It’s not easy
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.”
—Herbert Swope

It s not easy being a competent director on a condo board of directors.

You, and your fellow directors—as a group, not all individuals—need the skills, experience and judgment in a multiple of disciplines that match the requirements of professional executives and yet you are, most likely, an inexperienced amateur.

And no, you can't rely on the property manager to take care of all the details and the directors just look at the "big picture." You got to know enough to be able to tell if the manager and/or the contractors are taking advantage of you.

Besides, the board can delegate tasks but not the directors' responsibilities.

Required skills and attributes
"We have a "perfect" board now, not one idiot. They're all excellent in their own way, with their own specialty, and they are involved and responsible.

Totally unafraid of giving owners and staff bad news and direction. Not a wimp in the bunch. They don't hold back or suck up to the losers.

I only waited 12 years to see this."
—Condo president, Toronto

All the directors need to understand how a board, or committee works, the roles of the different officers and the need to encourage all directors to have a voice at the meetings.

The directors should have a general knowledge of Nathan's Company Minutes, a handbook for the corporation's board and owner meetings. They also need to have a meeting agenda, have read the minutes of the previous meeting and have read the distributed data before the meeting starts.

Little is worse than a director who comes to the meeting completely unprepared and then wastes everyones time while he gets brought up to speed.

Individual skills
The board should have members who have some skills and experience in:

Human relations
The residents and the owners can be very demanding and insist that the board gives then whatever they want. The directors must be able to separate legitimate complaints from the frivolous ones. They must be able to say no.

The board also has to deal fairly with employees and contractors.

Consistency
No owner, or group of owners, should be favoured. All residents get treated roughly the same.

Thick hide

The directors can't be intimidated by bullies or are afraid to make "enemies." Like fish that swim in water, directors swim in an ocean of criticism. It can be overwhelming and stressful.

Decision making
The directors can't be afraid to make decisions, especially unpopular ones. Procrastination is a disease that paralyzes condo corporations.

Budgeting
The treasurer needs to know how to review the budget that management proposes and has to review the monthly financial reports to insure that all is in order. The other directors should have an understanding on how this is done.

Two directors should sign all cheques and the invoices must match the amounts on the cheques. Anything that is not clear should be satisfactorily explained before the cheques are signed.

Reading reports
The last couple of Reserve Fund Studies, Annual Fire Inspection Reports, engineering reports and audited financial statements need to be read, in detail, by the directors and the contents discussed at the board meetings.

You would be shocked how few directors pay any attention to any of these reports. At one condo in the GTA, when the latest Annual Fire Inspection Report arrived, a new director took it home and read it. He saw that 25% of all the residential units failed to meet the current provincial fire code. He then went through the condo records and found that the last clear Fire Inspection Certificate was issued in 2008.

For the last seven years none of the directors or the last two managers bothered to look at the reports.

There were engineering reports stating that the underground garage needed $1 million worth of repairs, the exterior brickwork required cladding and two engineering reports stated that the elevators were shot and needed to be renovated.

When I asked around, I found that this is common.—editor

Evaluating contracts
The directors ask management to get three quotes from competent contractors and then it is the board's job to read through them; see what is included and just as important, see what is not included.

One company that management suggested we hire, stated in the back of the contract that the condo had to:

•	arrange for and pay for all lifting devices that they needed to do the job.
•	arrange for and pay for the removal of all the scrap, some of which were toxic materials.
•	hire an engineering company to write the specs and sign off that the work met the municipal building codes.

The manager said that he didn't read that part of the contract. No wonder they had the lowest quote; so much was not included.

Mechanical systems
The directors should have a general idea of the components that make up a highrise building.

Building emergencies
In large condos, where there are day time superintendents and cleaners plus security guards around the clock, many directors figure that they don't need to be concerned with this but I believe that is wrong.

In smaller condos, where there no security guards and no superintendent on site after regular working hours, somebody in the building better know what to do in case of an emergency.

The directors should read the information that is in the Emergency Safety Box at the front entrance, know where the stand pipes connection is (what's that?), know where the First Aid box is kept, know what the emergency procedures are and know where the evacuation rally point is.

They should also know the emergency phone numbers for:
• the management company
• plumbers
• the elevator company
• HVAC contractor
• garage door repairs
• electricians
• locksmith


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