had a bigwhiteboard behind me and and I'd
(13:15):
say, Okay, what? Let's get throwsome words out there. What do
you want to do? What do you wantto be? And it just got Fast and
Furious, and it was inclusive.
It was you know, best. And theyhad all these wonderful
aspirational things, but by thetime we were done so vision was
first day, mission was secondday. By the time we were done
with the second day, they hadgotten to know each other so
(13:36):
well that the one woman theythought was an enemy they
realized was not that she wasactually quite an ally with some
very good skills. They all kneweach other so much better. And
as I had said earlier, what youhave to think of it is, is that
once you go through the processwas just as valuable as the
statements themselves. Once yougo through this kind of it's
(13:57):
kind of a therapy session too.
But once you go through thisprocess, the board is more
cohesive, and they all had amuch better idea about each
other. So they may not all besinging from the exact same
hymnal, but they are all sittingin the same pew or really close.
And before they were not, theywere all outside the chapel. I
(14:17):
mean, then in their own worlds,yeah, and then they weren't. It
was hugely valuable to thatassociation being able to
weather some storms that came atthem within that year. And they
did. They did a stellar job.
Just stellar.
Robert Nordlund (14:30):
Julie, we've spoken so many times about, or
you've spoken so many timesabout communication and building
community, and Kevin Davis talksabout lowering the temperature,
and I think without vision andmission statement, we have
individuals just like you said.
I volunteer for the board. I'mon the board, and they may have
their agenda, but once theassociation is more defined as
(14:51):
who we are, then all of asudden, does that help you
become a team? Does that helpyou be. Well, I'm thinking
absolutely in football, theraiders were known for being the
Raiders, and it was no surprisethat they were often the most
penalized team in football. Butno one's surprised. That's the
Raiders. You have. You buildyour own reputation, and you
(15:15):
become that becomes yourculture. And I would think that
would just help not necessarilybe the most penalized and be
known for being knock on, no no,but have that definition of who
we are and you it just guides.
It's how you
Julie Adamen (15:33):
go, absolutely what it does. It creates the
team. Why? Because everyone whowe had our guiding words, we
came up with the actualstatements. By the end of the
second day, everyone was theyall got to know each other
better. They felt they were partof a team. And even though they
are individuals, they had acommon purpose and a common
(15:53):
goal. It is just like a footballteam, or it's like any kind of
team sport, or it's or it's likea good, you know, a couple, if
they are both going towards thesame thing, husband, wife,
they're going towards the samething, family will be more
harmonious. It's no differentthan with an HOA board. There's
just more people in the mix. Ialways call this business,
whether you're on the board orin management or whatever, it's
(16:15):
life on the bomb squad, becausethings can be going swimmingly
and boom, everything blows upbecause you can't see it coming.
But why is that? Because all weare are people, and it's people,
people, people. That's what wedeal with it. It's like I say, I
can teach anyone how to get thelawns mode. It's the heart. And
I truly believe. I've lived it.
I've seen it. I helped developit with boards. Is that they can
(16:36):
go from dysfunctional seven,eight people or nine people to a
much more cohesive group readyto go forward, and they may not
all agree. Well, they're neverall going to agree. No one's
ever going to agree. What's whatis it? If you if everyone's
agreeing, someone's not, what isthat? If we're all thinking the
same, someone's not thinking,Yes, that's right. But these
types of exercises and thesetypes of statements will help
(17:00):
people. When they're on theboard and they disagree and they
want to vote, no, they don'tjust make a big stink of it
afterwards. They'll just say,well, I voted, someone will come
up say, why did we do that? Andsay, Well, I voted against it,
but we're doing it, so we'removing forward and we're do it
as well as we can, whatever thatis. So people are much more
likely to, oh, this is thewords. They have buy in. They
(17:21):
have buy in to the board. Theyhave buy in to the community as
not just as a physical entity,but as an ethereal entity, but
an aspirational thing of how itwants, how the community wants
to think of itself, and how youas a member of that community,
want to think of the place youlive. How do you think of that?
How do you think of the placeyou live? Yeah.
Robert Nordlund (17:43):
Why did I buy here? Why? Yeah. What keeps me
here? Exactly. Why am I notselling? I like the idea. It
promotes, well, you use the wordcohesion. There's alignment,
there's a common thread. Allthese kinds of things that help,
not just the board as they'rethinking, you know, when we get
down to the details of what'sthe budget going to be, or the
pool hours going to be, if youhave a golf course, what are we
(18:05):
going to set the Greens fees at,to be inviting towards the
outside, public? Or do we wantto be mostly kind of us private,
whatever it is, it will guideall those kinds of decisions
when you know, what are wetrying to accomplish here?
Exactly? Exactly? Are we tryingto have it be the most popular
golf course? Well, if it's goingto be the most popular golf
(18:25):
course in your city, then theGreens fees need to go down to
get more more rounds, all thosekinds of things. And so having
this thing at the top, thevision that allows you to know
where are we headed. And I wrotedown vision casting because it
is that that's aspirational atthis point in time. Let's take a
(18:49):
break, quick break here from oneof our general sponsors, after
which we'll be back with morecommon sense for common areas,
and we'll talk about actuallycreating these things.
Kevin Davis (18:58):
Hi. I'm Kevin Davis, the president of Kevin
Davis insurance services, ourexperienced team of underwriters
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(19:21):
association clients. We are yourcommunity association insurance
experts,
Robert Nordlund (19:27):
and we're back.
Well, Julie, we had a lot of funtalking about what they were,
and let's talk to the boardmembers here who are listening
and saying, Wow, that soundsgood. And they're thinking, and
I hope they're not driving andtrying to jot down ideas, but
this would be good at ourassociation. And we want you
thinking that this would be goodat your association. But how do
they start?
Julie Adamen (19:49):
Well, you start at the beginning, and I think the
first thing is to decide, andoften this will be a budget
item, maybe, or it's if youthink you have someone who can
do it is to i. I reallyencourage a facilitator, a
disinterested third party, notto offend the lawyers out there.
However, lawyers typically don'tdo this particularly well, and I
(20:10):
know that's often the firstperson they think of. So they'd
be your lawyer. I wouldn't dothat. I would have definitely a
consultant. I mean, I do it. Imean, there are some other
consultants around that do it.
But can your manager do it? Iwould say no. If you have an on
site manager or a manager with amanagement company, no, the on
site manager, though, should bea part of this process, so maybe
not to have direct input, butthey should see how the board
(20:32):
interacts within this. If youhave a site manager, I highly
suggest that. But yes, shouldyou get a facilitator? Yes, it's
it's well worth the cost. Now,if your association is small and
you can't afford it, you know,maybe your board chair, maybe
that person can do it. Ifthey're a good leader, they
might be able to do it, but ifthey need help with it, you can
go online and find all kinds ofresources for doing these types
(20:53):
of exercises. So yes, that'sfirst is who should do it, the
board, but the board has to comeup with it, set specific time,
turn the phones off, don't meetfor longer than four hours,
because after that, you havemeeting fatigue, and nothing
good comes after four hours.
It's like nothing good comesafter
Robert Nordlund (21:08):
midnight. Okay?
Starting small, yeah, I'mthinking about the place where I
got started in this business, 71units, condominium. We had
monthly board meetings. Theboard members and I, we would
talk, we would prepare for thenext board meeting. What are the
issues? What's the paperwork?
You know, getting thingstogether. Could this be
something where you just say,Hey, can we meet for lunch on
(21:31):
Saturday? Can we meet for dinneron Saturday and budget 100
bucks, couple 100 bucks fordinner, whatever it is. Can you
start small and say, Hey, let'snot talk about business. Let's
talk about who
Julie Adamen (21:43):
we are. Yes, it can be as simple as that,
especially it's probably a goodplace for smaller associations
to do this, because, first ofall, it costs them the dinner or
whatever. That's not a big deal,but it's good. And I would if
there is a person withintypically, it'd be the chair out
there, the chair of the meat ofthe board that would be a good
person to to lead this, becauseyou are supposed to be the
(22:05):
leader to lead this. Let's talkabout why we should have a
vision statement. I've beenthinking about this, and I'm
thinking, this is podcast, yeah,sorry about it. That amazing
podcast. That's right, yeah. SoI think it would be a very good
idea start there, and then, youknow, again, Robert, how do we
eat the elephant? One bite at atime, one bite at a time, start
there and then go from there.
See, I mean, if you're not goingto get buy in from the rest of
(22:27):
the board, this may not be theboard that's going to put this
through.
Robert Nordlund (22:32):
It may need to be another year with a little
more dynamic, some change ofboard members. But boy, I'm just
thinking to talk about who weare, what is our association,
where we want to be, becauseyou're if, when you get stuck in
all the minutia of all thelittle decisions, you're not
lifting your head up and saying,Okay, where are we going?
Julie Adamen (22:52):
You got to stop digging the ditch to see where
you're going. And that's exactlyand I know we all feel like
we're digging ditches when we'reon a board
Robert Nordlund (22:59):
well, and you said the bomb squad. One problem
to another problem. Can you jotdown a few sentences? Does it
start? Is it as simple as that?
You talked about a whiteboard.
But can it be someone takingnotes and, oh, that was good.
And to start just compiling afew things?
Julie Adamen (23:16):
Yeah, I think you can do that. It's, let's just
say, let's just say, let's justtake the smaller Association,
like we started with 71 units,and let's just say they had
their dinner and they'rethinking, oh boy, that might be
a good thing to talk about. Youknow, we should do this. If the
board is have buy into it. Youcould just tell everyone, hey,
you know, well, let's have aninformal meeting in two weeks at
my house, and we'll have wineand cheese or whatever. And
(23:38):
would everyone just jot downsome phrases or some catch or
how about catch phrases or wordsthat mean that you would think
apply to this community, likeinclusive, friendly, welcoming
of families, or whatever definesyour community. I mean, see, for
where I live, it's, it's anactive adult. And I mean
(23:59):
seriously, active adult. Youwould not be in here if you
didn't have this. So it wouldbe, it would be geared more
towards that type of thing, andalso places where people can
live comfortably until theycan't, you know, or they pass
it. So it's all of those kind ofthings. And then, you know, lay
them all out, put them to you.
Can run them through AI and haveit that take have it all put out
for you, so you get all theselittle disparate information,
(24:22):
where would be vision, wherewould be mission, and you can
have aI run that for you, so itwould be interesting, just a
little easier. Oh, sure, youcould upload that kind of stuff.
Robert Nordlund (24:32):
Yes, I was just thinking back on some of the
board heroes that we'veinterviewed, some of the things
that they were saying theybought into their association
because it was affordable. Theywere a single mom at the time.
We've had others say that theywere attracted by the landscape,
just it was so easy on theireyes looking out the window. We
(24:52):
had another that liked itbecause it was on the beach, and
they just strolled with theirdog on the beach every day. So
what does that bring to you? I.
The beach access, the pleasantenvironment. What? Yeah, just
those are the kind of wordsyou're
Julie Adamen (25:05):
exactly calming.
The beach access. I justthought, Oh, that'd be so
calming. Just so wonderful, youknow? So, yeah, it's all those
type of things. So start fromthere, and then I think you just
move from that, but you startwith the vision. Use those words
and get what your aspiration is,what you want to be and viewed
as by not just outsiders, but bythe community itself. And then
(25:25):
from there is the missionstatement, which is, how do we
get there? We get there by, youknow, budgeting our money
correctly, or whatever. It's alittle more operational, but not
totally.
Robert Nordlund (25:36):
I'm wondering if that may be good stuff to
know, so that when you areinterviewing for a new
management company, you can say,This is who we are, and we like
to know what our numbers are,sound, financial footing, data,
and all of a sudden themanagement company means, oh,
wow, yeah, okay, for this place,we got to have our numbers there
(25:58):
by the 10th of each month ofwhatever it is. What about the
value for the real estate agentswho sell homes in your
association? Is it somethingthat you would communicate to
them so they know
Julie Adamen (26:11):
what you're about?
I don't think that's a bad ideaat all. I hadn't really thought
of that. But, you know, thatcould go out, right out with any
escrow package that isdownloaded, you know, there's
typically, you know, it's apackage. Obviously, it's a PDF,
but that could be right on thefront, you know, the vision
mission statement. This is wherewe are. This is what we are.
This is where we want to go.
And, you know, Robert, thatreminds me I was and when I've
talked to boards about thispreviously, they're like, oh,
(26:34):
man, I don't want to be stuck tothis. What if it doesn't work
anymore? Well, fear not people.
You can change this yearly, ifyou want to, because over a
period of time, your communityis going to change, your
residents are going to change.
And what fit 10 years agoprobably doesn't fit now. And
you know, let's redo it, becauseyou've had such a turnover in
your homeowners, turnover inboard members. What was you may
(26:58):
have already achieved the visionstatement. So where do we want
to go next? Yeah, so you're notmarried to it. You may change it
as the situation warrants. Andhonestly, I encourage new boards
to I could say maybe you've hada five member board, and three
or four are brand new to theboard. It's really good to go
through this exercise reviewyour current vision and mission
(27:19):
statements and say, Hmm, do youthink these are still relevant
to us? And let that board gothrough that exercise as well.
Because, again, we're disparatepeople, but now we have a common
goal, common mission.
Robert Nordlund (27:31):
Yeah. Okay, so you can, well, one thing I'm
thinking is not necessarilychange the essence of it, but I
was thinking back at theassociation where I first bought
into I was thinking they were alot of people there from
different backgrounds, and thatmay have been what we said. But
now, nowadays, maybe you sayinclusivity, you know, just
(27:52):
different words, modern. Like,there's some associations that
update their entryway sign justto make it look a little
fresher, fresh. Yeah, fresh. Andmaybe you need to freshen up the
words exactly.
Julie Adamen (28:05):
It's like, like, was we were we talked about this
right before we got on the air.
Is that, you know, it was amelting pot. The place you lived
was like a melting pot. Well,now, okay, that would be great
in the 80s or 90s, but you startthinking today, it's inclusive.
That's where, that's our generalbuzzword for that type of thing.
Now,
Robert Nordlund (28:23):
yeah, and you don't want something dating you.
You want something especiallythe the vision that is guiding
you forward. You don't want itslowing you down. Okay, how we
how long? How short Is it aslogan? Is it few sentences? Is
it a
Julie Adamen (28:40):
paragraph? It can be any one of those. But I would
say no slogans. I don't likewhat is the slogan you came up
with? Robert Oh, a place to callhome, place to call home. Well,
that's really good, but that'sjust a slogan. So, okay, it's
places. Yeah, I
Robert Nordlund (28:54):
say that. That maybe that goes on your entryway
sign. Happy Valley villas, aplace to call home, you know,
fine, that's on your side.
That's not necessarily theessence of where you're going or
how you're getting
Julie Adamen (29:06):
there. If you're just using a slogan, you're
missing the point of the wholeexercise and the whole purpose
of it, because the slogan isjust something that rolls off
your tongue and you're done withit because you don't think
anything about it. But when youstart talking about being the,
you know, the diverse andinclusive community in the
greater San Diego area, orwhatever, you know, in the gray
(29:26):
area, by promoting, you know,whatever, fiscal responsibility,
blah, blah, blah, all thesethings you have is that actually
means something, slogans, theyjust go right off. People don't
think about it. And lazy, sorry,yeah.
Robert Nordlund (29:39):
And it, I suppose it could be reactionary.
If your association was, I hateto say this mismanaged. The
board was stuck in their waysand moved the association
sideways. Maybe it's thatmission statement that says we
will be financially accountableto our owners. We will be.
(30:00):
Transparent. We will whatever itis, and you can start to say
we're going to run this place alittle bit better than it was in
the past, and that can be theway forward that they get to who
they want, division
Julie Adamen (30:12):
and a new mission.
Yes, exactly, because things dochange. Nothing is static, okay?
Robert Nordlund (30:17):
And that made me think maybe that's another
reason. And again, no offense tonot have an attorney, because
the attorney knows what thedocuments say. And, you know,
Hey, folks don't do that. Dowhat the documents say. And I'm
thinking, what we're talkingabout here is, who do we want to
be, and it's more flexible thana maybe the mind view of the
(30:38):
average attorney. Well,
Julie Adamen (30:39):
yes, and it's honestly, it's not their
training. I mean, attorneys aretypically there. They know they
are. They're process people,right? And so though this is a
process, but it's not. It's notan aspirational thing. It's some
it takes someone to kind of herdthe cats of the board, getting
towards this and making thatdecision for or helping them
make those decisions. Attorneysare kind of loath to help you
(30:59):
make those decisions, other thangiving you the advice on this
contract or that contract, I'mnot saying I would do this. It's
here's the pros and cons here,here's the pros and cons there.
You decide that's more of whatthey
Robert Nordlund (31:12):
do. What about a former board member
facilitating the discussion,someone who's familiar with the
Association, but who has handedit off and said, these are some
of the things we valued in thepast,
Julie Adamen (31:23):
if they are certainly amenable. My only
caution on that is if it's aboard member that you know was
like, oh, is well, we did itmuch better back in the days,
and this is what we valued. Andyou don't caution, caution, but
it can't be if they not, notthose people now, and don't look
at them if it's someone who isamenable to this, who might have
a skill set in doing this and isa trusted member of the
(31:44):
community, maybe they're on acommittee now, or whatever.
That's not a problem, as long asyou can find somebody to do
Robert Nordlund (31:50):
it. Yeah, I like that. Well, Julie, this has
just been fascinating, more sothan I expected. I hope it's
been tremendously valuable toall of our listeners here today,
any closing thoughts to add atthis time?
Julie Adamen (32:03):
Whenever I go out and do a speaking gig, and I've
got a whole bunch of boardmembers in there, I always ask
them, How many of you have avision and mission statement?
And like, out of 300 people,like three arms will go up, and
I know why it is. It's just onemore thing you have to do. And I
have to say, I used to thinkthat too. I thought, Oh, my God,
that's another BS exercise wehave to do. But the point is
(32:25):
bring, especially for a boardthat is all new members, or a
lot of new members, or maybe hasa lack of cohesion. That is the
point of the exercise. And theoutcome actually having vision
and mission these platforms foroperation and guiding principles
that there's nothing wrong withthat. I think everyone can agree
(32:47):
with that. Well, I think weshould have guiding principles.
We all think that our communityshould have a solid platform of
operations. Vision and missionare right there as a part of it,
along with governing documentsas well. Do a vision and mission
become part of the governingdocuments. No, not really, no,
not, not in a legal sense atall, but it is a guiding Prince.
(33:08):
There are guiding principles andgoals, and I would say that's
equally as important, if notmore.
Robert Nordlund (33:16):
Yeah, clarity, community, communication. Those
kinds of things that cohesion,cohesion. For those of you who
aren't watching, I'm writing allthis down. It'll be in the show
notes. Julie, good stuff. Okay,well, well, we hope you learned
some HOA insights from ourdiscussion today that helps you
(33:36):
bring common sense, clarity,community cohesion, things like
that, to your common areas.
Thank you for joining us today.
We look forward to bringing manymore episodes to you, week after
week after week. We'll be here.
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The vision statement is not operational,
(00:01):
like pool hours, and you knowhow many employees we're gonna
have tonight, but it's it'saspirational, but I would say
most communities have some ideaof what they would like their
community to be, and maybe whatthey already are. I mean, so
they can bring that in. Butalso, where do we want to go?
Announcer (00:17):
HOA Insights is brought to you by five companies
that c (00:19):
Association Insights and Marketplace, Association
Reserves, Community Financials,Kevin Davis Insurance Services,
and the Inspectors of Election.
You'll find links to theirwebsite and social media in the
show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:32):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of Association
Reserves, and
Julie Adamen (00:35):
I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen Inc, and this is HOA
Insights, where we promotecommon sense
Robert Nordlund (00:40):
for common areas. Well, welcome to episode
132 where we're again speakingwith management consultant and
regular co host, Julie adamant.
Today we'll be diving intoanother pair of guiding
documents, actually vision andmission statements. You know
you're founding legal documentstelling you what to do, but now
we're going to spend a littlebit of time talking about the
important question of why, andwhat does that actually look
(01:03):
like when you have some guidingprinciples, and what those
guiding principles do for yourcommunity? Well, last week's
episode 131 featured a greatconversation with a Florida
attorney, Ms Marnie Dale Reagan,and she spoke specifically about
Florida legislation, but byextension, that applies to all
other states. But what Iappreciated was much of what she
(01:27):
had to say focused on boardmembers, not legislation. So
much of success at anassociation like you know, I
don't have to tell you, has todo with board member behavior.
And good board behavior comesfrom the individuals, not the
state's legislative demands. Soif you missed that episode or
any prior episode, take a momentafter today's program to listen
(01:48):
from our podcast website, Hoainsights.org, I can say that
blindfolded, or watch on ourYouTube channel, but better yet,
subscribe from any major podcastplatform so you don't have to
miss any future episodes. Andthose of you watching on YouTube
can see the HOA insights mugsthat got you have careful? Yes,
(02:08):
the
Julie Adamen (02:11):
merch? Yeah, no, actually have coffee in there.
You can see my lips, terrible,careful.
Robert Nordlund (02:15):
Both of us got that from our merch store, which
you can browse through from ourHoa insights.org website or the
link in our show notes, you'llfind we have some great free
stuff there, like the boardmember zoom backgrounds and some
specialty items for sale, likethe mugs you just saw. So go to
the merch store, download a freezoom background, take a moment,
look around, find the mug you'dlike and email me at podcast, at
(02:39):
reserve study.com with yourname, shipping address, mug
choice and mentioning episode132 mug giveaway, and if you're
the 10th person to email me,I'll ship that mug to you free
of charge. We enjoy hearing fromyou responding to the issues
you're facing at yourassociation. So if you have a
hot topic, crazy story, or aquestion you'd like us to
(03:01):
address. You can always contactus at 805-203-3130, or email us
at podcast at reserve. Study.comWell, today's program comes from
many questions listeners.
Listeners have asked wantingJulie to speak more about the
mission and vision statements.
She's mentioned many times onthe show. So Julie, tell me how
(03:25):
vision and mission statementscomplement an associations
governing documents, why they'revaluable and how they're used.
Julie Adamen (03:34):
They're incredibly valuable. Not only are they
useful day to day, once you havethis in have these statements in
place. But the actual process ofgetting too aboard developing
vision and mission statements isextremely important. So okay, so
first, let's talk about what isthe vision. The vision statement
should come first. The vision iswhat you want your community to
(03:57):
be, and it's always a it's anaspirational goal, like the best
community. We were just Robertand I were just talking the best
community in Calabasas,California to promote
inclusivity and, you know, atfreeway access or whatever it
is, but, but usually they'remore aspirational and less
practical, like that. I did onefor a large scale property down
(04:17):
in the Palm Springs area severalyears ago, and they ended up
being, they wanted to be thebest, you know, golf community
within the greater Palm Springsarea, promoting inclusivity, you
know, and camaraderie andfriendship, that type of thing,
which is a really great way tobe. And then we cut, that's
where you start. And then, well,
Robert Nordlund (04:36):
actually, that's interesting, because you
still had that's where you end,but you start to start with the
end in mind, I've heard thatsaid so many times, and so
you're thinking, Who are we? Andthat's all defined by your
ccnrs, not who are we, but yeah,the legal documents, yeah, what
are we? Are 71 units. This ishow many board members we have.
(05:00):
It. This is how elections are.
This is what common areas are.
Blah, careful. I know there'sattorneys listening, but blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, lot ofpages yet that doesn't say
what's inviting about us. What'sWhat are we trying to accomplish
here? What do we want to be?
Yeah, what do we want to become,and that can be so important, as
(05:21):
you're dealing with, I want tosay the minutia of running the
association. It's summertime.
What should our pool hours be?
They could be anything. But isthis why you look to a vision
statement to say, Okay, who dowe want to be? And everything
backs up into that,
Julie Adamen (05:40):
yes, the mission, the vision statement, is not
operational, like pool hours andyou know how many employees
we're gonna have, but it's, it'saspirational. Yes, who do we
want to be? Who do we want tobe? What do we want to be? Yes,
so it's not that defined thing,like your documents are, but I
would say most communities havesome idea of what they would
like their community to be andmaybe what they already are. I
(06:03):
mean, so they can bring that in.
But also, where do we want togo? I mean, what's the saying,
Robert, that you'll never,you'll never reach the moon,
unless you shoot for the starsand something like that. So you
want to get out there, right?
And then next you want to go onto the mission statement. Now,
Robert Nordlund (06:18):
sure, sure.
Well, yeah, I've got a lot ofthoughts, but we'll come back to
that. Give it, give us
Julie Adamen (06:21):
the framework here. So the mission statement
is what's considered the roadmapto the vision. So if you want to
be the most inclusive golfcommunity or whatever your
Association wants to be thethat's your vision. That's where
you want to be, and the missionstatement is how you're going to
get there. Let me see you hadone right here, Robert, I'm
going to look at it. Yes, here'sone that Robert put out. It's to
(06:43):
enhance our quality of life bymaintaining our common areas and
upholding our covenants,declarations and bylaws. As
representatives of thehomeowners, we will take an
ethical and objective approachin building community and
maintaining strong propertyvalues. That's quite good,
actually. Okay, and then so ifyour vision, though, that's
that's the roadmap to get whereyou want to be with the vision.
Now, Robert had put together avision as well, and I want to
(07:04):
say this is very aspirational.
It's great to build a truecommunity of friendly, caring
and respectful neighbors whocooperate with each other to
affirm and grow the value ofboth our property and our
friendships. Beautiful,aspirational statement. You're
going to get there through themission statement. Okay?
Robert Nordlund (07:21):
So if you have a vision statement that says, We
want to grow the value of bothour property and our
friendships, and that means thatwhen you come to budget time,
and I'm sensitive to this,you're going to set aside enough
money in reserves. And whenyou're thinking about what time
of year it is, we're recordingthis in the fall. So we are
thinking about, should we have aHalloween event? Should we have
(07:43):
a Thanksgiving event? Should wecelebrate decorating homes for
holidays? You know, if you wantto build friendships, then you
will do those things that leadto those friendships. Okay,
Julie Adamen (07:55):
if building friendships is one of your
things, you can have a veryactive social committee that for
sure, either wants to celebratethe holidays or they just want
to have a regular, you know,regular cocktail parties or
barbecues, whether it is like ablock party, that type of thing,
it just depends on where youwant to be and where you want to
go. Yeah.
Robert Nordlund (08:13):
And I was thinking it could be specific.
It could be the birthday for theassociation, yep. Could be, you
know, March or May 18 is whenour association came into being.
Julie Adamen (08:23):
It's big birthday party, exactly. Or, let's say
you're a community, and thereare so many of these now, who
everybody has dogs. Thecommunity I live in, we've got a
dog. Everybody has dogs. Theybuilt the dog. People built a
dog park. They paid for it.
You're especially I mean, I'm ina 55 and better community. So, I
mean, there's a lot of peoplehave their animals, and you know
what they do in the summertime,when there's not a lot of people
(08:46):
on the golf course because it'shot here in the summertime, they
have something called yappyhour. So the dog people can take
their dogs in a specific area onthe golf course. They'll bring
their own beverages, and theywill intermingle with each
other. Dogs are on a leash, butyou keep them you're out there
on the ground, and I don't knowabout your dog, but where I
live, I live out in the desert,so I don't have no lawn. And
(09:07):
none of the houses have lawn atall unless you put it in your in
the back, on your own, nothingin the front. So the dogs love
to roll around in the grass andso but you know, a yappy hour.
So that would be promotingfriendships. It would be
promoting, you know, responsibledog ownership. You know, not
just clean up after your dog allthe time and the rules and
regulations, but so it's, it'smore of a again, we're back to
(09:29):
the aspirational part of whatyou want for your community and
how you build that
Robert Nordlund (09:36):
interesting well, just the way you said it,
the rules are a lot of don'ts,and the mission could be a lot
of do's, this is what we do.
Julie Adamen (09:45):
Yes, this is what we do. It's not a don't. And,
you know, and I don't want tobag on associations for this,
because I've been in thisbusiness, Robert, I realized
it's been 40 years. I was saying30 something for forever, and I
realized it was 40. But, youknow, we are. Are, you're on the
board, or if you're in themanagement end of it. I was in
the management end of it. I'vealso sat on boards myself. We
(10:06):
are the no police, no parking,no pets. Pick up after your dog.
I mean, just on and on and on.
Bring your trash cans in, bringyour trash cans. And if not,
we're going to find you. If it'snot, I mean, and I understand
all that, because you have to beso think about that, that you
don't always want to be the nopolice. You're going to have to
be somewhere along the line. Butto be positive and give people
(10:27):
something positive to do, tobuild friendships, to socialize.
Like I said, the community I'min, there's so many clubs, you
wouldn't believe it if you ifyou're bored, you must want to
be bored. But of course, Iactually still have a job, so I
guess, I guess I'm not bored
Robert Nordlund (10:43):
bouncing around here got me thinking. I thought
I had this figured out. The thenthe vision is perhaps, what do
we want to be known
Julie Adamen (10:53):
for, even among yourselves, among yourselves,
yes, okay,
Robert Nordlund (10:57):
is that you leaked it right at the very
beginning. If you don't havethese kind of guiding thoughts,
the mission and visionstatement, then I expect it
would be very valuable for theboard to sit down and say, Well,
what do you value about ourassociation? Who are we? And
begin to create that. And thatwould be just fascinating, and I
(11:21):
would imagine that that wouldthen provide, can I say,
stability into the future? Well,
Julie Adamen (11:27):
hopefully, I mean, it's all a it's all a platform
for operations. That's reallywhat you're you're cementing
more of a platform foroperations. And any community
that has good operationalguidelines and aspirations, is
always going to be a more wellrun community. It's definitely
going to be easier for the boardto run, because we're all I'll
(11:48):
tell everybody what you and Italked about before I did this
with a large scale Association,and I was the facilitator. And
it's big. The place was big. Ithad golf and food and beverage
and just everything out inSouthern California. And this is
several years ago. Anyway, theywere complete dysfunctional
mess, and had been forever. Wefinally got some new board
members in there who wanted tochange things. They wanted to be
(12:09):
aspirational. They wanted to getthe old guard out which needed
to happen. And so anyway, I wastheir facilitator. We spent four
hours doing this go ahead
Robert Nordlund (12:18):
committees that needed to die or board members
that needed to cycle out
Julie Adamen (12:22):
the latter and the former, both all of the above.
Let me check those boxes,because it had been run by the
same people for many, manyyears. They had zero reserves,
and they were over 30 years oldout. So yeah, I know. Really.
Ouch. So this, these people werebigger thinkers, and they really
wanted to make things right. Soseven member board, one was a
crazy person, and so that didn'tcount. But one other person was
(12:46):
she's sorry. You all know youhave the crazy person. Don't
look at them.
Robert Nordlund (12:50):
One out of seven is actually, it's
Julie Adamen (12:54):
better than three out of seven. But anyway, and
another person, they thought shewas an enemy towards wanting to
do this, and she wasn't. By thetime we were done with this, we
did two days, four hours eachday. After four hours, you get
meeting fatigue. And so thefirst day, we did vision. And so
I'm facilitating. So I had a bigwhiteboard behind me and and I'd
(13:15):
say, Okay, what? Let's get throwsome words out there. What do
you want to do? What do you wantto be? And it just got Fast and
Furious, and it was inclusive.
It was you know, best. And theyhad all these wonderful
aspirational things, but by thetime we were done so vision was
first day, mission was secondday. By the time we were done
with the second day, they hadgotten to know each other so
(13:36):
well that the one woman theythought was an enemy they
realized was not that she wasactually quite an ally with some
very good skills. They all kneweach other so much better. And
as I had said earlier, what youhave to think of it is, is that
once you go through the processwas just as valuable as the
statements themselves. Once yougo through this kind of it's
(13:57):
kind of a therapy session too.
But once you go through thisprocess, the board is more
cohesive, and they all had amuch better idea about each
other. So they may not all besinging from the exact same
hymnal, but they are all sittingin the same pew or really close.
And before they were not, theywere all outside the chapel. I
(14:17):
mean, then in their own worlds,yeah, and then they weren't. It
was hugely valuable to thatassociation being able to
weather some storms that came atthem within that year. And they
did. They did a stellar job.
Just stellar.
Robert Nordlund (14:30):
Julie, we've spoken so many times about, or
you've spoken so many timesabout communication and building
community, and Kevin Davis talksabout lowering the temperature,
and I think without vision andmission statement, we have
individuals just like you said.
I volunteer for the board. I'mon the board, and they may have
their agenda, but once theassociation is more defined as
(14:51):
who we are, then all of asudden, does that help you
become a team? Does that helpyou be. Well, I'm thinking
absolutely in football, theraiders were known for being the
Raiders, and it was no surprisethat they were often the most
penalized team in football. Butno one's surprised. That's the
Raiders. You have. You buildyour own reputation, and you
(15:15):
become that becomes yourculture. And I would think that
would just help not necessarilybe the most penalized and be
known for being knock on, no no,but have that definition of who
we are and you it just guides.
It's how you
Julie Adamen (15:33):
go, absolutely what it does. It creates the
team. Why? Because everyone whowe had our guiding words, we
came up with the actualstatements. By the end of the
second day, everyone was theyall got to know each other
better. They felt they were partof a team. And even though they
are individuals, they had acommon purpose and a common
(15:53):
goal. It is just like a footballteam, or it's like any kind of
team sport, or it's or it's likea good, you know, a couple, if
they are both going towards thesame thing, husband, wife,
they're going towards the samething, family will be more
harmonious. It's no differentthan with an HOA board. There's
just more people in the mix. Ialways call this business,
whether you're on the board orin management or whatever, it's
(16:15):
life on the bomb squad, becausethings can be going swimmingly
and boom, everything blows upbecause you can't see it coming.
But why is that? Because all weare are people, and it's people,
people, people. That's what wedeal with it. It's like I say, I
can teach anyone how to get thelawns mode. It's the heart. And
I truly believe. I've lived it.
I've seen it. I helped developit with boards. Is that they can
(16:36):
go from dysfunctional seven,eight people or nine people to a
much more cohesive group readyto go forward, and they may not
all agree. Well, they're neverall going to agree. No one's
ever going to agree. What's whatis it? If you if everyone's
agreeing, someone's not, what isthat? If we're all thinking the
same, someone's not thinking,Yes, that's right. But these
types of exercises and thesetypes of statements will help
(17:00):
people. When they're on theboard and they disagree and they
want to vote, no, they don'tjust make a big stink of it
afterwards. They'll just say,well, I voted, someone will come
up say, why did we do that? Andsay, Well, I voted against it,
but we're doing it, so we'removing forward and we're do it
as well as we can, whatever thatis. So people are much more
likely to, oh, this is thewords. They have buy in. They
(17:21):
have buy in to the board. Theyhave buy in to the community as
not just as a physical entity,but as an ethereal entity, but
an aspirational thing of how itwants, how the community wants
to think of itself, and how youas a member of that community,
want to think of the place youlive. How do you think of that?
How do you think of the placeyou live? Yeah.
Robert Nordlund (17:43):
Why did I buy here? Why? Yeah. What keeps me
here? Exactly. Why am I notselling? I like the idea. It
promotes, well, you use the wordcohesion. There's alignment,
there's a common thread. Allthese kinds of things that help,
not just the board as they'rethinking, you know, when we get
down to the details of what'sthe budget going to be, or the
pool hours going to be, if youhave a golf course, what are we
(18:05):
going to set the Greens fees at,to be inviting towards the
outside, public? Or do we wantto be mostly kind of us private,
whatever it is, it will guideall those kinds of decisions
when you know, what are wetrying to accomplish here?
Exactly? Exactly? Are we tryingto have it be the most popular
golf course? Well, if it's goingto be the most popular golf
(18:25):
course in your city, then theGreens fees need to go down to
get more more rounds, all thosekinds of things. And so having
this thing at the top, thevision that allows you to know
where are we headed. And I wrotedown vision casting because it
is that that's aspirational atthis point in time. Let's take a
(18:49):
break, quick break here from oneof our general sponsors, after
which we'll be back with morecommon sense for common areas,
and we'll talk about actuallycreating these things.
Kevin Davis (18:58):
Hi. I'm Kevin Davis, the president of Kevin
Davis insurance services, ourexperienced team of underwriters
will help you when you get thatdeclination. We provide the
voice of reason, someone whowill stand by you. Our
underwriters bring years ofknowledge to our clients that
can't be automated by technologyor driven by price. As a proud
and women's company, we bringtrue value to your community
(19:21):
association clients. We are yourcommunity association insurance
experts,
Robert Nordlund (19:27):
and we're back.
Well, Julie, we had a lot of funtalking about what they were,
and let's talk to the boardmembers here who are listening
and saying, Wow, that soundsgood. And they're thinking, and
I hope they're not driving andtrying to jot down ideas, but
this would be good at ourassociation. And we want you
thinking that this would be goodat your association. But how do
they start?
Julie Adamen (19:49):
Well, you start at the beginning, and I think the
first thing is to decide, andoften this will be a budget
item, maybe, or it's if youthink you have someone who can
do it is to i. I reallyencourage a facilitator, a
disinterested third party, notto offend the lawyers out there.
However, lawyers typically don'tdo this particularly well, and I
(20:10):
know that's often the firstperson they think of. So they'd
be your lawyer. I wouldn't dothat. I would have definitely a
consultant. I mean, I do it. Imean, there are some other
consultants around that do it.
But can your manager do it? Iwould say no. If you have an on
site manager or a manager with amanagement company, no, the on
site manager, though, should bea part of this process, so maybe
not to have direct input, butthey should see how the board
(20:32):
interacts within this. If youhave a site manager, I highly
suggest that. But yes, shouldyou get a facilitator? Yes, it's
it's well worth the cost. Now,if your association is small and
you can't afford it, you know,maybe your board chair, maybe
that person can do it. Ifthey're a good leader, they
might be able to do it, but ifthey need help with it, you can
go online and find all kinds ofresources for doing these types
(20:53):
of exercises. So yes, that'sfirst is who should do it, the
board, but the board has to comeup with it, set specific time,
turn the phones off, don't meetfor longer than four hours,
because after that, you havemeeting fatigue, and nothing
good comes after four hours.
It's like nothing good comesafter
Robert Nordlund (21:08):
midnight. Okay?
Starting small, yeah, I'mthinking about the place where I
got started in this business, 71units, condominium. We had
monthly board meetings. Theboard members and I, we would
talk, we would prepare for thenext board meeting. What are the
issues? What's the paperwork?
You know, getting thingstogether. Could this be
something where you just say,Hey, can we meet for lunch on
(21:31):
Saturday? Can we meet for dinneron Saturday and budget 100
bucks, couple 100 bucks fordinner, whatever it is. Can you
start small and say, Hey, let'snot talk about business. Let's
talk about who
Julie Adamen (21:43):
we are. Yes, it can be as simple as that,
especially it's probably a goodplace for smaller associations
to do this, because, first ofall, it costs them the dinner or
whatever. That's not a big deal,but it's good. And I would if
there is a person withintypically, it'd be the chair out
there, the chair of the meat ofthe board that would be a good
person to to lead this, becauseyou are supposed to be the
(22:05):
leader to lead this. Let's talkabout why we should have a
vision statement. I've beenthinking about this, and I'm
thinking, this is podcast, yeah,sorry about it. That amazing
podcast. That's right, yeah. SoI think it would be a very good
idea start there, and then, youknow, again, Robert, how do we
eat the elephant? One bite at atime, one bite at a time, start
there and then go from there.
See, I mean, if you're not goingto get buy in from the rest of
(22:27):
the board, this may not be theboard that's going to put this
through.
Robert Nordlund (22:32):
It may need to be another year with a little
more dynamic, some change ofboard members. But boy, I'm just
thinking to talk about who weare, what is our association,
where we want to be, becauseyou're if, when you get stuck in
all the minutia of all thelittle decisions, you're not
lifting your head up and saying,Okay, where are we going?
Julie Adamen (22:52):
You got to stop digging the ditch to see where
you're going. And that's exactlyand I know we all feel like
we're digging ditches when we'reon a board
Robert Nordlund (22:59):
well, and you said the bomb squad. One problem
to another problem. Can you jotdown a few sentences? Does it
start? Is it as simple as that?
You talked about a whiteboard.
But can it be someone takingnotes and, oh, that was good.
And to start just compiling afew things?
Julie Adamen (23:16):
Yeah, I think you can do that. It's, let's just
say, let's just say, let's justtake the smaller Association,
like we started with 71 units,and let's just say they had
their dinner and they'rethinking, oh boy, that might be
a good thing to talk about. Youknow, we should do this. If the
board is have buy into it. Youcould just tell everyone, hey,
you know, well, let's have aninformal meeting in two weeks at
my house, and we'll have wineand cheese or whatever. And
(23:38):
would everyone just jot downsome phrases or some catch or
how about catch phrases or wordsthat mean that you would think
apply to this community, likeinclusive, friendly, welcoming
of families, or whatever definesyour community. I mean, see, for
where I live, it's, it's anactive adult. And I mean
(23:59):
seriously, active adult. Youwould not be in here if you
didn't have this. So it wouldbe, it would be geared more
towards that type of thing, andalso places where people can
live comfortably until theycan't, you know, or they pass
it. So it's all of those kind ofthings. And then, you know, lay
them all out, put them to you.
Can run them through AI and haveit that take have it all put out
for you, so you get all theselittle disparate information,
(24:22):
where would be vision, wherewould be mission, and you can
have aI run that for you, so itwould be interesting, just a
little easier. Oh, sure, youcould upload that kind of stuff.
Robert Nordlund (24:32):
Yes, I was just thinking back on some of the
board heroes that we'veinterviewed, some of the things
that they were saying theybought into their association
because it was affordable. Theywere a single mom at the time.
We've had others say that theywere attracted by the landscape,
just it was so easy on theireyes looking out the window. We
(24:52):
had another that liked itbecause it was on the beach, and
they just strolled with theirdog on the beach every day. So
what does that bring to you? I.
The beach access, the pleasantenvironment. What? Yeah, just
those are the kind of wordsyou're
Julie Adamen (25:05):
exactly calming.
The beach access. I justthought, Oh, that'd be so
calming. Just so wonderful, youknow? So, yeah, it's all those
type of things. So start fromthere, and then I think you just
move from that, but you startwith the vision. Use those words
and get what your aspiration is,what you want to be and viewed
as by not just outsiders, but bythe community itself. And then
(25:25):
from there is the missionstatement, which is, how do we
get there? We get there by, youknow, budgeting our money
correctly, or whatever. It's alittle more operational, but not
totally.
Robert Nordlund (25:36):
I'm wondering if that may be good stuff to
know, so that when you areinterviewing for a new
management company, you can say,This is who we are, and we like
to know what our numbers are,sound, financial footing, data,
and all of a sudden themanagement company means, oh,
wow, yeah, okay, for this place,we got to have our numbers there
(25:58):
by the 10th of each month ofwhatever it is. What about the
value for the real estate agentswho sell homes in your
association? Is it somethingthat you would communicate to
them so they know
Julie Adamen (26:11):
what you're about?
I don't think that's a bad ideaat all. I hadn't really thought
of that. But, you know, thatcould go out, right out with any
escrow package that isdownloaded, you know, there's
typically, you know, it's apackage. Obviously, it's a PDF,
but that could be right on thefront, you know, the vision
mission statement. This is wherewe are. This is what we are.
This is where we want to go.
And, you know, Robert, thatreminds me I was and when I've
talked to boards about thispreviously, they're like, oh,
(26:34):
man, I don't want to be stuck tothis. What if it doesn't work
anymore? Well, fear not people.
You can change this yearly, ifyou want to, because over a
period of time, your communityis going to change, your
residents are going to change.
And what fit 10 years agoprobably doesn't fit now. And
you know, let's redo it, becauseyou've had such a turnover in
your homeowners, turnover inboard members. What was you may
(26:58):
have already achieved the visionstatement. So where do we want
to go next? Yeah, so you're notmarried to it. You may change it
as the situation warrants. Andhonestly, I encourage new boards
to I could say maybe you've hada five member board, and three
or four are brand new to theboard. It's really good to go
through this exercise reviewyour current vision and mission
(27:19):
statements and say, Hmm, do youthink these are still relevant
to us? And let that board gothrough that exercise as well.
Because, again, we're disparatepeople, but now we have a common
goal, common mission.
Robert Nordlund (27:31):
Yeah. Okay, so you can, well, one thing I'm
thinking is not necessarilychange the essence of it, but I
was thinking back at theassociation where I first bought
into I was thinking they were alot of people there from
different backgrounds, and thatmay have been what we said. But
now, nowadays, maybe you sayinclusivity, you know, just
(27:52):
different words, modern. Like,there's some associations that
update their entryway sign justto make it look a little
fresher, fresh. Yeah, fresh. Andmaybe you need to freshen up the
words exactly.
Julie Adamen (28:05):
It's like, like, was we were we talked about this
right before we got on the air.
Is that, you know, it was amelting pot. The place you lived
was like a melting pot. Well,now, okay, that would be great
in the 80s or 90s, but you startthinking today, it's inclusive.
That's where, that's our generalbuzzword for that type of thing.
Now,
Robert Nordlund (28:23):
yeah, and you don't want something dating you.
You want something especiallythe the vision that is guiding
you forward. You don't want itslowing you down. Okay, how we
how long? How short Is it aslogan? Is it few sentences? Is
it a
Julie Adamen (28:40):
paragraph? It can be any one of those. But I would
say no slogans. I don't likewhat is the slogan you came up
with? Robert Oh, a place to callhome, place to call home. Well,
that's really good, but that'sjust a slogan. So, okay, it's
places. Yeah, I
Robert Nordlund (28:54):
say that. That maybe that goes on your entryway
sign. Happy Valley villas, aplace to call home, you know,
fine, that's on your side.
That's not necessarily theessence of where you're going or
how you're getting
Julie Adamen (29:06):
there. If you're just using a slogan, you're
missing the point of the wholeexercise and the whole purpose
of it, because the slogan isjust something that rolls off
your tongue and you're done withit because you don't think
anything about it. But when youstart talking about being the,
you know, the diverse andinclusive community in the
greater San Diego area, orwhatever, you know, in the gray
(29:26):
area, by promoting, you know,whatever, fiscal responsibility,
blah, blah, blah, all thesethings you have is that actually
means something, slogans, theyjust go right off. People don't
think about it. And lazy, sorry,yeah.
Robert Nordlund (29:39):
And it, I suppose it could be reactionary.
If your association was, I hateto say this mismanaged. The
board was stuck in their waysand moved the association
sideways. Maybe it's thatmission statement that says we
will be financially accountableto our owners. We will be.
(30:00):
Transparent. We will whatever itis, and you can start to say
we're going to run this place alittle bit better than it was in
the past, and that can be theway forward that they get to who
they want, division
Julie Adamen (30:12):
and a new mission.
Yes, exactly, because things dochange. Nothing is static, okay?
Robert Nordlund (30:17):
And that made me think maybe that's another
reason. And again, no offense tonot have an attorney, because
the attorney knows what thedocuments say. And, you know,
Hey, folks don't do that. Dowhat the documents say. And I'm
thinking, what we're talkingabout here is, who do we want to
be, and it's more flexible thana maybe the mind view of the
(30:38):
average attorney. Well,
Julie Adamen (30:39):
yes, and it's honestly, it's not their
training. I mean, attorneys aretypically there. They know they
are. They're process people,right? And so though this is a
process, but it's not. It's notan aspirational thing. It's some
it takes someone to kind of herdthe cats of the board, getting
towards this and making thatdecision for or helping them
make those decisions. Attorneysare kind of loath to help you
(30:59):
make those decisions, other thangiving you the advice on this
contract or that contract, I'mnot saying I would do this. It's
here's the pros and cons here,here's the pros and cons there.
You decide that's more of whatthey
Robert Nordlund (31:12):
do. What about a former board member
facilitating the discussion,someone who's familiar with the
Association, but who has handedit off and said, these are some
of the things we valued in thepast,
Julie Adamen (31:23):
if they are certainly amenable. My only
caution on that is if it's aboard member that you know was
like, oh, is well, we did itmuch better back in the days,
and this is what we valued. Andyou don't caution, caution, but
it can't be if they not, notthose people now, and don't look
at them if it's someone who isamenable to this, who might have
a skill set in doing this and isa trusted member of the
(31:44):
community, maybe they're on acommittee now, or whatever.
That's not a problem, as long asyou can find somebody to do
Robert Nordlund (31:50):
it. Yeah, I like that. Well, Julie, this has
just been fascinating, more sothan I expected. I hope it's
been tremendously valuable toall of our listeners here today,
any closing thoughts to add atthis time?
Julie Adamen (32:03):
Whenever I go out and do a speaking gig, and I've
got a whole bunch of boardmembers in there, I always ask
them, How many of you have avision and mission statement?
And like, out of 300 people,like three arms will go up, and
I know why it is. It's just onemore thing you have to do. And I
have to say, I used to thinkthat too. I thought, Oh, my God,
that's another BS exercise wehave to do. But the point is
(32:25):
bring, especially for a boardthat is all new members, or a
lot of new members, or maybe hasa lack of cohesion. That is the
point of the exercise. And theoutcome actually having vision
and mission these platforms foroperation and guiding principles
that there's nothing wrong withthat. I think everyone can agree
(32:47):
with that. Well, I think weshould have guiding principles.
We all think that our communityshould have a solid platform of
operations. Vision and missionare right there as a part of it,
along with governing documentsas well. Do a vision and mission
become part of the governingdocuments. No, not really, no,
not, not in a legal sense atall, but it is a guiding Prince.
(33:08):
There are guiding principles andgoals, and I would say that's
equally as important, if notmore.
Robert Nordlund (33:16):
Yeah, clarity, community, communication. Those
kinds of things that cohesion,cohesion. For those of you who
aren't watching, I'm writing allthis down. It'll be in the show
notes. Julie, good stuff. Okay,well, well, we hope you learned
some HOA insights from ourdiscussion today that helps you
(33:36):
bring common sense, clarity,community cohesion, things like
that, to your common areas.
Thank you for joining us today.
We look forward to bringing manymore episodes to you, week after
week after week. We'll be here.
It'll be great to have you joinus on a regular basis. Spread
the word
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