Welcome to the fall edition of CM Magazine dedicated to the theme of governance. The word originates from the Greek word “kubernaein,” which means to steer, and governance is the process of guiding, directing, or controlling a group, organization, state, or in our case, a condominium. The purpose of governance is to facilitate the effective management of an organization to ensure long-term success on behalf of its stakeholders. You’ll find a variety of articles about condominium governance best practices in this issue, but I’d like to touch on ACMO’s governance.

A strategic plan is fundamental to good governance, so back in 2019, ACMO’s board and staff spent several days sequestered in a hotel mapping out a strategy for a new strategic plan to guide the association through 2022. The plan established four overarching strategic objectives: membership growth, educational leadership, increased awareness, and organizational excellence. As often happens, following the plan’s publication, several unanticipated changes occurred, and our plans had to change. A worldwide pandemic forced us to offer our programming online, and the CMRAO outsourced licensing education, thereby cutting ACMO
out of the picture.

Notwithstanding these challenges, over the past 3 years, ACMO weathered the storm, and excellent progress has been made on our strategic objectives: the quantity and quality of our programming and resources have increased dramatically; we’ve retained a loyal membership base despite the introduction of licensing; we’ve successfully pivoted to focus on continuing education; promotional efforts have increased five-fold, and the association’s assets have more than doubled. In short, through good governance, ACMO has a solid foundation on which to build ongoing relevancy and long-term success.

Achieving long-term success won’t be easy. It will require ongoing planning, work, and reinvestment in programs and services. Towards this, ACMO’s board and staff will again participate in a professionally facilitated strategic planning session next month to update our plan to address current internal and external realities and fill any strategic gaps.

Perhaps the most significant strategic challenge is determining how to expand our community and clarifying who should be in it. It’s no secret that the introduction of government licensing has hurt membership growth. A core ACMO value has always been the pursuit of higher standards, which will undoubtedly continue to define our community. However, the reality is many managers don’t pursue a higher standard. They don’t go beyond the minimum General Licence to pursue the RCM designation or join ACMO to support the industry association. Perhaps our stated vision of “every condominium manager is a member of ACMO” needs revisiting.

There are many issues to ponder at the upcoming strategic planning session, but if we continue to steer the association effectively, we’ll meet this challenge and advance our mission to elevate the condominium profession.

View PDF Back to Latest Issue