It is January and my husband and I are spending time at our
winter residence. These are the days we
relax and redefine our lives. Each year
we use this time to review what has happened over the past 12 months, analyze
the things that haven’t worked out so well, and make plans for the coming
months. One of our interesting experiences
in January is to participate in our association’s annual meeting. To say the least, it is unsettling to be on
the other side of the room listening to, rather than presenting the financial
data. Florida Condominium rules are
extremely different than Michigan regarding handling finances. Reserve funds are assigned to specific
categories and are voted on annually by the membership. Since we are creatures of habit, our
building’s membership annually votes to fund the reserves at the lowest
allowable minimum. Our finalized budget
carries an ominous warning that says we have
chosen to under fund the reserves, and that we acknowledge the need for future
large additional assessments to repair the pool, re-roof and to repaint the
building. Great!
It is definitely easier planning other people’s monies than
it is to be the recipient of bad financial decisions made by ill-advised
Directors. To offset our potential
future financial risk, we are discussing setting up the Rick and Kay Florida reserve
account so we have the funds on hand when the repairs are contracted. Forewarned is forearmed.
This is the same philosophy we adhere to at Cummings
Management by forewarning Directors of
the inherent risks associated with community management and
exploring ways to assume and assimilate all risks. To this goal, we have scheduled the first two
seminars for 2013 and hope to see every Director taking advantage of one or
more of our seminars. We hope our topics
are of interest and we encourage you to
join us at an upcoming Seminar.
