If Not You, Who?
by
Jerry McQuaid

First things first.  Congratulations to Al Reuben on his re-election to the Board of Directors.  Al has been a tremendously effective member of the resident board member team and Karen and I are delighted that he has made the commitment to serve the community for another two years.

 

As I enter my fourth year on the board, I am reflecting on the many changes I have seen.  When I took my seat on the board, the prevailing opinion in the community was that we couldn’t wait for Pulte to complete the community and leave.  We wanted to by “in charge” and “on our own”.  I felt the same way.  I don’t any more.  We’re not ready to be in charge and on our own.  With the acceleration in Pulte home sales, however, it’s important that we start getting ready.

 

I see four things that we need to do to get ready for transition:  First, we have to develop a “culture of compliance”.  By that, I mean that we have to make the governance documents, including the community rules and design guidelines, our own.  We need to make sure that the standards and requirements are reasonable and appropriate and, then, enforce them.  By the time Pulte leaves, enforcement has to be a “way of life”, something we do because we believe it is good for the community.

 

Second, we have to get on a firm financial footing.  We have to be self sufficient with appropriate assessment levels, balanced budgets and adequate cash reserves while the Pulte “safety net” is still in place.  Once they’re gone, we’re on our own and we have to be confident that we have got it right. That means we need to run it for a while.

 

Third, we must strengthen CAM.  We must make sure that they have the people, the training, the systems and the resident-friendly attitude to make them the leading candidate to be our Community Association management company after Pulte leaves.  If we do this right, we won’t have to go through a disruptive change while we’re becoming “in charge” and “on our own”.

 

Finally, we must improve our ability to recruit leadership from the resident ranks.  We must strengthen the committee system to be a feeder system for the Board of Directors.  Once we take over, we have to routinely find seven, rather than just three, resident board members to lead the community.  We’ll need people with strong business expertise, leadership and communications skills, and commitment to do what’s best for the community even in the occasional face of diverse inputs from the residents.

 

Therein lays the biggest challenge.  It’s not easy to get residents with these skills to compromise their long-anticipated retirement years and step up to this responsibility.  It’s time consuming and sometimes stressful.  But it’s critical to the future of the community.  If not you, who?