Our love was our bond, and even death could not break it (Unknown).
The emergency meeting was scheduled in the afternoon on Monday where the election of the president was planned to be conducted. Joy called Lynda around 10:00 in the morning on Monday to let her know that she took care of both tasks. She explained to Lynda that the consulted was fired, and she spent some time with Bill, who appeared to be excited about the anticipated changes to the committee.
Joy told Lynda that the consultant attempted to warn her by saying that Joy didn’t know anything about Lynda or Mir and she was taking a superfluous risk and there’s a possibility that she would be sorry for making that kind of decision. At the same time the consultant offered Joy his services if something goes wrong with her decision.
While I was acting as if I knew what I was doing, I was nervous about the meeting simply because I had never ever worked with a condominium committee and didn’t know how the owners would react. Nevertheless, had no choice but to give it a try.
When we went to the meeting, we were surprised with the number of owners who were already there. Their smiling faces gave us some hope. All of a sudden, David and Ruth asked us to sit with them. These were the folks who we chatted with us in the restaurant. Ruth asked Lynda if she was nervous? Lynda said, yes, I am. Ruth said you worked with the Sorority extensively, and this committee would be a piece of cake for you. Lynda said, I hope so.
David, Ruth’s husband, looked at me and said they appreciated what we were trying to do for them. I said, thanks for your comments, David.
Joy, Carol, and Bill were sitting at the table which was designated to the members of the committee.
Joy stood up looked at the clock, faced the owners and said, thanks for coming with such short notice. She continued; you all know how I was roped into this position. I wasn’t qualified for the job but at the same time I never had the courage to stand up and say, find somebody else. Speaking of somebody else, neither of you had any interest in offering your services. Consequently, I had no choice, and I became totally dependent on the consultant. I felt as if we lucked out when Lynda and Mir walked into our lives and expressed their interest in helping us out. She continued; the brief work that Lynda and Mir have put together to express their desire to help us out was nothing but a blessing. She said, Lynda and Mir have put together a functional structure for the committee and before I continue, I want you to look at the paper that Lynda is distributing to you all.
Lynda got up and distributed copies of the proposed structure to everybody in the room.
Joy allowed everybody to browse the proposed structure of the committee with the responsibilities summarized for each function.
Joy said before I make a proposal for Lynda to be the president of the committee, I would like you all to know that based on the consultation that I had with Lynda and Mir, I have fired the consultant.
Everybody in the room made a joyful noise.
Joy continued; you all have seen Lynda’s brief resume which was attached to the announcement of the meeting. Now I officially propose Lynda Ali for the position of the president unless otherwise anybody else in the crowed is prepared to contest. She looked around to see if anybody raised his or her hand. She said if nobody else is there to compete with Lynda, I would like to ask you folks to show your support by raising your hand. Everybody in the room raised their hands.
Lynda stood up and turned around to the folks and said thank you everybody. She walked towards the members of the committee and said thanks for trusting me and I hope I never turn you down. Then Lynda turned around, shook hands with Joy and said, thanks for sticking around for such a long period, Joy. Joy said, You’re welcome, Lynda.
Then Lynda turned around to the owners and looked into their eyes. She said thanks for electing me, but I hesitate to accept your kind offer. To me, it’s a tall order and I am not sure if I am the right person for the job. Everybody started making noise, including Joy, basically saying, yes, you’re. When they calmed down, Lynda looked at the owners and said, unless you good folks in this room prepared to help me do my job.
John, who we had met before, shouted, how can we help you do your job, Lynda. She said before I answer that question, let me tell you that Mir and I appreciate the fact that we all have done anything and everything in our lives before we arrived here in Sidney. Now we all are retired and don’t feel obligated for accepting any responsibility to help manage the affaires of the condominium committee whereas the committee is charged with the responsibility to maintain the building, diligently. She said, to be totally honest with you, I don’t see anything wrong with that attitude or logic on the surface. Except to say that we all made the wrong decision to live in a condominium building and expect other “retired” folks to do your dirty work. Needless to say that’s not fair.
Everybody started laughing and Ruth, David’s wife, said, we got the message, Lynda? How can we help. Lynda said, Ruth, you and David know our background better than anybody in this room because we had an opportunity to chat in the restaurant. My point is even though we are retired, we all are capable of puting some time and energy into managing this building and if we do that, we can find ways to avoid increasing monthly maintenance costs.
David shouted, Lynda, just tell us what needed to be done. Lynda said I want you to volunteer for either of the vacant positions to participate and serve on the committee. David said I would like to volunteer for the position of Safety and Security, but I don’t know anything about that. Lynda said, don’t worry, Mir has an idea and he will share it with you.
Betty shouted, Lynda, I worked for an insurance company and know little about it about Insurance & Risk management. If I need anything more, perhaps Mir can help me. What I am trying to say is that I will be delighted to work with you folks on the committee. Lynda said welcome onboard, Betty.
Lynda turned around and looked directly at me and said now I want Mir to describe briefly the positions that have already been filled. I was caught off guard but managed to get up and grab one of the papers on which I had described each position and portfolio. I started looking at the owners and said almost everything you see in the descriptions of the positions on the paper you are looking at is self-explainer. However, I would like to make some comments on certain positions, but I will be available to work with you folks individually when you are ready to work.
Looking at Lynda, I said, in addition to presiding meetings and taking care of a number of activities associated with the portfolio of president, it is critical that Lynda takes charge of “Contractor Management”. The objective of this function is to maximize the performance of the contracting process in our organization. In other words, we are not going to award contracts to our friends as did the consultant. Everybody laughed. I continued, the objective is not to increase the monthly maintenance for the building, therefore, Lynda would have to get more than one quote from the contractors to award any contracts. She will have to develop her own contractors list as we cannot afford to continue doing business with the consultant list of contractors.
Carol has graciously accepted the position of the vice-president, I continued. She also has two portfolios, Financial Management and Communications. I am going to computerize her accounting practices, which also means that she doesn’t have to maintain a ledger anymore. She will still write cheques based on the invoices she receives. However, as soon as Lynda goes to the bank with Joy and gets her signature authenticated at the bank, there will be two signatures on each cheque, Lynda’s and Carol’s. Carol will have to pass the cheque related information to me, and I will enter it in the computerized accounting system. It will minimize Carol’s work and we will be able to do record keeping in a much organized way.
I continued, as far as the Communications portfolio is concerned, Carol will take minutes of the meetings and maintain a database.
I said, when Lynda was offered to be the president, Lynda told Joy that she needs her initially to get things going in the right directions. Hence, Joy told Lynda that doesn’t matter in what capacity; she will be there to support Lynda. Lynda decided to offer Joy a relatively light portfolio – Entertainment. Joy will be responsible for organizing outings. Going out for lunches, dinners, or shows in a group would be Joy’s responsibility and if anybody would like to help Joy, please feel free to talk to Joy.
I said as far as Bill’s portfolios are concerned, he is responsible for the Building Maintenance, and he will perform the functions listed under that function on the paper you’re looking at. The only thing I want to mention is that every owner in the building is looking after their condos by reporting problems associated with their condos and getting them fixed with the help of the committee. At the same time, we need to make sure we have somebody on the committee who is also keeping an eye on the building including the exterior of the building. Bill will be able to schedule annual inspections for the maintenance of the building. Bill will also deal directly with the municipality for the garbage collection and recyclables.
The other portfolio that Bill is responsible for is new to this committee. We felt that there is always a need for somebody to keep track of who is moving out and who is moves in when. This information will be published in the newspaper which Carol is planning to write every couple of months.
I said I have accepted the responsibility of developing and maintaining a capital plan for the building to deal with long-term maintenance and replacement. I would also manage any Reserve Major projects. Perhaps you would like to know the definition of Reserve Fund Projects:
- Reserve fund projects are planned, high-cost repairs or replacements for major capital assets—such as roof replacements, elevator modernizations, or parking garage restorations. They are financed by a dedicated, legally mandated savings account (the reserve fund) to prevent sudden, massive out-of-pocket charges to property owners.
I continued you already know about the Insurance and Risk Management portfolio, which was accepted by Betty and the final portfolio – Safety and Security Portfolio which was accepted by David.
I stopped for a breath and turned around to ask Lynda if there was anything I missed?
She said, yes. You never mentioned anything but the most expensive item in the Financial Statement. I said, okay, let me say something about that.
I continued – We all need to recognize the fact that Joy and other folks on the committee did their best to keep it going, and we should be grateful to them. But if you want Lynda and me to be involved and help you, you need to sallow a hard pill.
Joy said, what do you mean, Mir?
I said throughout your presidency that you have never been able to control the overall cost of the operation to give the owners a break. Consequently, you have been raising monthly maintenance payments.
She said, you’re absolutely right. Perhaps the main reason was being we never had any skills to exercise and benefit from.
I said, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, but we need to face reality. The reality was that you had identified what was causing uncontrollable cost – gas, which was being used for the fireplaces, and you didn’t get any cooperation.
Joy said, you’re absolutely right, Mir. I continued – I am not mentioning this here to embarrass anybody but at the same time we cannot ignore the fact that gas is the major cost of our building.
Joy asked, what am I suggesting?
I said if we as a group of owners are interested in making improvements to better run the building, we shouldn’t expect miracles. Nevertheless, as far as I am concerned there are the following two options:
- Control the cost of the gas by minimizing the use of fireplaces which appeared to be unfattenable; or
- Convert those fireplaces from gas to electricity.
Joy said we didn’t even know if there was possible to convert fireplaces from gas to electricity. She continued – I remember asking the consultant was there any way, we can minimize the expenses associated with gas. His answer was to tell the owners not to leave fireplaces on when they go to beds.
I said here is my answer. Lynda briefly looked into it and found out that there’s a way we can convert those fireplaces from gas to electricity. But here are the realities:
- We need to invest in capital expenditure to convert those fireplaces; and
- Owners must accept the fact that the cost of using fireplaces to heat their fireplaces will be included in their regular monthly electricity charges.
Somebody shouted – WOW!
I said, I don’t expect you to make a decision right here right now. But if you would like me and Lynda to help you. You need to accept the fact that you just cannot sit back and enjoy your wonderful retired lives and expect us to manage the building. Hope you all realize that while we are not seniors but but we are retired and we are entitled to enjoy our lives, too.
As soon as I sat down, Lynda got up and said, perhaps you should take some time to discuss with each other and come back in a week or so to let us know but at the same time, please keep it in mind that Mir and I can always go back to living in Vegas and we don’t need this aggravation.
Joy got up and addressed to the owners, saying, I am working with you almost three years and what I have done most of the time was to listen to the consultant as I had no basic skills to challenge him. Would you be surprised if I said I learned more about managing a condominium building during the last two weeks dealing with Lynda and Mir. Hence, I trust them with my heart, and I would support their idea of converting our fireplaces from gas to electricity.
All of a sudden Carol and Bill got up and said we agreed with Joy. Then one-by-one the rest of the folks in the room stood up to demonstrate their support.
I looked at Lynda and said, you did it, kid.
