Community Manager Stacie Donnelly is a Champion for Bay Area Residents

A well-educated HOA community manager is a champion for the communities they serve. They make a huge difference in a homeowner’s quality of life and the value of their property.

Certified by the California Association of Community Managers (CACM), the state’s leading community association management education organization, Stacie Donnelly, chief financial officer for Condominium Financial Management, Inc., is a champion for residents living in HOA-managed communities all over the Bay Area. She is one of nearly 2,000 Certified Community Association Managers (CCAM®) in California who has completed CACM’s rigorous educational training focusing on California law, ethical standards and best practices for community association management.

CACM recently launched a Community Champions awareness campaign in the Bay Area to highlight the importance of state-specific education, obtaining the CCAM designation, and ultimately the benefits that professional community management provides to HOA boards and homeowners.

CACM caught up with Donnelly to discuss the valuable role community managers have in managing the nearly 50,000 common interest developments (CIDs) or homeowners associations (HOAs) in California.

Q: What makes you a champion for your community?
A: Continually educating myself in this ever-changing industry is critical to the success of our business and the success of the 110 Bay Area associations we serve representing 11,000 homes.

Q: What is the most rewarding thing about your job?
A: Helping our boards of directors to ‘make sense of the numbers’ is critical to what we do. When boards understand their fiscal position, they are better equipped to make decisions for their homeowners associations.

Q: What is the most challenging thing about your job?
A: Industry-wide, we are facing a fiscal crisis in a large portion of CIDs. As a result of the recession, financial reserves are not in place for the badly needed repair and replacement of aging facilities and components. Associations are faced with large special assessments that are hugely unpopular with homeowners and difficult to implement. Communicating a fiscal position that is different from what the board anticipated can be challenging for all parties, and, when emotions get involved, good decision-making can fall to the wayside.

Q: How long have you been in the community management industry? How long have you been a Certified Community Association Manager?
A: I celebrated 20 years in the community management industry on September 1 of this year. I have been a certified member of the California Association of Community Managers since 1997.

More than 14.3 million people, about 38 percent of the state’s population, live in an HOA-managed community, many of which are run by professionally trained community association managers. These professionals act as champions and have tremendous responsibilities for the residents they serve. They guide volunteer HOA boards through complicated issues like finances, state legislation and dispute resolution, and they oversee all aspects of property maintenance. They have a huge impact on the lives of thousands of Californians, and it’s time they are recognized for the important role they play.

To find out more about community association management and the responsibilities of HOA board members, or to nominate a community manager and enter to win $500, consumers can visit www.MyCommunityChampion.com. For more information about CACM, please visit www.cacm.org.