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Expo 2021 
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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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