Elements of a Board Package

Elements of a Board Package


Sections:
Cover

Agenda

Prior Meeting Minutes

Arrears Report

Sublet/Lease Report

Financial Variance Report

Staff Write-Ups and Reports

Lawsuits

Open Items (Actionable To-Do List)

Sales and Refinances

Vendor Proposals

Shareholder Correspondence (arrears, chargeback, noise, etc. letters)

Optionally:

Sales History

Unpaid Bills

Miscellaneous Topics

Sections:

Cover

Make sure the cover page includes the address, applicable apartment, and start time to avoid logistic errors.

Agenda

The agenda should be distributed to at least the Board President a few days before the meeting to confirm items to be discussed. It can optionally be sent to the whole Board for input. During the meeting, try to stick to the agenda to not get side tracked. Meetings have a tendency to run many hours long and keeping to the agenda helps keep the meetings shorter.

Minutes

Minutes from the prior Board meeting should be included in the package for approval. When reviewed, make the necessary changes, have your managing agent correct them, and have them send them to you when complete to confirm the changes were made.

Arrears Report

Ask your managing agent to run a report for owners at least 1 month in arrears. This will enable you to concentrate on the bigger offenders. At one month, your managing agent should call the owner. At two months, send a letter. At three, it’s probably time to send them to legal. Ask your managing agent what they’ve done for each owner at least 2 months in arrears.

Sublet/Lease Report

Your managing agent should be tracking your sublets because your building probably has a sublet fee. After one year, the fee should be due again.

Financial Variance Report

The variance report should show spending of actual versus budget expense categories above $1,000. This will help you focus on larger items needing discussion during Board meetings.

Staff Write-Ups and Reports

Staff write-ups should be included to Board packages to the entire Board can understand the status of their building’s employees. Your Superintendent should report on your building’s operations and he is in attendance, should report on staffing matters.

Lawsuits

Lawsuit discussions generally run long as complex decisions must be made. Try to have these discussions at the beginning of the meeting.

Open Items (Actionable To-Do List)

A list of open building items should be kept and updated on a weekly basis. I’ve seen these lists as short as 8 items and as long as 40. This should be included to the Board package so everyone is aware of the progress being made on open issues but all of these should not be touched on in the meeting, it will take too much time.

Sales and Refinances

I’ve seen many Boards include updates on potential sales and refinance applications in the building.

Vendor Proposals

Try to have items up to $1,500 decided upon outside of the meeting, but anything involving 3 bids, construction decisions impacting shareholders, big ticket items, or planning of operational items for the future should be included to the package and discussed in the meeting.

Shareholder Correspondence (arrears, chargeback, noise, etc. letters)

Sometimes, Boards like to see what correspondence was generated in the prior month by the agent for owners. Most importantly are chargeback letters. Ask agents to report on the month’s vendor chargebacks for work done in unit owners’ apartments that can be billed back to owners.

Optionally:

Sales History

Sales histories are included in buildings with high turnover as Board members may be thinking of selling. Some buildings may sell only one unit per year but others may sell many. The managing agent’s closing department should keep a record of these as purchasing attorneys often ask for comparable building sales.

Unpaid Bills

Buildings with low operating cash funds tend to keep a keener eye on expenses. A list of unpaid bills will keep the Board in-the-know with how much money is owed, what it’s owed for, what expenses can wait, and what needs to be paid immediately.

Topics:
Other topics may be discussed during meetings, including the building’s guest access policy, building insurance policy (liability, D&O, environmental, etc.), tax certiorari selection and tax status, Annual Meeting documentation preparation and planning, building security with the use of cameras with a DVR recording device, a website for the building, and forms of owner correspondence including memos or email blasts.

Regarding the many facets of a Board package, you will commonly find that your manager will not know the answers to your questions off the top of their head. What's important is not that they instantly know the answer, but that they return your query in a timely fashion with a firm answer. Having a seasoned manager is nice, but having a diligent and fast manager is best. The combination of the two is a keeper.

(images - package from 1adventure.com, report from macksmets.blogspot.com)