serving your communities
New Affiliate Members
CACM members further their success in the industry and benefit by partnering with colleagues to share new ideas and best practices. Please join us in welcoming these new members from the fourth quarter of 2015!
A Quality Pest Control Laguna Hills | (949) 463-0263 www.aqualitypestcontrol.com Barcode Automation, Inc. Winter Springs | (407) 327-2177 www.barcode-automation.com Behr Paint Santa Ana | (714) 545-7101 www.behr.com Bozzuto & Associates Insurance Services, Inc. Campbell | (408) 680-0216 www.dbinsurance.com California Arborist Companies Los Angeles | (562) 689-3280 www.californiaarborist.com
The Professional Tree Care Company Berkeley | (510) 549-3954 www.professionaltreecare.com Silicon Beach Insurance Los Angeles | (310) 745-0191 www.siliconbeachinsurance.net South Coast Restoration, Inc. Laguna Hills | (949) 951-3637 www.southcoastrestoration.com Southern Cross Property Consultants San Diego | (619) 655-7934 www.southerncrosspc.com Vasin Sign & Design Laguna Hills | (949) 382-6366 www.vasininc.com
Corwell-Cansler Insurance Agency San Mateo | (650) 763-8844 www.farmersinsurancesanmateo.com Flexground Surfaces Inc. Roseville | (916) 474-5431 www.flexground.com Fornesi Insurance Agency Farmers Insurance Burlingame | (650) 343-6521 www.farmersagent.com/bfornesi Green Vine Landscaping, Inc. Santa Rosa | (707) 217-7507 www.greenvinelandscaping.com Just Smart Business Technologies, Inc. Murrieta | (951) 968-7066 www.justsb.com
To Be or Not to Be … Continued from page 40
that may be poorly worded, ambiguous or simply vague. Examples you may have seen include: • A member of the board of directors uses his or her authority to engage the services of a vendor that is owned by a relative or a business in which they have a financial interest. • A board of directors wishes to waive its member’s assessment payments in exchange for services provided. • A board or individual board member wish to take action to enforce the governing documents or rules without engaging in due process or takes action which is directly contrary to the governing documents. • A board member that incites other members of the community to support their position by divulging privileged board conversations or matters discussed in executive session. • A resident or board member that spreads defamatory gossip or innuendo maligning or slandering another resident or board member. • A manager uses his influence to obtain special services from vendors. All of these situations easily border on discrimination, defamation, slander, harassment and other potential legal problems. While it is well beyond the scope of this article and my ability to determine the reasons why we do things, the fact is that our motivation and actions are as varied as we are as people. Each of us has multiple reactions to stimuli and situations depending on our circumstances, education, timing, age, experience, etc. Within this complicated context called human nature, what’s the bottom line? I believe it is important for each of us to strive to ennoble our character through any manner we believe to be effective and viable. Develop a personal “moral compass” and you will simply be able to look into the mirror and know intuitively whether you have done something that isn’t “quite” right. Professionally, it is necessary that we both work with, and adhere to, a code of ethics. It is critical that we have a standard of conduct which we as an industry espouse and live by. Fortunately, we have access to industry guidelines and existing codes of ethics that have been developed not only for us as practicing professionals, but also for the boards for whom we work. Part of our function as effective managers should be to become familiar with the tenets of our Manager Code of Professional Ethics and Standards of Practice and to encourage boards to adopt and use the policy that is applicable to them. If your board does not have one, CACM’s Manager Toolkit contains a sample Board Member Code of Ethics. We have the guidance and tools to maintain a high level of professionalism in our industry. Now it is up to each of us to do the work of holding ourselves and our boards accountable. Ed Emil Szaky, CCAM is the owner of Matrix Association Management, ACMB in Walnut Creek and has been a member for nine years.
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Vision Spring 2016 | www.cacm.org
