A building col-lapses, a planecrashes, a surgery patientdies. For someprofessionals,

these represent occupational risks in whichthere’s no room for failure. Few peoplehave to make daily decisions having life ordeath consequences. Yet, all of us routinelyface ordinary situations of cause and effect,which can become complex challenges —for example, a late charge accrues when apayment is past due, or an owner makes anunapproved modification to his property.

What do we know, and how do we ensurethat we have applied what we know for the

1 www.cmamanagement.comCMA’s Leadership Advisor

FALL 2010 VOLUME 5 / ISSUE NO.3 A periodic publication of RTI/Community Management Associates, Inc.

IN THIS ISSUE

Good News aboutGetting It Right Judi M. Phares, President and CEO, RTI/Community Management Associates, Inc.

CMA’S LEADERSHIP ADVISOR

News about Getting It Right . . . . . . . . .1

Client Satisfaction Survey . . . . . . . . .1

Technology Update:

Board Member Dashboard . . . . . . . .2

Tech Tools for 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

The Good News Initiative . . . . . . . . .3

Lake Ridge Charity Tournament . . .3

CMA Children’s Fund-Raiser . . . . . .3

Legislative Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Board Action Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . .5

CMA NEWS

A Tool to Check Vital SignsFeedback from the Client Satisfaction Survey

In CMA’s recent client satisfaction survey,your ratings and comments on the ques-tionnaire “checklist” gave us a good indi-cator of what should be on our radar, andwhat’s tops on yours.

In evaluating CMA’s service overall, 85%of board members responding reportedthey were Very Satisfied or Satisfied withCMA’s service. Responders rankedCollections as the #1 or #2 challenge inmore than 50% of associations, whileCompliance Enforcement ranked in thetop 3 for more than 65% of responders.

The CMA Fiscal Fitness Forum in Maytackled the issue of association collectionsto better inform boards of processesfraught with complexities, and how tomanage them more effectively.

Technology is another way we are innovat-ing to serve customers better, yet less than50% of board members responding to thesurvey had used CMA’s online services. Weknow that percentage will continue toincrease as we introduce new tools to checkyour association’s vital signs of Collections,Compliance Enforcement and more.

very best outcome? The good news is thatit’s not just NASA engineers and heart surgeons who find inspired solutions to getcomplex tasks done right. I’ve been excitedby reading The Checklist Manifesto, a bookwhich examines the transformative powerof a tool widely used by skilled masters andordinary people as well.

“Experts need checklists — literally —written guides that walk them through thekey steps in any complex procedure.” By“forcing” disciplined actions, a checklistimproves our human performance to moreconsistently “get it right.”

In this edition, I’m delighted to share someof the results of CMA’s systematic

innovation — useful checklists, dashboardsand tools we use to get things right. It’s ourhope you’ll gain insight into what we knowabout running your association and how wecan work together to “get it right.”

Sincerely,

Judi M. Phares, CMCA®, PCAM®, Publisher

2 www.cmamanagement.comCMA’s Leadership Advisor

Dashboard Gives Boards More ControlSaves Time, Speeds Decisions

Should we waive the reminder letter chargefor a homeowner? Should we impose afine? Often your decisions turn on informa-tion about the top two Board challenges:Collections and Covenant Enforcement.The Board Dashboard puts a wealth ofsecure, real-time Violations and Collectionsdata at your fingertips 24/7. Armed withfacts, you can communicate and give direc-tion to our staff about collections escala-tion, payment plans, and violations enforce-ment for your association’s members.

The bottom line: Convenient access todetailed information enables you to makedecisions more quickly. You, your managerand A/R staff can view the same data,without the lag time to run and e-mail spe-cial internal reports. Now you have anonline tool to speed up communicationsand decision-making. Log-in to the CMAwebsite, http://www.cmamanagement.com andclick on the Board Navigation Menu toaccess the Dashboard. (You must be loggedin to view.)

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Violations Documentation PhotosPhotos will be attached with violations online, viewable by theindividual homeowners, and inserted in notice letters. This tan-gible visual record is worth the proverbial “thousand words.”The IT staff is working with all our regional and onsite offices toput the finishing touches in place. Access to digital photos addsanother dimension to enhance covenant enforcement records.

Online HOA Financial ReportsRoll-out is underway to post your portfolio of association financialreports, including a detailed staff analysis and reporting of budgetvariances. The IT and Accounting staffs are implementing stage 1with a select group of accounts, and will roll out reports for allassociations during the first quarter of 2011. Watch for an e-mailannouncing when your association’s reports will be posted online.

More Tech Tools Coming Q1 2011Secure, 24/7 Access to More HOA Records

The Drill Down toFacts and FiguresHere’s a checklist for what you’ll find:

aView Open and Closed Violations for all owners

aView accounts, based on parameters such as the collection level status, or view all collection levels

aSelect filters to view a group of accounts in a particular collections status

aDrill down on an individual account to view correspondence such as reminder letters, notes, dates sent, etc.

aSearch by a name, address, or account number to drill down to a particular account

The ability to drill down and sort data, oneof the most powerful CINC tools, is aresponse to your feedback about how wecan better serve you. For example, a col-umn showing the Balance and Last Paymentdate — Simply click on the amount owedto drill down to the history, which allows youto view the ledger for up to 3 or more yearsof history and types of charges.

Click here for an annotated dashboard screen view.

CMA NEWS

DECEMBERDECEMBER

22

Did You Know?Culminating months of work by themanagement and accounting staff, morethan 65,000 assessment statements willbe mailed between October 28th andNovember 30th. Your approved budgetsummaries for 2011 are enclosed withthe statements, thus kicking off the cyclefor 2011 assessment payments. Thetrend is for owners to pay online throughwww.cmamanagement.com. The website hascurrently logged 25,853 registered users.

A new feature this year, owners maynow pay by credit card in regional andonsite offices, starting November 30. A 3.5% bank convenience fee applies.

Mark Your Calendar! CMA’s webinar series continuesThursday, December 2 at 11:00 AM!

Topic:How can you improvecommunity involvement?

Join our panel of experts for an open-ended discussion and share your ideas.

• What’s the root “problem” with community involvement?

• What works and what doesn’t?• What are your ideas?

CMA experts Alice McKee, RebeccaTarpley, and Rob Koop will share ideasand field your questions for an interactivediscussion. Watch for your e-mail invita-tion with registration information to jointhem online.

Plano Region Board OrientationMarch 24, 2011 Location TBD

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BUILDING COMMUNITY

Guy Frankenfield strikes a balance in his “Kung Fu“ golf pose, clowning around on thegreen at the third annual Lake Ridge Community Golf Tournament. Guy is a boardmember for the Timbers HOA at Lake Ridge.

Held on September 18th at the Tangle Ridge Golf Course, the event turned out 84golfers, 28 volunteers, and 50sponsors and donors, who helpedto raise $19,591.

After expenses, donations will bemade to Happy Hill FarmAcademy, City of Cedar HillLibrary, Cedar Hill Food Pantryand Cedar Hill Recreation Center.

“Our tournament is well-supportedby the owners and sponsors alike,and is becoming a tradition thatour folks look forward to,” saidAssociation Manager CarolynRollwitz. “We love being able tomake a difference for Cedar Hill,Grand Prairie and communitycharities.”

Lake Ridge Golf TourneyFunds Giving

Smiles lit the faces of employees who participated in arecent company-wide garage sale fund-raiser to benefit The Smile Train. The project raised enoughcash to pay for up to eight children to receive life-changing surgery.

The Smile Train is an international charitywhich helps children born with cleft lipand palate by providing free surgery tocorrect these abnormalities. CMA regularly sponsors company-wide projectsto support a wide range of charities, schools and organizations, from Heifer Internationalto Habitat for Humanity. Employees applied the company value, “Charity of the Heart,”to help The Smile Train fulfill its mission.

A company-wide team rallied fellow employees to comb through their closets and cup-boards and donate gently-used household goods and clothing for a massive one-day sale.The sale was held at the home of an employee who lives in Old Shepard Place HOA.

CMA Employees Raise $2,000 for Children’s Charity

Working with former channel 4 newsreporter Jeff Crilley of Real News PublicRelations, Texas Community AssociationAdvocates (TCAA) and CMA are lookingfor good news to Speak Out about thegood that HOAs contribute. Too often

negative HOAnews stories grabthe headlines.

Do you have agood news storyabout your HOAyou’d like to sharewith a wider audi-ence? Would youlike to cooperate in sponsoring a charitable eventwith other HOAs?

Let us help you tell your story.

Please notify us if your association isinterested in doing a project such as one of these:

• Sponsoring a “green” project, that is, environmentally friendly

• Helping a neighbor in need

• Helping kids at the holidays

• Building a house with Habitat for Humanity

• Sponsoring a fund raiser for a worthwhile charity such as a foodbank, shelter, or other community group

Contact your Association Manager orMarilyn Dunsworth, CMA’sCommunications Specialist, at helptcaa@cmamanagement.com.

Stand Out in the Good News InitiativeCooperate in a CharitableEvent with other HOAs

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Will Texas pass laws which interfere with an HOA’s contract with owners? Attorney Marc Markel offers insights into questions aboutHOA contract rights and proposed legislation which maynegatively affect HOAs in the 2011 legislative session.

How do Texas laws about contractual rightsapply to HOAs?

Texas permits entities and individuals to enter into contracts. For a contract to exist there needs to be an offer toprovide a good or service, acceptance by the receiving party ofthe offer and then consideration conveyed for that good or service.In that an HOA is an entity, it is treated no differentlythan other similar entities in Texas.

However, often the HOA has limitations on its ability to enterinto contracts that are found within its governing documents.Often there is a limitation as to who is required to approve acontract. For example there are organizations that requiremembership votes when the amount proposed to be spentexceeds a certain threshold, or there may be a requirement thatpermits a termination of an agreement upon 30 days writtennotice. On another note, the restrictions (CC&Rs) themselvesare contracts between the homeowners and the association. It isthis issue of restrictions placed on the authority toenter into contracts that raises potential limitations onthe ability to contract with others.

How does proposed legislation interferewith these contract rights?

The Texas Legislature in past sessions, and potentially in theupcoming session, could pass laws that would interfere with theprivate contractual rights of owners and associations, such as:

• permitting owners to run for board positions and vote in those elections, notwithstanding the fact that they are in default of obligations to the association;

• no longer permitting the exercise of all of the powers of selfhelp to cure deed restriction violations – forcing associations to pursue litigation against owners;

• modifying the associations’ right to place restrictions on renting of homes/units;

• mandating the “application of payments” by owners – which will cost the association additional fees that will be passed on to all owners;

• limiting foreclosure rights to judicial foreclosure, or doing away with the right of an association to foreclose.

These are a few examples of what may be in store. The privateright to contract has been under attack by the legislature formany years, and we see no sign of this stopping in the future.

Marc Markel, is a board member of TCAA and practices law specializing in HOA matters. In practice since 1979, he is board certified in both residential and commercial real estate, a CharterMember of the College of Community Association Lawyers and heads Roberts Markel, PC, Real Estate Law Section.

5 www.cmamanagement.comCMA’s Leadership Advisor

The Checklist Manifesto:How to Get Things RightBy Atul Gawande

CMA’s Leadership AdvisorA periodic publication of

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www.cmamanagement.com

972-943-2800

©2010 RTI/Community Management Associates, Inc.All rights reserved

Community.Well Served.Community.Well Served.

Quotation“Don't find fault. Find a remedy.”

– Henry Ford

CMACommunity.Well Served.

RECOMMENDED READING

Editor: Marilyn DunsworthEditorLeadershipAdvisor@cmamanagement.com

Graphic Design: www.holmesinnovations.com

Images: www.istockphoto.com

Subscribe to or cancel Leadership AdvisorLeadershipSubscription@cmamanagement.com

aMake a Donation to Texas Community Association Advocates (TCAA) as an HOA board member and/or an HOA.

aSend a letter opposing the limitation of HOA foreclosure rights to statelegislators for my district.

Find legislators here: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Template letter here: https://www.cmamanagement.com/webfiledl.asp?id=615

aStay informed. Visit these important informational sites to learn what’s at stake in the 2011 legislative session. Session begins Tuesday, January 11, 2011.

TCAA membership and websiteCMA Board Information Page (You must be logged into www.cmamanagement.com, and access the Board Navigation Menu.)

Board Action Items

Whether you are from the medical field or not, you will benefit fromthe inspiring thinking and insights contained in this short read offascinating anecdotes with a clear overriding principle. Simplechecklists have made possible some of the most difficult things people do, from flying airplanes to building skyscrapers.

The author, a general surgeon, uses a wide range of industries to make his case for thisbasic premise. He uses an engaging blend of anecdotes, storytelling and research — fromhealthcare to aviation (US Airways 1549 landing in Hudson River) — to high-end awardwinning restaurants — to building massive office skyscrapers and shopping centers — tosetting up a Van Halen rock concert — to FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans — to money managers making investment selections.

In the last section of the book, Gawande shows how his research team has taken this idea,developed a safe surgery checklist, and applied it around the world, with staggering success.

LEGISLATIVE ADVISORY