Year-End Review

LOOKING BACK ON THE OBSTACLE COURSE KNOWN AS 2021.

By Jessica L. Melvin, CCAM

Here’s my summary of the highs and lows this year. It’s been a challenging 365 days, but we’re coming out of it all with growth and transformation.

OBSTACLE 1: Breakneck Legislation

With 13 bills approved and several more waiting in the wings, 2021 was quite the unprecedented year for legislation. While not all bad, there were quite a few headache-inducing and unfavorable bills in the mix. Reeling from the effects of a previous legislation, we now have even more legislation that generally infuriate our communities and makes our professional lives a little more colorful.

For example, AB-68 permitting ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) like granny flats, shipping containers, converted anything, really, now allows homes to add up to three ADUs or be transformed into four-unit dwellings.

Initially, managers didn’t think that ADUs would affect their communities, but later on, many of us found ourselves navigating through many ADU-related processes with committees, boards, and homeowners over the last year. We even saw additional bankruptcy protections from our collection efforts with AB-1885 and scrambled to comply with rental restriction modifications of AB-3182.

The major takeaway is that you can smell where the industry is headed just by taking a whiff of the laws passed. Because some of these changes came with short compliance deadlines, many associations weren’t prepared to spend funds on document amendments and additional mail outs.

Legislative changes are becoming more numerous and cumbersome by the year. Several associations are increasing operating costs to cover them as the trend shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.

OBSTACLE 2: Socioeconomic Effects

Compared to other states this past year, California seems to have had more issues with socioeconomic effects. Perhaps it is due to not only our state’s diverse ethnic, political, economic landscape and unique climate issues, but it can also be the fact that we’re a huge and populous state. We’ve had it all: social and political unrest, fires galore, 90% of them being caused by humans, drought, homelessness, and oh, one last thing, a viral pandemic.

Those glimmers of hope we had at the end of 2020 were quickly shattered as the world continued to struggle with the rapid informational changes and the new variants of the Coronavirus. As managers, we all felt the additional stress throughout our communities.

Many people are at home feeling nervous, frustrated, and uncertain about what was in store for the future. Some people were just downright angry, and no matter how nice that letter about their trash can you sent them was, it could have been the absolute last straw for them. Even managers who come from a hospitality or customer service background had a hard time stomaching the extra helping of angry customers.

We lost vendors who couldn’t stay afloat, paid a 1000% mark up for wood (if you could even find it), weathered through an increase in crime in our communities, sidelined projects, and closed facilities. If you were able to manage under these circumstances, you could certainly do anything you ever dreamed of doing. Even on your best sunny day, working in this industry is hard enough, and this year just felt like being trapped in a fictional dystopian world.

OBSTACLE 3: Labor Shortages

Another major wrench in our day-to-day plans as a manager is labor shortages. Competing bids are becoming more and more difficult to obtain as many contractors will flat out tell you that they’re declining due to a lack of workers and supply for the overabundance of demand for their work.

This isn’t just your favorite roofer either; this issue spreads across from landscaping all the way up to specialized soil engineers. The problem isn’t a lack of desire to work. The problem is that people take their time to be picky due to not only the high demand of work out there but also because of the programs that help them save a little or a lot during the pandemic.

Some vendors have been proactive and stayed ahead of the curve by implementing programs like providing incentives in the form of sign-on bonuses, beefing up their benefits packages, or even offering additional vacation time to attract suitable new workers and keep their talent where they are. Of course, others were still hesitant to jump on the worker revolution train.

The exaggerated process of bidding and executing projects has put a major strain on managers as many soaring golden opportunities were shot down due to facilities being closed and unavailable in servicing their needs for those projects. Management companies have lost so much needed revenue from project management and extra billables, and even our clients lost out on higher property values.

FINISH LINE: Silver Linings

Don’t despair! This year is nearly at an end, and we can all be hopeful while sipping our pumpkin spice lattes that 2022 will be the year of an awesome change. As frustrating and complicated as 2021 has been, it has also brought us some much-needed reflection on how to assess our roles as managers in our communities, boards, and even within our own companies.

Many of us went to remote work and found whole new ways to manage our time and enjoy our coworkers. We connected more with our environment, got pandemic pets we never even knew we needed, and came up with innovative and creative ways to bond within our workforce.

We left jobs we felt stagnant in for greener pastures (many of us even came crawling back when the green spray paint wore off on that grass) or received promotions to fill new roles that never existed before.

Technology definitely took a front seat in our careers and streamlined a lot of processes that kept us from utilizing our time for bigger and better things for our communities. Boards got to test new technology with Zoom meetings or figured out hybrid alternatives that allowed homeowners to have more access and participation.

Committees were formed to tackle unique issues, and with newfound accessibility, it was simple to attain participation. Homeowners embraced new and convenient ways to manage their association relationships and became more involved.

We may still face some lingering struggles and growing pains. The result as people, an industry, and professionals is growth. We all experienced new things and got blown in a direction we never thought we’d go in, but it’s certainly a direction that will guide us to a transformative industry. Sometimes, these “bad” years end up being the best years in retrospect.

Jessica L. Melvin, CCAM

Jessica L. Melvin, CCAM, is the Portfolio Community Manager for The Management Trust, Nor-Cal division, serving Yolo, Solano, and Contra Costa counties since 2016.