Community Managers: An Essential Part of Building Community

Community Managers are an essential part of cultivating a harmonious community association lifestyle. Community management is more than just managing maintenance and financial services, it’s about creating an environment that is safe, secure and welcoming for all residents. Community managers that are tasked daily with managing common interest communities have tremendous opportunity to cultivate closer ties between residents, Association Board Members and can help build a strong sense of community among residence. The bottom line, building a stronger community benefits everyone.

While each of our CAI Chapters face their own unique challenges, we can all agree that the best way to cultivate closer ties between neighbors is to create opportunities for relationship building and greater communication. Fostering greater involvement often means getting neighbors to take a hands-on approach to managing events within the community. It might take some creativity, but the outcome is well worth the effort.

Here are five ways you can help build a more positive community and increase communication among association members.

1. Host barbecues, wine and cheese parties, pool parties, movie nights at the clubhouse and other events.
2. Offer classes or events for younger kids in the community to bring families together.
3. Implement several ways for residents and community managers to communication such as text messages, email, mailed letters, newsletters or a website.
4. Encourage an atmosphere of involvement. It’s often not enough to just organize events. Ask residents to vote on upcoming activities with a quick poll and encourage residents to invite friends, share follow-up photos and invite local news media to any charitable community event. The more invested residents are, the more excited they will be to participate.
5. Invite your community to like CAI-CLAC, CAI national and your local CAI chapter on social media for the most up to date industry information. It’s also a great way to encourage two-way conversation if residents have questions! Not on Facebook? You can find us on LinkedIn and Twitter too!

“Creating a sense of community requires organization, enthusiasm and commitment,” says Laura Ravazza, PR Chair of the Community Associations Institute California Legislative Action Committee (CAI-CLAC) & Senior Community Association Manager at HMC, LLC. “long-term success will depend on the help of dedicated resident volunteers.”

Community managers who go above and beyond stand out to clients as they provide a positive atmosphere for residence and greater opportunities to share your professional knowledge. Building and maintaining a strong relationship now will help us educate and engage homeowners in our legislative process throughout the year.

Don’t have a community manager for your association? All the above ideas can easily be implemented by a homeowner leader or the Community Association Board. If you have any questions on our tips above, you can contact us at office@caiclac.com.