2011 October
Focus on... Board Operations

Board Operations Evaluating Your Management Team
2011 October Evaluating Your Management Team

The relationship between boards and management is, by its very nature, a deep and complex one. The two sides rely upon one another to ensure the smooth oversight of their co-op and condo communities. Both are dedicated to doing everyth…

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Board Operations Boards and Transparency
2011 October Boards and Transparency

This in an anxious time in which to sit on the board of directors. With defaults and foreclosures accounting for some 20 percent or more of the units at some condominiums, frustration among board and association members is off the char…

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Board Operations Negotiating With Vendors
2011 October Negotiating With Vendors

 Regardless of whether they’re self-managed or employ a management company, a co-op or condominium board of  directors will at some point have to make decisions about how and from whom the  building gets its supplies and services.   …

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Board Operations Annual Meetings 101
2011 October Annual Meetings 101

What happens at a co-op or condo community’s annual meeting should be strictly business, though these gatherings also can be a place where resident shareholders and unit owners kvetch about their concerns regarding the building or commu…

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Board Operations Snowbirds in Flight
2011 October Snowbirds in Flight

Birds in flight may be beautiful, but their departure sometimes leaves the nest unprotected. And when that nest is in a condominium or cooperative community, property managers and boards must do their best to compensate. This …

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Board Operations Childproofing Your Home
2011 October Childproofing Your Home

 When you’re decorating your home, there are two things you want to bear in mind if you  have children. You want to keep the design functional, but safe. After all,  anyone who’s ever had, or just looked after, a baby or toddler, can tell …

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Board Operations Serving the Management Profession
2011 October Serving the Management Profession

 Whether you are dipping your toe in the real-estate buying pool for the first  time, or you’re soaking in it after purchasing numerous properties, the Institute of Real  Estate Management (IREM) is an organization to take note of.   …

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Neighborhoods Murray Hill
2011 October Murray Hill

 If we gave Manhattan neighborhoods human personalities, the meatpacking district may be the hip,  in-the-know popular cousin and Central Park South would be the conservative  Wall Street banker uncle, it would stand to reason that Murray …

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Board Operations Managing Staff in a Co-op or a Condo
2011 October Managing Staff in a Co-op or a Condo

 If the board of directors is the Barnum & Bailey of the cooperative or condominium, the manager is the ringmaster. The  board finances the show and books the talent, but all eyes are on the manager.    “Everything falls on you,” sa…

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Board Operations Holding Fair Elections
2011 October Holding Fair Elections

Election season typically starts around Labor Day, when we start to be bombarded with reminders to cast our ballots to choose who we want to be in charge of our city, town, state and country. It ends on Election Day in November, when th…

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Board Operations Phasing Out No. 6 Fuel Oil
2011 October Phasing Out No. 6 Fuel Oil

 New York City law will phase out the burning of Number 6 fuel oil in the near  future.    Should you wait until the last minute until making the switch to cleaner fuel  oil in your own building? Does it make sense to do it now, or …

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Finance Staying the Course During Delinquencies
2011 October Staying the Course During Delinquencies

 Following the nationwide mortgage crisis, there is a lot of concern across the  country about communities being faced with the prospect of foreclosure. Many  states have enacted legislation relating to how to handle properties in  arrears…

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Finance Running the Numbers
2011 October Running the Numbers

The key to proper financial management of a co-op begins with the presence of a strategic plan. This plan should include, at a minimum, a projection of necessary capital improvements; and a forecast of revenue and expenses over a ch…

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Q&A Q&A: Accessing Common Elements
2011 October Q&A: Accessing Common Elements

Q In our parking garage we have access to a bike storage room and an outside bike rack that is next to a resident's handicapped parking spot. Right now the only way to get to the bikes is to "trespass" over the parking spot. Our concern…

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