CAI-NJ April 2021

A YEAR LATER... from page 16.

Is this a warning sign? Is your community protected from the unknown? What will be the impact of reopening all closed amenities? Will this reveal unknown costs? Should we plan for the unexpected i.e. weather-related events, impact to power outages, other variants of COVID-19 ? COVID-19 highlighted, in many ways, how unprepared we were. What can your community do to help insulate itself from significant events like these in the future? Can we plan for targeted cumulative surplus funds to insulate us from potential deficit challenges in the future? How we as a community address the operating surpluses or deficits, leads us back to the importance of the budget. This is one of the most important planning tools a commu- nity has. “Think Outside the Box” but do so while utilizing this mantra: consider the unexpected and unanticipated — things do not always go as planned. The budget helps ensure the community’s financial stability in the near and long-term future. It is important that the association’s budget be as complete and accurate as possible. This allows the board to be able to monitor the association’s financial status CONT I NU E S ON PAGE 20

management to reach out and communicate with everyone and with greater frequency. With these advances, the community could consider partnering with a 3rd party to offer on-line courses with fee sharing. Other technology improvements might help solve the inability of many who cannot return to the management offices to work (large self-managed communities). The surpluses could help cover these costs which helps in the short term as well as long term future of the community. Is our operating deficient a warning sign? At the opposite end of the spectrum are the operating deficits that were a direct result of impacts from COVID-19 .

“COVID-19 highlighted, in many ways, how unprepared we were.”

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