2021

The Fourth Quarter Finale

By Jeffry Gay, CMCA, AMS / Published October 2021

The year 2021 has been an unprecedented year of change and adaptation for everyone in our industry. Community association boards can often get caught up with the holiday season in the fourth quarter and allow some key things to get pushed back to the following year. In the interest of keeping your fourth quarter responsibilities in focus, we present some reminders which may or may not be pertinent for your community.

Photo by iStockphoto.com/felixmizioznikov

Fourth Quarter Checklist

• Discuss how your community will handle trick or treaters at Halloween. Will you place your security gates in a hold-open status for the night? Will you organize a Trunk or Treat event during the day to keep the little ones off the street after dark? Do you allow homeowners to address this without community involvement?
• Are you prepared to approve your 2022 budget? Have you set a date for the approval meeting? Have you distributed the appropriate documents to hold this meeting? Condominiums are typically required to send a copy of the draft budget to their membership. HOAs may only need to send notice that the proposed budget is available for review. Check your governing documents to see what your community is required to do to get next year’s budget approved.
• Have you engaged a CPA or accounting professional to do your 2021 year-end financial report? Most moderate to large associations are compelled to do a compilation, a review, or an audit. Which do you need to do, and have you hired someone to do this? The report isn’t due until 2022, but planning for this starts now.
• Have you reset your community lights that are on timers to match the level of darkness when the clocks fall back?
• Have you adjusted your pool heater temperatures that may have been turned off during the warmer months?
• Have you ordered a fresh batch of mulch for your common grounds? Most communities refresh their mulch in the fall, after the summer rains have wreaked their havoc. Playgrounds have very specific mulch requirements, so be sure your depth levels are appropriate for your facility.
• Have you addressed how your community will handle putting up holiday decorations on your common areas? If you hire a decorator company, you should call them early as these companies book up quickly. If you are using volunteers, you should organize them now; set dates early so people can plan. Be sure you have the supplies you need to coordinate the project successfully.

     In conclusion, each community has its own unique fourth quarter obligations. Hopefully this checklist will remind everyone to examine the association’s immediate horizons. Community association boards often tend to relax at the sight of the first holiday commercials on TV (which now appear in September), but their responsibilities are actually year-round. Good luck crossing the 2021 finish line.

Jeffry Gay, CMCA, AMS

Divisional Director—Sarasota for Leland Management

     Jeffry Gay, CMCA, AMS, is divisional director—Sarasota for Leland Management. He can be contacted at (941) 866-6752 or email jgay@lelandmanagement.com. For more information about Leland Management, visit www.lelandmanagement.com.