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manager of Baum Property Management in Aurora, Illinois. “No group
of people is going to reach a consensus on every issue. Where there is
disagreement, it is vitally important that board members listen respect-
fully to each other and understand that having a diff erence of opinion is
nothing to take personally.”
Good communication—and the ability to calmly articulate why one
board member may disagree with one or other persons—is another
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Like so many other sectors of the econo-
my, residential real estate management has
changed and evolved since the turn of the
millennium—and like those other sectors,
much of that evolution is directly linked to
the development and adoption of technol-
ogy. Yet the essence of the manager’s mission
remains the same: one of close interpersonal
interaction. Technological advances may
have sped up response times and analytics
in many situations, but good, old-fashioned
personal contact still remains the keystone to
eff ective management.
The Game Changer, for Better or Worse
What seems to have changed the most in
the last couple of decades is the manager’s
work hours. Daniel Wollman, the CEO of
Gumley Haft , a management fi rm based in
New York City, explains that years ago, his
job—while not a traditional 9-to-5 posi-
tion—was more or less limited to regular
business hours. Particularly during the sum-
mer months, the pace of work would slow
as many people in the industry went away
for long periods of time, oft en as much as a
month or even the whole season. With the
advent and adoption of email as the primary
means of communication between managers
and their client communities, that’s defi nitely
changed.
“Email changed everything,” Wollman
Preventing any and all interpersonal confl ict is impossible. But in the context of a condo or
HOA board, minimizing and mitigating the problem is essential in order for that board to do
its job. Th ose who volunteer to serve on their board are likely to bring strong convictions—and
personalities—to the table. As in any decision-making body, there are likely to be diff erences of
opinion—and while healthy, respectful debate is oft en a good thing, if the stakes and tempers
rise high enough, things can escalate to a point where it becomes unproductive at best—and
possibly even dangerous at worst.
If the past year-and-a-half of belligerence, friction, and general bad behavior has taught us
anything, it’s that board members should actively anticipate arguments among their ranks, and
have a strategy on hand to ease tensions and reach an acceptable compromise—before things
get out of hand.
Talk it Out
One way to keep things copacetic among board members is to identify the attributes that
make for a functional governing body, and reach for those as a baseline when things start to
drift apart.
One such attribute is simple civility. “I think that the key to harmony on a board is that its
members have the ability to agree to disagree,” says Tina Straits, vice president and general
An individual’s interest in their com-
munity association is rarely just fi nancial;
in most cases, a building or HOA is also
that individual’s home—and as such they’re
motivated to contribute to its quality of life,
neighborhood congeniality, and aesthetics,
just to name a few of the things that make
a place somewhere people love to live. For
that reason, most of the people who volun-
teer to serve on their association board are
full-time residents of that association.
Th is is not always the case, however. Oc-
casionally, people who don’t actually reside
in an association pursue board member-
ship—usually due to some combination
of free time and personal and/or fi nancial
interests in the community. While there’s
nothing inherently problematic with hav-
ing non-residents on a co-op or condo
board, it does present certain consider-
ations. We reached out to some manage-
ment experts to delve into what may moti-
vate these non-resident members, whether
their presence on the board increases the
likelihood of confl ict with the members
who do call the community home, and how
potentially diff ering interests can coexist
harmoniously and productively.
Motivating Factors
When a person who doesn’t live in an
association year-round runs for a board
position, a voting resident should evaluate
them with much the same criteria as they
would a full-time neighbor: what is moti-
vating this individual to seek a board posi-
tion, and will they put the interests of the
greater association above their own?
“Over the years, we have represented
some boards with non-resident members,”
says James A. Slowikowski, a partner with
Dickler, Kahn, Slowikowski, & Zavell, Ltd.
in Arlington Heights, Illinois. “Sometimes
Managing Board Confl ict
How to Maintain Harmony
BY MIKE ODENTHAL
Th e Evolution
of Property
Management
Big Changes in the
Last Decade
BY A J SIDRANSKY
Non-Resident
Board Members
Managing Absentee
Decision Makers
BY MIKE ODENTHAL
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