How to run remote HOA Board Meetings: Read our 5 pro tips!

5 tips to running effective remote Board Meetings. Many events and meetings have been cancelled or postponed to adhere to local social distancing requirements. As a board member, navigating these times is not an easy task, but it is not unmanageable. 

  1. It is important to do your research in order to find a great platform. There are several free options you can use online. Consider the dynamic of your group and try out different options to find the right fit for everyone. Whether your board chooses Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom (This is what our teams are using), Microsoft Teams, Miro, or even just a telephonic conference call, association business can be discussed from the comfort and safety of your home! 

  2. Communication is key. Keeping everyone in the loop provides a sense of comfort and encourages them to engage more. You should continue sending meeting reminders and share meeting minutes via email and/or on the association portal. Invite them to learn the electronic meeting platforms with you and listen to their input. Many of your homeowners may use these platforms for their working from home shift. Some of our Community Managers are even having "practice" runs before the meeting to ensure you feel comfortable on game day.  

  3. Maintain a routine sense of normalcy. It may feel a little overwhelming having to switch gears so abruptly in how your board conduct meetings. Thus, it is important to instigate routine and carry over regular habits. Create and share an agenda, determine objectives, establish a meeting schedule and time limits, and try to discuss business as usual. The platform for the meeting has changed, but the meeting content doesn't have to.

  4. Use this time to strengthen connections and build on skills. Make time before the meeting to have personal discussion. How is everyone doing? What helpful resources has everyone read recently? Connect with one another and nurture collaboration between members now more than ever. 

  5. Utilize your partners. Your Community Manager and legal counsel are always here to help, especially in times such as this. They can provide assistance and resources to alleviate the challenges that accompany the transition to meeting remotely. 

Remote meetings can seem strange at first, especially if your board is used to in-person meetings, but practice makes perfect! You'll be pros in no time. 

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7 Tips on Balancing Parenting with Working Remotely

Parents are often challenged with balancing many roles­­­­­­­­­­—nurse, teacher, confidant, lion-tamer. Okay, maybe not the last one but I know sometimes it feels that way. You are also a competent member of working society and, in a sense, work two full time jobs. You navigate through these separate roles perfectly, balancing each on the end of your balancing pole in perfect harmony. Doesn’t that sound just like a Hallmark commercial? But it’s true! You were a pro and still can be, even amid these uncertain times. In the words of Dr. Ian Malcom, “life (uh) finds a way.” So, here are seven tips to get your balancing act back on track!

1. Structure. Schedule. Plan.

This one is a no brainer but bears emphasis. To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a household in possession of children need structure. Or something like that. At any rate, children need routine. Structure helps your children navigate new and complex situations, resist impulses, and lay the foundation for a successful future. Brainstorm ideas to bring structure to the mayhem. Set a schedule. Create new rules.  Set a time for learning, create opportunities for your children to amuse themselves. It is, after all, the captain that helms the boat, not the crew.

2. Create Separate Work Areas.

Find a space within your home where you can be both focused on work and readily available for the needs of your family. Do the same for your munchkins. Somewhere separate but readily available. The availability of both of your workspaces will lower any anxiety that may build when you are out of the other’s sight. In time, these locations will elicit productive sentiments for both parties---an epicenter for faking it till you make it, essentially. The productive association of your pseudo office/classroom will help you all get some work done even with no motivation to do so.

3. Develop your quality time routine.

This goes back to the need for structure. Designate a time where your focus is strictly on each other­—whether daily walks, kitchen help, time for arts & crafts—anything that you like to do together. This should be something you schedule as a break from work and something special you do together when the workday is done. Even before Shelter in Place, you did not sit in front of your computer uninterrupted eight hours a day and your children were not chained to their desks. Combine your breaks with family times and mitigate future interruptions while also giving your children something to look forward to.

4. Take Shifts.

Many of you are fortunate enough to have other adults in your household, whether a parent, significant other, or spouse. Perhaps you take the morning shift and they take the evenings. You’re on nap duty and they take snack time. There is no need to put everything all on one person; give someone else the opportunity to be a Rockstar.  

5. Be Intentional and Strategic.

Wake up half an hour to an hour earlier than usual to complete those tasks your darling progeny would ordinarily be a distraction from. Utilize your quality time routine to also get some exercise in (and tucker out little Johnny in the process—look who now has more time to make some calls!). Meal prep snacks and lunch if need be on Sundays. This could even be a fun activity for you to do with your kids.

6. Stop fighting Technology.

The tablet doesn’t have to be your enemy. While yes it can be a great source of distraction, it can also be a great learning tool. Your kids already want to be glued to the screen, why not meet them in the middle with some fun and educational sites and apps? Maybe your child is in the dinosaur stage. See what kind of trouble they can get into on the Smithsonian website. Maybe they want to learn more about post-colonial cuisine. There’s a YouTube for that (which I may or may not have stumbled upon and binged). The possibilities are endless.

7. Cherish the Experience.

Make no mistake balancing your two full time jobs at once is a challenge but consider for a moment the gift that you have been given. You get to be there for your kids for moments you may have otherwise missed. There are milestones to be witnessed, conversations that would not have been had, comedic moments that would have been reserved for someone else. Recognize the moment that we are in; we are in the middle of a memory in the making. Yes, you and your family have encountered a great storm, but at least you are in the same boat. So, let go of the sails and embrace the chaos.

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Challenging the status quo of Residential Experience

Hi all, I hope 2019 is off to an amazing start and you are keeping up with your new year’s resolution! Just like you, I&I has goals to reach as well. Today, we are going to talk about some of our new features that are helping us achieve our goal of changing the status quo of residential experience.

Let’s talk about some of the 2019 changes. First, it’s not change for the sake of change. That said, change is inevitable, and something to be embraced, etc. etc., but that’s not a good enough reason to change. A good reason to change is because you want to remove friction from a process and make it simpler for residents to connect with their community association.  As with all system or process changes, these implementations are done with the community’s best interests in mind.

The expectations of community living are changing. Residents are expecting a much higher focus on experience from their community associations (and us).

Help me welcome our Resident Success Team

We used to have a traditional system of having one person answer the phone and politely making the transfer to the correct extension. However, Community Managers were often out on the field leaving our callers no choice but to leave a voicemail on certain occasions. Well, I am happy to say that gone are the days of residents needing to leave a voicemail if they call during business hours. Our Resident Success Agents (RSAs) are part of what is called a “Round Robin” approach. Simply put, the call gets automatically sent to the agent that has been idle the longest. Our RSA team is equipped with a ton of new features to better support our residents. Here’s a quick list:

1.    Live chat capabilities

2.    Internal and external knowledge-based articles

3.   Searchable community news feeds

4.    Resident interaction history all in one screen

Our purpose for this change is to provide the best possible service, accurately, and without any transfers or voicemails. Keep in mind that this is for residents. Board Members should still contact their Community Managers directly by means of either their direct office or cell phone. We feel this is a more cohesive approach to getting things done!

Introducing our unity portals

We’re going to significantly invest in designing ways to help residents better connect with each other and their community association. Our unity platform is the first step in that direction. The old online portal was through a 3rd party that provided us with zero customization. We are now the designers and creators of the online unity portal. We named it unity simply because that is the sole purpose of our system, to bring unity to your neighborhood. Some of the key features that are either available now or coming soon are:

1.    Intuitive search bar for questions

2.    Live chat (see RSA section above)

3.    Community forum for questions, ideas, and suggestions

4.    Training videos and tutorials

5.    Board member reports for violations history, architectural statuses and work orders

6.    Frequently viewed or trending topics automatically highlighted

7.    Group chat capabilities for Board Members and Committee Members

We are certainly excited for these upgrades but challenging the status quo of residential experience is no easy task. Thanks to all of our insightful customers, we have this wonderful opportunity to help create frictionless systems for our residents to enjoy.

We’ll not bore you with all of the details and thinking behind the new internal processes – you’re busy people, and our main intention for this post was to let our clients know about the changes to the user interface side. We thank you and welcome all ideas and feedback below.

-       Sal Silva, CEO of I&I

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