President’s Message

By Matt Metz SRCA Board President

“Scientia potential est” is a Latin phrase that translates to “knowledge is power.”

Most of us rely on professionals for many services. And we expect the people we hire to be knowledgeable – and often certified – in their specific professions.

As an example, you wouldn’t hire a person to manage your investments if that person’s only certification was in auto mechanics and he or she had no experience as a financial advisor. Similarly, you wouldn’t take your car to be serviced by a person who was a certified financial planner if that person wasn’t trained to work on your particular brand of car.

And yet, your homeowners’ association likely has a number of people on its board of directors without any formal training in HOA or community management.

Yes, HOAs are a different animal. We rely on dedicated, wellintentioned volunteer board members and committee members to make important decisions on behalf of our association. Fortunately, Scottsdale Ranch has a professional staff who are experienced, trained, and hold several certifications in various aspects and specialties in the field of community management.

This staff serves us, under the oversight of our volunteer board of directors. But in addition to trained and certified staff, we at Scottsdale Ranch also require our board members to get ongoing training.

There are many resources available for HOA board members who wish to improve their knowledge of issues that affect their associations. For example, SRCA board members are automatically made members of Arizona Chapter of the Community Association Institute, providing us access to presentations on topics of great importance to associations, such as legislative updates, legal seminars, presentations on writing contracts, how to engage our members, etc.

Other resources available to SRCA board members include the Scottsdale Council of Homeowners Associations, which provides seminars and presentations on some of these same subjects, plus critical information on reserve funds, pavement contracting, landscaping companies, etc. association, there are also a lot of seminars – at no cost – you can attend, put on by association management companies, the City of Scottsdale, and HOA legal firms.

All of these resources are critical – and especially so for smaller HOAs and sub-associations that don’t have the professional onsite staff that SRCA enjoys. We encourage you to take advantage of these programs, which include:

• City of Scottsdale Virtual College which includes classes for

HOA members and board members. You can find recordings at www.scottsdaleaz.gov/citizen-service/college, which includes a link where you can sign up to attend these events (currently virtual, but we hope they will return to in-person events soon).

• Seminars put on by various HOA legal firms. Do an internet search for Arizona HOA seminar law firm to find some of these.

If your sub-association uses a HOA management company to help your board, it’s likely that management company can provide training for your board members and provide you other training resources.

You want your financial advisor, your doctor, your plumber, and your auto mechanic to be knowledgeable about what they do. As a homeowner in an association, you should set the bar high for your board members and encourage them to become informed and knowledgeable about association management.

Have you registered for your personalized SRCA Homeowner Portal?

The homeowner portal provides easy access to your account balance information, SRCA information, community communications and announcements, documents and various application forms. We encourage all homeowners to register in order to have access to this important information. Please contact the SRCA office at (480) 860-2022 and ask for Genevieve Long, SRCA Community Relations Coordinator, or email glong@scottsdaleranch.org to obtain your Account ID to get started!

Did you know there’s also a mobile app for that?

Once you have registered for the online portal, you will now have access to log into the mobile app from your tablet or phone. The CommunityLink app is available to download in both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store on any Apple/Android devices. Once you have downloaded the app on your phone, log into the mobile app using the same username / password you set up when registering for your homeowner portal account.

The same information you see on the online portal version is available in the CommunityLink app, right at your fingertips!

Randy Mueller Ins Agcy Inc Randy Mueller CPCU CLU ChFC, Agent 10575 N 114th St, Suite 111 Scottsdale, AZ 85259 Bus: 480-391-9390 www.randymueller.com

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