Page 20 - CooperatorNews New Jersey Spring 2021

20 COOPERATORNEWS NEW JERSEY —SPRING 2021 NJ.COOPERATORNEWS.COM MACKOUL RISK SOLUTIONS Mackoul Risk Solutions are insurance advisors to over 1,400 condominiums, cooperatives, and HOAs in New Jersey and New York for over 30 years. Our goal is to provide unmatched, quality service by combining the power of digital technology, forward-thinking and a personable, knowledgeable staff. WWW.MACKOUL.COM | 866-MACKOUL | INFO@MACKOUL.COM Visit our website that features various online services including: Visit our website that features various online services including: Request & Print Online Certi cates Policy Change Request Video Proposals Client Portal Instant Quote Platform Mackoul School Webinars Claim Reporting INSURANCE MATTERS AND WE KNOW INSURANCE Educational Resources WWW.MACKOUL.COM WE ADVISE, YOU SUCCEED accesspm.com NJ Offices Flemington, Edison, Paramus, Mt. Laurel 908.237.9900 PA Offices Lehigh Valley, Horsham 610.791.1600 SINCERE Est. 1989 good idea either. “You can’t force people to serve on the board,” she says. “They have to want to do it.” Another consider- ation is whether compulsory board ser- vice would turn off potential buyers. If your community required every owner to serve on the board at some point in their time with the community and no other neighboring community did the same, it might become a consideration for po- tential buyers, who might balk at the re- quirement and look for a unit elsewhere. Also, what would the community do if a resident had agreed to serve for a year or two, but sold their unit before serving? Would there be a penalty of some kind? The enforcement aspect of such a re- quirement might be problematic. Service in the Time of COVID One outgrowth of the COVID-19 pan- demic has been the shift of both board meetings and general meetings to on- line meeting platforms like Zoom, as re- ported by managers, owners, and board members around the country. The shift is likely to be permanent and is apt to make board and committee service at co-op and condo communities more manage- able for those who volunteer, and more realistic for those thinking about volun- teering. Zoom meetings can be held at any time, from anywhere, eliminating many of the concerns (and excuses) own- ers have about being in a specific place at a specific time to serve. In the final analysis, board service is a commitment that every qualified resi- dent of a co-op or condo should make at least once. The time you put in will ulti- mately benefit you in many ways—ways that might not be apparent at first, and ways that you might not expect. In the end, the good you do will come back to you. Commit to your community, and take an active role in making it the best it can be. ■ Cooper Smith is a staff writer for Coopera- torNews. OVERCOMING... continued from page 19 “Th e major challenge to board service is the per- ception of how much time board members must give to service on a board.” —Ray, board member who’s been given the task.” Worker safety and proper systems maintenance should of course be front- most in a board’s collective mind as they handle the business of their building or HOA—but so should reducing potential liability to the association. Often it is not. “There’s always this desire for people to get things done cheaper—no matter the job,” says Ryan Fleming, also a partner in JGS Insurance. “Quite often, the true costs and risks inherent aren’t fully ap- preciated. When considering a project, the work that needs to be done is only the beginning. There’s also property exposed to damage, and people exposed to po- tential bodily injury. Insurance products provide coverage for these exposures for sure—but are those exposures worth the risk to a building’s insurance policy for the savings in project cost? Hiring some- one internally to perform a job of any type will indeed expose the association to paying workers compensation benefits if there’s an injury. Hiring a third party and making sure they have their own workers compensation coverage provides a solid layer of protection. It also protects the budget from unforeseen additional pre- miums, or unexpected payroll. Special- ists are specialists for a reason. When you hire one, you are hiring their many years of experience to ensure a job well done.” In the final analysis, management and association boards must consider a multitude of factors when making deci- sions about the appropriate upkeep of their exterior building systems. Those systems are key to the continued optimal function of the association’s most impor- tant physical component: the property itself. The value of individual units will rise and fall based on the condition and function of these systems—everything from parking lots to roofs, façades to windows, doors to gutters. At the same time, community administrators must be ever-mindful of finding the right people to handle the many facets of maintaining the property, from inspections to repairs to major capital projects. Those chosen to do this work should be appropriately credentialed and qualified, both for the benefit of the association and for the sake of their own safety. Never be penny-wise and dollar foolish when dealing with both the physical health of your property and the physical safety of your staff. ■ A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for CooperatorNews, and a published novelist. EXTERIOR... continued from page 15