Falls Church, VA, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt condominiums and homeowners associations, Community Associations Institute (CAI) has released “Status Check: A Reopening Guide for Community Associations” to support community associations navigating the closure and reopening of pools, gyms, playgrounds, and other common areas, amenities, and business operations.
According to CAI, since states began lifting stay-at-home orders, community associations have been challenged with questions surrounding how and whether to reopen facilities and how to effectively phase in business operations. Status Check helps community association board members and managers evaluate their current plans and as they navigate the reopening phases issued by their state and local government. The guide is organized by topic—common areas, amenities, and operations—and risk level or reopening phase, which is unique to each state, county, or city.
The new guide is a timely resource available for homeowners, community managers, and business partners as part of CAI’s Coronavirus Resource page. It offers each individual community the opportunity to modify templates that fit their own specific needs.
It includes:
▪ A sample letter to update residents about common areas and amenities
▪ A sample common area sign
▪ Detailed guidelines for community association common areas, amenities, and operations
“This is the best, most comprehensive guide for community associations today,” says Thomas M. Skiba, CAE, CAI’s chief executive officer. “As the leading authority in community association education, governance, and management, we believe it’s essential to develop solutions that directly help our members and community association stakeholders challenged by COVID-19. CAI has a long-standing reputation for offering world-class education, tools, and resources, and we know our communities need answers to the difficult questions that will likely continue as the pandemic surges in communities throughout the U.S.”
Status Check serves as a complement to the previously released Healthy Communities guide, a summary of information developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is relevant to community associations. These two documents and CAI’s work to continually track local, state, and federal government actions give community associations a more complete picture when addressing questions and concerns regarding association operations. CAI strongly encourages board members and managers to consult with legal, insurance, health, and management experts before taking any actions. CAI’s Status Check guide is based on one developed by Michael Johnson, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, CEO of FCS Community Management, AAMC, in Draper, Utah. Johnson developed his guide to help the 250 communities his company manages as they reopen based on the state’s plan. “Our intent was to create a document boards could rely on to make consistent and, most importantly, safe and prudent decisions for their associations,” says Johnson.
View or download a copy of “Status Check: A Reopening Guide for Community Associations”.
For more information about the impact of COVID-19 and community associations, visit CAI’s Coronavirus Resources page.
About Community Associations Institute
Since 1973, Community Associations Institute (CAI) has been the leading provider of resources and information for homeowners, volunteer board leaders, professional managers, and business professionals in the nearly 350,000 homeowners associations, condominiums, and housing cooperatives in the United States and millions of communities worldwide. With nearly 45,000 members, CAI works in partnership with 36 legislative action committees and 64 affiliated chapters within the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates as well as with housing leaders in several other countries, including Australia, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. A global nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization, CAI is the foremost authority in community association management, governance, education, and advocacy. Our mission is to inspire professionalism, effective leadership, and responsible citizenship—ideals reflected in community associations that are preferred places to call home. Visit us at www.caionline.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @CAISocial.