These first 90 days have been fast-paced and exciting. In this blog, I’d like to take a moment to share some wins, some challenges, and what we see coming next for CBHA.

In June the newly elected board took time to inventory all items, big and small, that each board trustee has heard, seen, and believed the board should take on. The list was long! We categorized short-, medium-, and long-term goals and discussed what was feasible within our community’s passed budget.  The result was a 90 plan with goals for each month.

The board trustees worked hard to juggle learning their new roles with limited guidance and ensuring we delivered on as much of the first 90-day goals as possible. I’m proud to share that we were able to check off most of those goals and will close out on most remaining items in the near term.

Throughout this process we’ve seen a lot of progress but also navigated some challenges. Here’s an overview of some key WINS and CHALLENGES.

[WIN] Board, employee, and management company collaboration has added velocity to our ability to deliver results to our community. We have worked hard to establish working guidelines within the board to help us move through tricky situations guided by our Mission and Values. We have documented 9 policies that are tied to governing documents and our regulatory responsibility resulting in a clear understanding of the “why” behind routine association business. We are now working on internal procedure process optimization and documentation which will add standardization to board owned processes such as our delinquent collection processes and compliance enforcement processes. 

[WIN] Several small but impactful changes have been made or scheduled that focus specifically on increasing the safety of our community. You will soon see safety ladders in the marina, we are working with a member to reposition signs to signal appropriate speed limits, we are ordering new swings for the park, our crew are now setting out cones when working on the roadside to improve visibility, we are working with members to reduce overgrown landscaping decreasing fire risk. It has been a pleasure working together to address concerns and we encourage the entire community to maintain open communication with the board and each other to help ensure our community is a safe place for all residents.

[WIN] Increased transparency and communication. We have intentionally focused on improving transparency and communication and have published committee meeting times and locations, published committee meeting minutes, focused on informative newsletter articles, and allow all members to speak at board meetings. We hope to launch surveys (distributed via e-mail) in the near term. Any other ideas for communication efforts? Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

[CHALLENGE] Unexpected permitting delays will result in delayed use of new well. While our new well is drilled, functional, and delivering quality water we have several steps yet to complete with both Thurston County and the State. We currently have a punch list of several site preparations to work through before our site approval is finalized and our source permit is issued. While none of these steps should be alarming, they will take continued dedicated efforts from the board, water committee, vendors, and employees. As the timeline becomes more concrete, we will share more information.

[CHALLENGE] Our to-do list outpaces our resources. The energy and momentum behind our “to-do list” are exciting. We have more work to do than we have volunteers or employee hours. In some cases, we have more maintenance or infrastructure improvements to do than our budget allows. Our ability to tackle the to-do list will be constrained; while we can’t expand our budget (a hot topic that we are not considering at this time), what we can do is come together to volunteer time and efforts. This community has a long history of hands-on investment from our members, and we hope to continue this legacy together.

As our first 90 days end, we find ourselves on solid footing. The next several months will take us into fall and the holiday season. We look forward to settling into the cozy season while keeping up the momentum. Here’s what we hope to accomplish:

• Annual rules review
• Complete our regulatory impact analysis on new HOA regulations
• Plan and execute mid-year (fiscal year) budget review

We hope to see you at a board meeting soon!

Here’s to the next 90 days!