Category: Mentoring

Posts that are designed to educate and inform viewers without reference to any particular event or incident.

Mgmt case study #1 – update2

Management Case Study #1 update2 — BOD good faith conduct

George K. Staropoli, December 31, 2021

MUST READ FOR CONCERNED MEMBERS

SCG BOARD UNEQUIVALLY DEMONSTRATED THAT IT’S A ROGUE BOD

SCG members, as a PUD, do not have title to any of the assets of the association. SCG, as represented by its board, owns title. Members have  beneficial interest, but not title to some $22 million in revenues, $21 million in reserve funds (cash equivalents), and $64 million in assets as reported on its IRS 990 filing for 2019.

The tone of  Thursday’s board CHAT meeting was clearly secretive for the Directors only and to say as little as possible for member consumption — on a “need to know basis” and the members didn’t need to know.  The president came across as the man-in-charge and making statements that ignored the statutes and governing documents; misstating that the CHAT was not a legal board meeting, just a chat amongst the directors, with a few acceptable attendees allowed to speak. 

Much to the arrogance and  naiveté of the president and the directors, I have had over 10 years dealing with Arizona legislature, proposing bills, and testifying for HOA reforms.  I played an important role in the establishment of OAH hearing HOA member complaints, vehemently opposed by CAI. The SCG “clique” has some 13 CAI members, former and current.

Read this important update that serves a warning to all those large active-adult or master planned HOAs that this could be happening to you.

Management Case Study #1 – update1

Events at the HOA featured in this study continue to unfold. The board has been silent since the Dec. 16 email from the president. A question was addressed to the Executive Administrator of CAM asking whether or not she was in charge. The general manager (GM) had quit and there was no announcement whatsoever as to the status of CAM. She was listed on the staff of CAM, without any statement regarding the status of the GM.

In 2 days of this writing, Dec. 30, the SCG will hold a planned Q & A session where members can ask the BOD questions, sort of a townhall meeting. Would you advise the BOD to hold the meeting? If so, how should it deal with hard questions concerning its past performance?

January 2022 will see the campaign and election of board directors, and the right of members to write-in names of members not approved or subject to the SCG election and voting process. The BOD controls and approves the selection of “candidates” and regulates their campaign procedures — can they speak at clubs, what can be said, failure to attend a meeting disqualifies a potential candidate, etc.

A majority of the directors will be elected at this time, as a result of resignations, permitting an organized membership to gain control of the board. As in the case of our national politics, should the old BOD deny the results — as it seems to be the posture it is taking — or accept the reality of the vote?

Publications on HOA constitutionality and legal structure

Peter F. Drucker was an internationally re-nowned management consultant in the 50s and author of the management “bible,” The Practice of Management. “A classic since its publication in 1954, The Practice of Management was the first book to look at management as a whole and being a manager as a separate responsibility.” Bob Woodward you should know.  View my publications (none more than $6.00) here:

. 

Questionable CAI/FCAR 2020 facts

My analysis of the data presented in the 2020-2021 Statistical Review and CAI Factbook for 2020 by the CAI affiliate, Foundation for Community Association Research, brings me to suspect the data.  I painstakingly extracted the raw data as presented and subjected it to my own analysis using an EXCEL spreadsheet.  Almost immediately a very disturbing result appeared that should have been obvious to a statistician as highly unlikely.  Of the 27 top states by number of  HOA organizations, my analysis revealed a fixed 3.3% of Volunteers to HOA residents for the state. Restated, each state showed 3.3% of all HOA residents as CAI volunteers.research

From a point of view of statistics, events and activities generally follow the normal probability curve, more or less, but when there is no variation then the conclusion is that some other factors are at play that produced the result.  The normal distribution is the most important probability distribution in statistics because many continuous data in nature and psychology displays this bell-shaped curve when compiled and graphed.  For example, if we randomly sampled 100 individuals we would expect to see a normal distribution frequency curve for many continuous variables, such as IQ, height, weight and blood pressure.

Consequently, this result should have been caught if it were some error, or if not an error then an explanation as to what caused this highly unusual result.  There was no explanation. Therefore the validity and integrity of the Statistical Review is suspect. The data used to generate the results cannot be accepted as a factual free choice representation of the underlying reality.  To repeat, the “error” is too obvious not to  have stood out and been corrected. As such, the entire factsheet is suspect, and probably earlier factsheets as well.

Looking for some rational explanation, I then looked into the possibility that the Top 27 states were somehow different from all the states so I examined a random 5 states, one from each corner and one from central US.  They, too, showed this suspect 3.3% ratio.

My research also revealed  the percent of HOA residents to the total US population as 21.1% and 22.4% (a variation ascribed to intermediate rounding of numbers and not significant). CAI has touted the number as 25% – 27%,  also in 2019, but in 2016 the number was in line with the 22% figure.  I cannot explain how this CAI number was obtained.

Hopefully, CAI and FCAR have an explanation.

For the mathematically inclined, the EXCEL spreadsheet (PDF) can be viewed. http://pvtgov.org/pvtgov/downloads/2020 data analysis.pdf

In case you were wondering about my background in statistics, I have taken courses in statistical analysis in psychological research, product marketing  (MS Management), participated in a queuing theory analysis of computer messaging throughput for international wall street firm, set up the methodology for the calculation of business sales for business brokerage industry, and analyzed the TV show, Deal or No Deal, probabilities of winning the million dollar prize (see starman.com website).

Advocate HOA practical education webinar

After viewing Raelene Schifano’s first webinar I was impressed with her detailed knowledge and involvement in HOA issues. Her education series dealing with the nitty-gritty of HOAs is much needed and should be helpful to the average HOA homeowner.  She’s undertaking practical and knowledgeable proactive steps toward HOA reforms. While based in WA state, I strongly believe all concerned homeowners seeking information from an advocate and not from your HOA or its attorney, especially if he’s a CAI member, to listen up.

From her promo:

“HOA Fightclub302

“I will offer this educational series every Saturday, August 14th at 11:00am CST. I allow everyone to participate and offer solutions. Hope to see you there.”