Community Association Financial Innovations
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The Florida Community Association Journal has featured articles about the Communities of Excellence Award winners over the past year. All of the finalists showed wonderful initiative. Its really a pleasure to see community volunteers work side-by-side with management (and staff) to improve their situation and community life. Many of the associations in the Financial Innovation category suffered major hardships - all of them had significant delinquencies and resulting budget shortfalls. Improving collections and re-negotiating existing contracts were typical strategies employed by associations to increase revenue and reduce expenses. The bulk of the finalists took advantage of the 2010 legislative changes that allowed community associations to collect rent directly from tenants when the owners failed to pay assessments.
Two winners stood out for thinking 'outside the box'.
The Village Walk Homeowners Association in Sarasota investigated the costs of retrofitting/upgrading traditionally powered heating and cooling equipment. The manager found the costs were comparable to a geothermal system after figuring in the government discount for employing renewable energy resources. Installing geothermal heating for the two pools paid for itself in 18 months and now the association saves $65,000.00 annually. The cooling system for.gif)
the restaurant improved indoor air quality, maintained a far cooler temperature and saves the association 10% on energy costs each year. The system is more powerful, works better and reduces operating costs all at the same time.
I was at the Communities of Excellence event and honored to present the Trendsetter Award to Central Park at Metrowest. The board of directors took advantage of a great opportunity and created a "win-win" for the community and local residents. The association's president learned about a federally funded Back to Work Grant Program. The association applied to be an employer and was accepted into the program! The association had the benefit of several employees for 13 weeks - unemployed local residents received a much needed paycheck while Central Park Metrowest received much needed clean up and maintenance work. This program worked so well that the association participated in a federal summer youth program (also federally funded) the following year. 20 local teens got work experience while the association reduced its vendor expenses.
I think many people would be surprised how much effort it takes to turn a community association around. Sure, its easy to lament about how 'upside down' you are with your mortgage or to complain about the lack of services and poor appearance of your community when its struggling to make ends meet. Its much, much harder to pull up your sleeves, figure out what its going to take to improve the community and then implement those initiatives. It takes dedication and tremendous perseverance to accomplish what these, and other communities, accomplished. If you haven't participated in the Florida Communities of Excellence program, I highly recommend it - especially if you're thinking that there's no hope for your community.
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A blog reader recently posed a question containing the following statement: