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RATING A POTENTIAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  We want you to have the best Condo experience - We want you to love everything about your new home 

 

Don't regret your decision - FIND out first before you buy if the board operates in a way that affords you the best lifestyle. Its your home and your investment -  You should know as much as you can find out about the building you are buying! Reviewing the financials, minutes and bylaws isn't enough - you need to know how your board rates!   

​​We developed a procedure to determine if a board has adopted best practices and follows fundamental democratic principals. Does your potential condo have a strong democratic board that is effective and understands their role and responsibilities, maintains the building in its optimum condition, mediates owners issues and governs and manages the building so that ALL owners feel safe and secure with their investment? 

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                                 We provide buyers with a certificate outlining the positive and negative aspects of your condo! 

                                                                   Don't buy until you've received our assessment certificate! 

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     You can visit a building many times and never see the ongoing issues - it's only after you've moved in that you find out the real truth            about how the building operates - â€‹ Before you buy call us to assess your Condo Corporation!   

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Boards of Directors change over time. Most boards are careful and thoughtful when they are first formed they often then experience a gradual shift from an open and inclusive board that effectively manages the building and serves it's owners to a board that becomes secretive, autocratic and fails to deal with owner problems. They grow into a board that hides from owners, ignores emails and requests, special assessments become the only way to manage the budget and allows the building to deteriorate If your building has slowly slipped and you are experiencing any of these issues - give us a call and we will walk you through the options.                                                                               

We can assist with any of the following: 

                                          

                                          - Draft letters to the board -

                                          - prepare ballots, meeting requisition documents -

                                          - prepare information circulars for meetings -

                                          - help solicit owners for a meeting - 

                                          - help organize a meeting -

                                          - audit board/AGMs meetings -

                                          - provide best practices for boards -

                                          - provide seminars for boards on best practices -

                                          - prepare emergency plans, privacy policies, etc. -

                                          

                     

           You don't have to sell!  We can help!  

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NEW CONDO BOARDS

If you are a builder or owner of a new building looking for guidance and ideas on developing a sought after building everyone wants to live in - here we are!  We work with your law firm to develop boards that are provided with long lasting tools to maintain your building.  We provide the tools to make sure the board is educated, we provide resources and documents, policy and procedure to make sure the building is set up to be successful and well managed. As a builder provide the tools to develop a long lasting successful building that everyone wants to buy and live in! 

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​ Builders need our help:

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               - Bylaws - develop strong bylaws to allow board to effectively govern -  

               - Create policy and procedure within the building- we work with the new board                            to develop items like cleaning checklists, annual maintenance schedules

               - Welcome and Information packages for new owners - because all buildings should                      come with instructions -

               - Emergency Plans - Privacy Policies - 

               - Election Procedures - to ensure owners are following democratic principals -

               - Best Practices for board meetings -

               - Educational tips and any assistance required to set up the building for success-

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Developing a strong board at the beginning protects not only  your investment but your reputation!

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We're here to help!

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WE'RE HERE TO HELP!

We understand the struggle many owners confront adjusting to life in a new community. Condos are supposed to make life easier, you don't have to shovel snow, mow your lawn or deal with so many other issues that bring people together to live in a condo community.  There are so many benefits to community living - and yet it doesn't take long to have buyers remorse. We hear the cries and frustrations of new condo owners who experience the downfalls of a bad board. Almost all buildings have had or on the verge of creating a bad board. All it takes is a couple individuals who don't understand their obligations to ruin the experience for the owners in the building. That's why we are here - Every board could use more education, undergo an audit and be provided with a few more tools to help improve their ability to govern and manage. That's our favorite part of this job -  working with boards to improve their practices, lending guidance and developing tools to establish and improve condo boards! 

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 We are here to get that board back on track and to work towards improving the board and your building. 

Meetings and Events

Condo Buildings have many different types of meetings -AGMs, Special Meetings and  Extraordinary Meetings, Owners Meetings -    See below on tips for making your meeting inclusive and productive 

​Annual General Meetings are crucial to democracy, a condominium corporation in Alberta is required to have annual general meetings every year and at the latest 15 months from the last AGM. These are formal meetings where owners vote on all types of business such as new bylaws, bylaw changes, financial considerations, improvements, upgrades and elect a new board of directors. There are certain procedural rules boards must follow when organizing an AGM; notice must be provided 60 days prior to the AGM, this gives owners the ability to submit agenda items to the board. After the 60 days, formal notice with the agenda items must be sent to owners within 30-14 days prior to the meeting date. Make sure you are voting at your AGMs, you need to make sure the votes are counted - make sure your board is either holding elections through ballots or a counted hand vote. 

There are several types of other meetings a condo corporation holds - Special Meetings, Owners Meetings or Town Halls. It all depends on who is doing the organizing and the topics being put forward. Condo Owners should ensure that their meetings have at least the basic requirements for example: With the exception of Owners Meetings which are called by the owners and not formal, all meetings should include, if possible: scrutineers, agenda- ability of owners to add to agenda, accurate and properly recorded minutes, elections, voting - owners should be voting on issues at AGMs to name a few. There are many requirements to hold a duly organized meeting. For example, public companies and other corporations hire several entities when they hold AGMs. Most corporations start by hiring a law firm. a company to scrutineer and often depending on the type of meeting a solicitation agent. Unfortunately, and of course because it's impractical for the majority of Condo Corporations to assume the expense of all or even a few of those entities most Condo Corporations rely on the knowledge of the property manager and an inexperienced board to deal with meetings which affects the quality of the meetings.

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​The quality of condo meetings depend on the quality of the property manager and the knowledge of your board of directors. Most condo meetings are pretty poor which leads to very little advancement and improvements in the corporation. If your condo corporation holds proper meetings then thank goodness and let us know! We want to hear about condos that are working well together creating successful condo communities. If not then well we all know when buildings incur this type of combination of a poor manager and a poor board for too long the building starts to deteriorate very quickly. Most building come equipped with basic bylaws created by the developer included in the owners manual, some specs and basic information and little else so if you were unlucky to buy into a property with owners who knew very little about condo boards you are probably facing some difficulties after a number of years.  Call us anytime and we will audit your meetings, elections or if you assist in coordinating any type of meeting. See our simple suggestions for make your meetings even more successful. 

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Everyone is happier with a cookie in their hand

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                                 Make people feel welcome!         

                           

Meetings are stressful even if there are no hot topics so anything you can do to lighten the mood is helpful. You could also have a giveaway or a play a little game before you get started. Don't forget name tags for large gatherings, bring a card or provide contact information and don't forget a pen, notepad or your phone to take notes and exchange information.  

If you organized the meeting: don't forget to shake as many peoples hands and introduce yourself to as many people as you can!

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Hint: If you are organizing the meeting you should be the last to leave! This helps make sure you talk to everyone who came to talk to you!

                                             Its ALL in the Details

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We believe details are important! Set up a station with coffee, juice or water to keep people hydrated and bring along some home baked or store bought treats. Owners will feel welcome and it helps to set the tone of a meeting. Who can argue with a piece of cake in their hand or mouth! Meetings should be informative and engaging and setting the tone will make your meetings more successful.

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Hint: You'll often be able to tell the people who support you or at least like you if they take a cookie or drink some coffee. More combative individuals won't take the cookie because they feel like they would owe you something back and sometimes that's just being nice and respectful.

Working as a Trustee in the corporate debt space for over a decade has helped me build a foundation in Corporate and Securities Law. As a a Manager of Corporate Trust acting as debt Trustee, collateral agent or escrow agent, I was involved in many types of large international transaction and the biggest bought deal in Canadian history. As a trustee we were involved in, attended and scrutineered all types of meetings, extraordinary resolutions and consent solicitations. As Corporate Secretary for a large public company, I have over a decade of experience in many aspects of Corporate Law.  I worked for  several years in compliance for a capital raising investment company and worked in the prosecution department at IIROC. My degree in political science gives me a heightened sense of justice and expertise in all levels of government, democratic institutions and democratic practices.  I started this company to help other condo owners who were having similar experiences with condo boards. My corporate law and securities experience provides a great backdrop to be able to help create inclusive communities one building at a time, fighting one board at a time to bring back democracy and inclusion to Condo boards. People don't need to be fighting boards -it ruins their piece of mind and stunts community growth. Boards of Directors need to be held accountable for bad decisions and bad operating procedures and educated in best practices. 

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CONTACT
LOCATION

Email: wecare@momentumcondo.com
Phone: 403.651.7403

 

881 -15 Avenue SW

Calgary, Alberta T2R 1R8

Mon - Fri: 8am - 6pm

​​Saturday: 8am - 1pm

​Sunday: Closed

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