I was reminded this week of a common pitfall: Don't choose your authority to fit the argument you're trying to make at the time. read more

Recently, I bought new mountain bike, after not owning a bike for years. When the bike arrived, I unpacked it, put it together, bolted on the wheels and handlebars, hopped on and just rode off. People often say you never forget how to ride a bike to mean that, once learned, certain skills never go away. Sadly, that same phrase does not apply to many aspects of managing associations. While a manager's skills endure and improve, the facts and issues for each project, and even within the same project, can differ significantly. It's a bit like the difference between knowing how to ride a bike in general and knowing how to operate a specialized piece of equipment like a track bike or downhill mountain bike, yet that analogy even falls a bit short. read more

Since our enforcement hearing presentation at WSCAI's Made for Managers Day a couple of weeks ago, we have been getting a lot of feedback on the variety of procedures employed for community association enforcement hearings, generally with the question "is it okay to do it this way?" First, a big thanks to all of you who attended our presentation (and MFMD 2017 in general)! Second, the primary takeaway from our presentation and, for those of you who did not attend, for enforcement hearings in general is twofold: 1) Follow your governing documents; and 2) be reasonable. read more