HABITAT
10 Books to Help Co-op / Condo Board Members
June 3, 2009 — Some of us are born board members, some of us achieve board membership and some of us have board membership thrust upon us. Or so Shakespeare might have written had he been a co-op / condo board member rather than the owner of a lovely single-family home in suburban Stratford-on-Avon.
Whether you're a co-op director or a condo-association officer, you've taken a voluntary position for which few of us have training. How do you learn the ropes or improve your skills? Aside from (ahem) reading Habitat, you might consider one or more of these books, culled from a variety of publishing sources to save you the time and trouble. We haven't included links to online booksellers — this is strictly an informative article about the relatively few available books aboard board membership, with no reviews or recommendations implied — but we do have publishers' names and ISBN numbers to help you locate titles in which you're interested.
So, turn a new page in your board-member abilities and read up on techniques and tidbits that will lead, as Will wrote (sort of), to journey's end in board meeting, as every wise man's son doth know.
Here are 10 books about co-op/condo board membership, listed chronologically from the most recently published.
§ Creating Home Owner & Condo Association Documents: How to Protect Your Con-Dough
by Dr. David I. Goldenberg
Management consultant and condo-resident Goldenberg shows how traditional approaches to problems don't always work, since they're reactive and don't address the underlying cause, and he offers strategies to anticipate problems and take corrective preemptive steps.
Little Guy Pawprint (2007), 200 pp.
ISBN-10: 0979233380
ISBN-13: 978-0979233388
§ The New York Co-op Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Co-ops and Condos: Getting In, Staying In, Surviving, Thriving
by Sylvia Shapiro
Heavily updated from the 1998 edition, this huge handbook by New York attorney and Manhattan co-op board president Shapiro has become one of the standards guides for co-op and condo residents and, by extension, co-op and condo boards.
St. Martin's Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books (2005); 416 pp.
ISBN-10: 0312340753
ISBN-13: 978-0312340759
§ The Board Secretary: Roles and Responsibilities in Community Associations
by Anita Hagerty Schenk, P. Michael Nagel
A to-the-point booklet by certified Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM) Schenk and attorney Nagel, this publication — one of five here from the nonprofit Community Associations Institute — covers a board secretary's precise duties and responsibilities and tells how to maintain files and records.
Community Associations Institute; 4th edition (2003), 30 pp.
ISBN-10: 0944715834
ISBN-13: 978-0944715833
§ Guilt By Association: A Survival Guide for Homeowners, Board Members and Property Managers
by Jordan Shifrin
This self-published book by Shifrin, a founding partner of the Buffalo, N.Y. law firm Kovitz Shifrin & Waitzman, provides a plain-English overview of the most common and significant issues with which board members deal, and gives practical advice on problem-solving.
IUniverse; 2nd edition (2003); 188 pages
ISBN-10: 0595198120
ISBN-13: 978-0595198122
§ Reinventing the Rules: A Step-By-Step Guide for Being Reasonable
by Lucia Anna Trigiani
Attorney Trigiani, a former president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Community Associations Institute, offers tips on how to craft firm yet flexible house rules, including the real-world costs of battling with residents over legalisms.
Community Associations Institute (2002); 72 pages
ISBN-10: 0944715753
ISBN-13: 978-0944715758
§ Decision Making in Communities: Why Groups of Smart People Sometimes Make Bad Decisions
by Jasmine Martirossian, Ph.D.
Attempting to answer an age-old question, psychologist Martirossian, head of the Toronto, Ontario company Strategic Planning and Research, applies established principles of group dynamics and social psychology to show how boards get persuaded toward one view or another, and offers advice and real-life examples to help you avoid typical pitfalls.
Community Associations Institute (2001); 194 pp.
ISBN-10: 0944715621
ISBN-13: 978-0944715628
§ Become an Effective Condo Board Member
by Sandra Rosen
In her self-published book, Rosen, an Association Management Specialist (AMS) who's been managing communities since 1978, provides a primer on conducting effective meetings, understanding budgets and documents, and other basics.
iUniverse, Inc (2000); 160 pages
ISBN-10: 0595095933
ISBN-13: 978-0595095933
§ Bylaws: Writing Amending Revising
by Joyce L. Stephens
Stephens, a Professional Registered Parliamentarian (PRP) and the author of several books on meetings and procedures (including Guide for the Presiding Officer: A Functional Guide for Presidents and Chairmen) offers a guidebook for writing plain-English bylaws, amendments and revisions, and provides scripts with precise wording you can use. Note: There are many companies that go by some variation of "Frederick Publishing"; this one appears to have no website, and may be defunct, though Stephens' books seem to still be in print.
Frederick Publishing; 2nd edition (2000); 95 pages
ISBN-10: 1893106039
ISBN-13: 979-1893106030
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