Notes
The PAMWG meeting was attended by ACOF, WHCHC, ABODE, Enterprise, VCHC, and SRHT. The discussion was lively and lasted just under 2 hours.
Conference: What are the interesting topics you would like to see at the SCANPH Conference?
Green Property Management
- More education and training in sustainability and energy conservation
- Green education after operations. Specifically, some targeted to maintenance staff in order to clean and maintain the increasingly more sophisticated buildings.
- Funding to pay for more staff training.
- Emphasis was made during meeting that more attention is need to those who manage and maintain properties already built because it is with existing buildings where the more energy inefficiency is found.
- *it was noted that PACE has a weatherization program for existing buildings. Contact Tom Polansky, Abode*
- Although focusing on the "nickel and dime" items of weatherization, light bulbs, water consumption, is important and should be continued, we need to plan to move into the next more sophisticated issues like Sub-metering and Purchase Power Agreements for solar. Are those technologies beneficial to existing buildings or only new ones?
Emergency Preparation
- Standard Red Cross-type workshop with a twist added. This will take lessons from emergencies and disasters of the past and develop strategies for staff/board to manage the fallout and political statements that critics of the industry might use. The panel should include a executive director also. This was a well received workshop at the Housing California Conference.
Non Conference Ideas (off conference calendar)
Technical Workshop/Symposium
- Management tools with extensive exploration of operating budgets and finance schedules, as well as common compliance reporting issues.
- Utilities and Finance. *it was mentioned that Santa Monica College SMC offers free classes available on Green Development*
Resident Services Training
- Both asset and development sides of an organization need to have clearly stated organizational structures.
- Review best practices of flow charts and outcome measurements.
- New performance measures to comply with.
Convening/Discussions for Industry
- Economic impact on receivables.
- The fear is income will become stagnant, and all available emergency funds have already dried up.
- Survey of membership to gain valuable data about the health of industry through asset management information. Is the industry financially sustainable?
- Creating a survey instrument could be an ideal student run project for the area grad programs to implement. Shop to USC, UCLA, Cal Poly Pomona.
Operations
- How are we preparing for the various inspections of our projects? The (Fix it) workshop will look at different organization's preparation for the inspector. Look at what can be fixed at the moment with maintenance staff in tow.
- A review of best practices in how responsibilities are moved from the developers to asset management. A workshop on "Changing of the Guard" will explore what are the literal paperwork issues that become the responsibility of different people within the same organizations. When should asset management expect to receive information? What should be delivered to asset staff? What documents must actually change hands?
