Demonstrating Leadership by Informing

Staying Informed as a Director

Staying Informed as a Director

Being a director on a condominium board is a tremendous responsibility. Boards of directors are expected to oversee the governance of a condominium community. Two major components of that governance function involve balancing the, often competing, interests of the many residents of the community and ensuring that the corporation acquires high value goods and services that will help keep the community safe, secure, clean, well-maintained, up to date and competitive in a tough real estate market.

Addressing those sorts of issues and generally governing effectively means making informed decisions. Boards can rely on experienced property management (like Brookfield), as well as upon qualified experts including lawyers, auditors and engineers for much information. However, directors need to be well-informed themselves. There is much that directors can do to educate themselves. Some of the better options include:

  • Attending the Canadian Condominium Institute’s (CCI) Directors courses. The Toronto Chapter (CCI-T) offers 4 basic courses ranging from three hours in length to two full Saturdays. The Directors 101 course is offered online.
  • Attending the Annual Condominium Conference, jointly hosted by CCI-T and the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario (ACMO). The conference is held annually in Toronto at the beginning of November.
  • Reading condominium industry publications such as ACMO’s Condominium Manager (CM) magazine, CCI’s CCI Review, CCI-T’s CondoVoice (CV) and Media Edge’s CondoBusiness.
  • Reading some of the condo law blogs and newsletters.