Share a journey to a 60-unit Florida condominium and see how this community improved communication.

Madiera Cove Condominiums

Life’s best lessons are by example, if you are paying enough attention to catch them. Their new board started a volunteer program. Perhaps your community could do something similar. You don’t need to be a board member to care about the community and want to help.

The Florida Community Association Journal‘s Community of Excellence Finalist in Communication is Madiera Cove Condominium Association of Saint Petersburg.

by Jennifer Rahman

Madiera Cover is a luxury, waterfront condominium development located two blocks from beautiful Madeira Beach and the Gulf of Mexico. “The Cove” is nestled on the shores of Boca Ciega Bay, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Gulf Boulevard and the 150th Avenue, yet within easy walking distance of grocery and drug stores, the local post office, convenience stores, the local library, City Hall, restaurants, and other small shops. Madiera Cove consists of three buildings with a total of 60 individual residences of aproximately 1,350 square feet of living area each, which overlook magnificent water views and lush, tropical foliage from large lanais. A clubhouse is located on the waterfront and adjacent to the lovely, heated pool which affords residents the opportunity to socialize, exercise and relax.

In 2005, a new board of directors was elected to Madeira Cove Condominium Association. They began laying out a vision of what they wanted Madeira Cove to be in terms of a fiscally sound, well-maintained, and beautiful property. Their immediate goal was to energize the ownership at Madeira Cove.

Madiera Cove

They believed that a vibrant volunteer program would be the catalyst for a new sense of pride in Madeira Cove, so the first step in that plan was to encourage owner participation. The previous board did not allow owners to do any volunteer work around the property because they were under the impression that the volunteers would not be covered by insurance if they got hurt. Larry Roelofs, the new board president, went over their insurance package with their new agent and made absolutely sure that volunteers were covered.

Once it was determined that they were covered under the policy, a new House and Grounds Committee was formed and it was announced that any owner who wanted to join the new Volunteer Program could join this new committee. As a result, many owners immediately signed up for the new committee.

Larry says, “With so much expertise from their former careers, we have done literally hundreds of jobs over the past four years at savings mounting into the tens of thousands of dollars for our association.”

• We replaced all our hallway lights with new corrosion-proof lighting.
• We installed new light sensors that turn our lights on at dusk and off at dawn, thus saving us hundreds of dollars in electricity.
• We completely renovated our clubhouse, saving roughly $20,000.
• We also saved our seawall by patching and sealing the wall, saving $7,000; planted dozens of new plants and shrubs; replaced all exit door closers with hurricane strength closers; and replaced all sixty front-entry steel doors with new hurricane-proof fiberglass doors that won’t rust, dent, or chip.”
• As an aid in communicating with the owners, the board installed three bulletin boards in each building and one in the clubhouse. Each bulletin board can only be opened by board members for posting and is enclosed with a plastic cover. Information such as pest control schedules, building painting, lawn care, or anything else the board determines is important that owners know about is constantly provided by posting hard copy on these boards.
• A Newsletter Committee was also established, consisting of an editor and a volunteer from each of the three buildings. All four members of this committee gather items from owners and local news. Each of the quarterly newsletters contains a message from the association president, an owner spotlight, updates from the committees, and other items of interest for owners such as securing their units prior to going north in the summet restaurants of choice, places to visit, recommended contractors, and pictures from social events and other projects around the community. These newsletters are loaded with pictures as well as text and are sent to most of the owners via email. For the few owners who do not have email, the newsletters are sent through the mail.
  

  Madiera Cove owners

• Whenever the board is contemplating an issue or improvement, opinion emails are sometimes sent out to help them determine the right course of action.  Larry gives an example, “When I did a lot of research on replacing our rusting, steel, front-entry doors, we sent out the specs on the proposed doors and told owners that we would be the first condominium association with new fiberglass doors and that owners would get a choice of plain white doors or a beautiful glass insert. We also told them of the assessment included. We got overwhelming approval, plus some additional ideas.”
• Time is also included on the agenda of each board meeting for ownership comments, no matter what the subject. The owners greatly appreciate this time.
• One of the most important communication initiatives was establishing a website for the association to tie all of these initiatives together. This secured website contains numerous pages of information such as meeting minutes, email directories, messages from the president, newsletters, recommended contractors, social events calendar, condominium documents, policy statements, committees and members, local restaurant information, and more.

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  Madiera Cove sunset

  One popular facet of the website is an email directory which allows any owner to send emails to a particular owner, a board member, all board members, or all owners. Fifty of the sixty owners at Madeira Cove have access to this password-protected website.

• The association is 100 percent reserve funded for future efforts and has no lawsuits against them and no plans for any future special assessments.
• The owners have voted a limited rental restriction of no more than 10 percent rentals permitted at Madeira Cove. Larry directly attributes this initiative to the outstanding communications structure and the fact that owners want the community to be run by the owners, rather than investors or specula tors. He adds, “It shows the pride they have in our community.”

The clear result of the implementation of this successful volunteer program is a newly energized group of owners. The success of the newly formed Social Committee provides a good indication of the progress that has been made. Larry notes, “Our social parties have grown from just a few attendees to over fifty. Even our neighboring condominium communities are invited to attend. At these affairs, everybody wants to talk about what we can do next to improve our property.” An annual picnic is also held for the volunteers from all the committees and their spouses, which has served as another way to increase the enthusiasm of the volunteers.

“Prior to this initiative, owners were not allowed to volunteer to do anything, very few attended any meetings, and our property was showing signs of disre[air,” Larru recalls. “Basicallu, I started this program bu telling owners that we all own the same percentage of our property, and it was starting to show badlu with rusting doors, broken down fences, and unattended landscaping. I worked with about six highly-motivated owners and once the other owners saw the improvements, our volunteer program grew and grew. We now have about 30 volunteers on all our committees that love pitching in.”

These simple initiatives have resulted in triple attendance to all board meetings, enthusiastic membership in all committees, and concrete improvement to the overall property in buildings and landscaping. The most important improvement, though, is volunteer committees. The owners now take pride in getting involved in all facets of community management, repair, and improvement.

(source:   http://www.flcaj.com/pdfdocs/Madeira%20Cove.pdf)

“If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don’t hoard it. Don’t dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.”
–– Brendan Francis