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12\/11\/2023<\/strong><\/p>\n Board Members in Attendance: JJ, Jan, John, David, Karen O\u2019Neil Gilliam, landscape contractor Budget Discussion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Management Discussion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Any community bigger than a few dozen homes needs management. A volunteer board simply can\u2019t keep up with all the finances, billing and collections, managing vendors, monitoring the work, and making sure everyone gets paid. Plus there\u2019s insurance, taxes, utility bills, and any number of other things. So we hire a company to manage these things.<\/p>\n For 20-odd years, Chestnut Hill was managed by Halcyon. Halcyon was owned by a guy named David, who had a staff who pretty much kept up with everything. The board set priorities and Halcyon executed them. If something needed attention, Halcyon told us and we worked together to address it. The relationship was so good that the board became used to simply making decisions, and waiting for Halcyon to let us know if there was a problem. We didn\u2019t have to manage the management.<\/p>\n In 2001, CAMS approached David with an offer to take over all the properties Halcyon managed. They would buy the contracts. David did what anyone would do: he made the best decision for himself. He took the buyout and retired.<\/p>\n Initially, the board was optimistic about the change. CAMS was a big company, well established, with technology and resources Halcyon didn\u2019t have. Yes, there would be bureaucracy, but we had a single property manager to route everything through. We expected her to monitor things like Halcyon did, and let us know if anything needed attention, just like always.<\/p>\n It took about seven months to realize that CAMS exemplifies everything negative that people think about bureaucracy. They have their ways of doing things, and if that didn\u2019t fit Chestnut Hill, then Chestnut Hill just had to adjust. Different pieces of CAMS didn\u2019t talk to each other. Accounting did it\u2019s own thing. Then the manager changed, and the new manager, while agreeable enough, didn\u2019t know our community, was too busy to get to know our community, and just wasn\u2019t pro-active. He never said so, but I got the impression he was just as frustrated with the accounting department as we were.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when we realized that we had to keep a close eye on CAMS. We had to follow up on things that should have happened automatically. We found out some bills were 60 days past due. Homeowner communications were getting lost. If they paid a bill and didn\u2019t know what budget item to use, they wouldn\u2019t bother to ask. Sometimes they would just put it anywhere. Sometimes they would invent a new budget item. It took the board months to figure out where our money was going.<\/p>\n So we started looking for new management. We didn\u2019t do this in public for two reasons. One: we couldn\u2019t have too many cooks in the kitchen. A complicated decision like this is more difficult the more voices are involved. Besides, this is why the community has a board: to handle these things so every homeowner doesn\u2019t have to worry about it.<\/p>\n And Two: we were afraid of retaliation from CAMS. The relationship was that bad. And this turned out to be wise; when they heard we hired someone else, CAMS got even more stubborn. First they tried to tell us we were not allowed to fire them. Once we showed them enough evidence to convince them we would win in court, they finally agreed to turn over management, but they\u2019re dragging their heels, making us jump through bureaucratic hoops and generally making the process harder than is has to be.<\/p>\n However, after much research, interviewing different companies, and deliberating, we believe we\u2019ve a good decision. We sorted through the salesmanship of several companies, and hired the one that didn\u2019t try to sell us, but instead had a conversation to see if we were a good fit. Town & Country is not the flashiest, they\u2019re not the most modern, and they\u2019re not even the cheapest. But they\u2019re the one that seems to fit this community the best.<\/p>\n Yes, change is inconvenient. But sometimes we have to go through a short period of discomfort to have better times ahead.<\/p>\n Communications will go through Lisa at Town & Country, not a call center.<\/p>\n John is our property manager, and he is frequently on-site. He can bring things like pool fobs and parking placards, rather than having to mail them or have homeowners pick them up.<\/p>\n John said a few words about Town & Country\u2019s philosophy:<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n 851 Lost Creek Dr, Columbia, SC 29212<\/p>\n
20 or so homeowners<\/p>\n\n
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But we can\u2019t keep dipping into savings. We have to build savings, for when the real emergencies come.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n
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