Letter from the Guest Editor

The end of a year is a good time for reflection, thinking about our experiences (good and bad), applying lessons learned and celebrating victories earned, and setting sights on the upcoming year. What should we do with that knowledge? How do we make the best use of our year in review? Share. Strategize. Communicate.

Communication remains the key to success. Our boards and our owners rely on us to guide them, because they know we have the skills and drive to meet their challenges. But those communities cannot function properly unless we can identify those obstacles, create a vision for operation, and provide regular updates on our progress, and that requires us to be able to communicate effectively.

This issue is devoted to giving our readers some tools that they’ll need for improving communication. We asked our authors to come up with those topics that would help lead to better communication for better communities:

• Outlining how to answer questions around the latest on fire management

• Tackling the increasing impact of mental health challenges in communities

• Identifying strategies for limiting the disruption of owners within the community

• Finding productive uses for executive committees

• Learning new tips on how, where, what and when to communicate with the owners and your boards

Communication remains the key to success.

While community management remains a challenge, it is one that we all embrace. Learning how to share our experience helps us realize both that we are in a community where we all share the same journey and that we can rely on one another to succeed.

A big thanks to our contributors, our readers, and our committee for a great issue giving us a fresh start to the upcoming year.

Matthew A. Gardner, Esq.

Matthew A. Gardner, Esq., is a partner of Richardson | Ober who works with community associations, homeowners, and HOA boards of directors to amend governing documents, resolve homeowner/member disputes, and manage assessment delinquency matters.