Finances

October 30, 2023 Published by Manitoba Chapter - By Kirsten Bishop

Inaugural forum attracts 37 treasurers

From the CCI Manitoba Fall 2023 Condominium News and Views Magazine

CCI Manitoba held its very first Treasurers’ Forum on Aug. 23, recognizing the treasurer's role as one of the most difficult and demanding condo board positions. The session was attended by representatives from 37 condominium corporations. These representatives ranged in experience on their condo boards from three weeks to 11 years and included self-managed as well as professionally managed corporations.

This wide range of experience level afforded us the opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics, including: 

• Increasing costs of maintenance: How to identify and implement efficiencies for cost savings
• Reserve fund contributions: How to come up with the right amount at the right time
• Budgets: Setting practical and realistic amounts in order for your budget to be the “best guess” for your spending and to avoid any need for a special assessment or budget increase midway through the year
• Communication with unit owners: What to include and when

It was concerning to hear several comments with respect to board members not understanding their responsibilities under the declaration and bylaws of their corporations. As a minimum, all directors should be familiar with their corporation's declaration, bylaws, rules, and, if present, their policies and procedures. As well, a rudimentary understanding of the provincial Condominium Act and regulation is required.

CCI Manitoba can help board members find this information and direct them to our CCI Condo 101 course for board members — and unit owners too. We encourage all board members to take this course. It is available virtually and therefore can be done at any time as a group or individually. 

Based on feedback from the session, we will be planning more sessions for treasurers in order to further assist our members.  

If you are a treasurer with an accounting background and are willing to be a mentor to less-experienced treasurers, we would love to hear from you.  

Please check future newsletters and contact us at any time to find out when the next sessions will be held. We will make every attempt to have these sessions at a convenient time and location in order to maximize our outreach to members.

We plan to use discussions from the Aug. 23 session to structure and build our next sessions. If you have any topic you would like us to consider for future sessions, please let us know. We are always happy to hear from our members and appreciate your input.

Big thank you to our Platinum Sponsors BFL and HUB and Gold Sponsors Brydges and Karma for sponsoring the session and to Winnipeg Condo Corporation No. 36 for allowing us to use its space. 

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
 - Maya Angelou

Kirsten Bishop is a director of CCI Manitoba and its secretary. Kirsten has years of experience as a property manager.