A basic introduction for owners new to community association living.

How do managers and boards increase resident involvement within community associations?  Building community spirit is more than informing residents about board action and improvements.  It's asking their opinions and developing programming that they will enjoy and that will spur further community involvement.  Community spirit means pride in your community.

This brochure explains what prospective buyers should know before they buy in a community association.

Community Security can be used by associations to determine their security obligations and how best to provide an appropriate level of security for their residents. The report addresses association security obligations, security services, video surveillance and alarm systems, access control systems for vehicles and pedestrians, automated gate systems and more.

The board of directors, particularly the treasurer, is ultimately responsible for your association's funds and may not abdicate their fiduciary responsibility.  Given the reality that community association boards are made up of diverse individuals with varied degrees of financial knowledge, these guidelines can help you ensure sound financial operations for your orgaization.

The Policy Governance model defines the role of the board as this: the board, on behalf of the owners, must see to it that the organization achieves the desireable while avoiding the unacceptable. Period.  This model of governance allows boards to feel comfortable about delegating the day-to-day operations to staff so they can focus on the bigger picture-longer term needs of the organization.

Community associations come in all sizes.  They vary in age, ammenities provided, and maintenance obligations.  Careful planning for future repairs and replacements is not only in the best physical and fiscal interests of the community association, it is required by law in some states (like Ohio).

More than a destination at the end of the day, a community is a place you want to call home and where you feel at home. There is a difference between living in a community and being part of that community. Being part of a community means sharing with your neighbors a common desire to promote harmony and contentment.

This goal is best achieved when homeowners, non-owner residents and association leaders recognize and accept their rights and responsibilities. In all cases, this entails striking a reasonable, logical balance between the best interests of individual homeowners and those of the community as a whole. It is with this challenge in mind that Community Associations Institute (CAI) developed Rights and Responsibilities for Better Communities.

Strategic planning is more than ensuring your association will remain financially sound and able to maintain its reserves - it's projecting where your association expects to be in five, ten, or fifteen years - and how your association will get there.  It is a systematic planning process involving a number of steps that identify the current status of the association, including its mission, vision for the future, operating values, needs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), goals, prioritized actions and strategies, action plans, and monitoring plans.

Transition is a term that is used to describe the general process by which control of the governing board of a community associtation is transferred from the developer to the people who bought homes in the community.  The transition process includes the transfer of governance, the acceptance of the common property, and the accounting for funds.  It is a multi-stage process of many events taking place over a period of time.