ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT
ANSWERS TO COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Will you have a full time person for Association management duties?
Yes, GCMS will employ a licensed professional property manager to serve as your CAM licensed association manager. Routine, on-site inspections will be performed. If you feel on-site office hours are necessary, we would be happy to discuss your needs and requirements.

2. What schedule will this person have?
The manager will be responsible for the property 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. GCMS's regular office hours will be 9 a.m. - 5p.m., Monday through Friday. This is generally when most Association business falls during the regular work-week.

3. What qualifications, training, and experience will this person have?
The person chosen will be licensed to manage Associations, will be trained personally by GCMS’s General Manager, and will have at least three years experience with condominium management. We would hope to employ a manager with extensive computer knowledge, but if not, our staff will be able to train the manager on all of our systems.

4. Will this person be able to serve as Asst. Secretary to the Board of Directors?
Yes. The Manager will be expected to perform all of the tasks required of the secretary of the Board of Directors. Included among these responsibilities would be the taking and providing of minutes to all Board and Owner meetings. Although on the payroll of the management company, this person clearly works for the Board of the Association. As part of this, they would be responsible, with the supervision of GCMS’s General Manager, for the supervision of all maintenance staff and the maintenance of all financial records.

5. What computer software do you have for keeping financial records?
QuickBooks Pro

6. What is your position on managing with the limits of the approved budget?
It is our firm policy to work within the budget approved by the Board of Directors. We are bound by State statutes, Condominium documents, and our own professional codes of conduct, to work within the budgets we are given. We typically provide a preliminary budget for the review of the Board at the date assigned us.

7. How will you handle the maintenance operations?
We would need to know how much association work is currently being contracted out and what the Association budget for maintenance allows. We arrange our own payroll. At some properties, the employees are those of GCMS’s and at others, they are those of the Association. Regardless, it is our responsibility to professionally supervise these individuals and to process the payroll and its subsequent reimbursement from the association. The reimbursement is designed to be at a cost only basis. However, we do this by adding an administrative surcharge to the payroll cost.

8. What qualifications and training will these people have?
We will employ only experienced maintenance personnel with checked and approved references. At times, we do additional checks on credit and criminal records, depending upon the position sought. We have several highly qualified maintenance personnel. They participate in on-going training on the various aspects of their work.

9. What is your procedure for scheduling activities for maintenance personnel?
Our procedures would first involve implementing the policies and procedures as set out by the Board of Directors. From this information, we would set up schedules for completion of work and the subsequent follow-up inspections of such work.

10. How do you determine that maintenance is done satisfactorily and in a timely manner?
The process begins with making sure that the work orders are clearly written in terms of identifying a problem. The work order is then logged onto a master log with the time, date, initiating party, and assigned staff, listed. The status of the work order is maintained by the assigned person in our office. According to a detailed schedule, the work order is followed up on until the work is completed and verified. Although this sounds complex, it has become a fairly routine process.

11. What do you propose regarding our existing maintenance personnel?
We would give all of the present employees recommended by the Board an opportunity to remain with GCMS.

12. What specific management services will you provide to the association?
GCMS will be responsible for being the arms and legs of the Board of Directors. We will attempt to implement the policies and procedures as directed by the Board. We will initiate the budget process and follow through to see that the budget is performed. We serve as a consultant on regulatory issues. We work at the will and for the benefit of the Board of Directors as you represent the individual owners, both rental and non-rental.

13. What office expenses will you expect the association to reimburse you for?
None.

14. How do you solicit input on the quality of your management performance?
We solicit input through our annual owner’s survey. We would accept direction from the Board and request feedback on our performance during Board meetings. We attempt to meet with our individual rental owners at least once each year during visits to their individual units. We work diligently to keep open all possible lines of communications. Without this, we have no opportunity to be successful!

15. How do you propose to measure your success in meeting the expectations of the Board of Directors?
Although we request a formal evaluation annually, we have found that if we have to depend on the meeting for feedback, we have done a poor job of developing open lines of communication with both the individual and collective Directors of the Board. We measure our success by how well we have met your expectations. We are hired by the Board. It is your opinion by which we must judge our performance. You are the ones who will terminate our contract if we fail to meet your expectations. We obtain the feedback aggressively through every resource we can gather. This is the core of our operation.

16. What management fee will you require for this association management service?
Our monthly fee is negotiable, dependent largely upon the size of the association and if any on-site office hours are required.

17. How long do you want a contract for and what will be its renewal conditions?
In order to attract the quality of management staff we require and we believe the Board would require, we will need a two year commitment from the Board, subject to the standard termination clauses based on our performance. We would see an annual renewal based on the same conditions as the primary agreement, unless terminated by the Board.