 Thank you everybody for joining us on this happy Thursday before the April Fool's Day on Friday. We appreciate you being able to take your time out to join us. So today we're going to talk with me today we have my gorgeous with. We're going to talk about our board of director training that we have coming up on April 30. It's an all day Saturday. It includes a deliver a lunch delivered to you via bite squad. But it's really going to be a full day of learning. And even if you've already been to it once it's really good to do it again. And I've heard it commented many times from other people that have attended at multiple times that they still pick up things that they didn't pick up on previous. So, Mike you've been to our board of director training what what did you. How did you feel about it. Oh yeah I definitely agree. You know I've attended several of them now. And each time you do pick up something. Maybe you missed the first time maybe you were busy doing something when the topic came up or it wasn't presented the same way. And then, oh yeah hey that's important and whether it's about the HRS changes or whether it's about insurance as soon as Savio always has things about insurance and they seem to keep changing all the time. Or, you know, and the other attorney and then Jane to she always has good points to bring up especially about legislation. And that's always changing so that's good for board members whether you're a brand new board member, or, you know, you've been on for a long time, like me, it's still good to go to that training. Yeah, it was we're going to include it in it is for some of the people that can't attend our regular board be a regular webinar or seminars that we used to call them. Especially our law update if they can't attend the end it attend it. We're going to be doing. There's one section on the new laws. So, Larry McGuire will be handling that to update everybody on and there was a bunch of them this year. So now they've kind of been narrowed down so she's going to go through that. And then Jane. She's going to also give some time allowed for them for the life safety evaluation, because there are some changes happening there at the city level as well. Some big changes, you know, so it would be a good opportunity for everybody to get caught up on some of the new issues surrounding the life safety evaluation. Because it's the workbook training. I mean, and you guys can still cannot like, I still have mine and I have a bunch of notes written all over it, you know, and the registration cost is paid for by the association. Any board member can register either online at HawaiiCouncil.org, or they can call their managing agent or property manager, or their admin, the admin person within their managing agent company and have them register, and then they will process the payment. And as long as you are a board member, the cost of that registration fee is paid for out of the maintenance fee out of the condo association, because it does allow for board members to use association funds to educate themselves. And we really highly recommend that board members educate themselves on all the laws, the current and some possible new ones that are up and coming, even the new ones that have already passed waiting to be signed into law. What are the things that you really get out of that trading? Well, just the overall thing, including, you know, your fiduciary responsibility as a board member, which is always a something that board members need to be reminded about and the fact that you're there, not for yourself, but for your association. I'm working there for the whole associations benefits so that, you know, things are maintained properly and fees are as such and I always remember this from Sue Savio, she says, I've been on several boards and even ones where people didn't want to raise, but I told them why we didn't want to raise them even if it was just a couple dollars because things keep changing and you got to have that money there if things break or fall apart or just need normal wear and tear and like repaving or whatever it might be roofs, painting, etc. I'm a strong supporter of incrementally raising your maintenance fees because you don't want to burden any homeowner with a special assessment as much as possible you try to avoid that. For me, I'd rather pay a five or $10 increase every month every year, versus a five or $10,000 special assessment. That's a big chunk of change to come out of your pocket, you know. One of the things I learned about that was, you know, even though I'm not in a high rise, when they brought up the fact that there were a couple of condos, because, you know, some of those things don't break for 30 years but when they do. So people weren't putting things away in reserves and all of a sudden they came up with a piping situation that was going to cost them lots of I can't remember the cost was but it was going to be a hefty special assessment just get it fixed. Yeah, you would think pipes last forever but they really don't. I've seen the inside of some of them when I go, oh, I've been drinking water out of that. Yeah, besides physical shared duty we're really going to talk a bit about also your conflicts of interest which is a really big issue. So you have the new share duty conflicts of interest, and I as getting a lot of the emails from a CCA. I get a lot of people talking about retaliation retaliatory tactics. The big thing that's going on and we really need to put a stop to it because, you know, it's really getting out of control on the part of the board. And, you know, sometimes it just, you know, it's getting out of control. Yeah, nobody should have to live with retaliatory taxes or the fear of retaliatory tactics, especially if they speak up or say something that that's just, you know, they shouldn't have to live under that kind of a condition. Yeah, I wasn't directly involved with it but I just heard about a couple that were having a problem like that being retaliatory tactics. And now they're looking for an attorney to see who can help them out with that so that's the type of there comes lawsuits there goes, you know, and they're unnecessary. Yes, yes. It's unnecessary. You know, it just, you know, and a lot of lawsuits drive up the cost of our insurance. Yes, not any different than car insurance and you file a claim drives your insurance up, you know, it. So people really need to sit down and listen and let the other person be heard, give them that opportunity to be heard be rational. I really encourage everybody to go to Hawaii Council. We, we prefer everybody to register themselves because one of the issues we've been having now that we're on these webinars for the past few years is email typos. So, sometimes the managing agent might do a typo and I'm putting it in, I might do a typo. So really encouraging everybody, all the board members to register themselves online, as much as possible to avoid those typos. Because if you have a typo in your email, you're not going to get the join link. And I want to remind everybody to that the, when we get closer to the week of the event. I send out like about well it's set up and go to a webinar they I set up five email reminders with the link. So they kind of get it five times. And I don't do any, we don't do any technical reply to emails on that day because there's a lot of things going on in that morning that I don't have the time to reply to emails. Yeah, I know I saw you in action on a couple of those other board trainings because there are a lot of things going on. And I'm going to give you a few kudos for getting those lunches out because I couldn't believe it. I mean, each time they show up within a half hour when we're going to go on that break, which I think is fantastic, you know, so when you go on your break and you have your lunch there, whatever you ordered. So that's everybody has said it's a good lunch. I mean I've used it, not for just White Council but for some other things for work and everybody raves about the lunch. It's not much stuck with the same things because it's, it's a good, you know, good way some people like me and some people want the vegetarians or they want only salad. So it's kind of a decent selection bite squad is is very efficient. Yes. They're really good. They've really got it down pat. So. And that's nice because then people eat then they seem to pay more attention to the stuff even in the afternoon. And it's just a lot easier to have the lunch provided because then people aren't going to have to figure out what they're going to get how they're going to get their lunch or, you know, and then they come back late, you know, so it's just easier. Just like we're in at the Holocaust, and while I mentioned the Holocaust, I've been checking in with them to see what happened up again. They take their order strictly from the military. Right. The military has not allowed them to open up the catering department yet. So I kind of keep every once in a while I just go open up yet, you know, they're like no, you know, so I mean I would really love to get back to in person. Yeah, that would be good. I know some people like, you know, this form because they don't have to move they can stay where they're at and watch it but it's great to have in person time to because then you have a chance to speak to other board members and even the speakers when you get a chance to. That makes it really good. That's why I like the in person part. Yeah, even though this is very convenient. I know I just like how we're going to how we're going to do it you know and slowly, I mean it's going to probably be another year before everybody's probably reverse to more in person but I kind of think it's going to be a hybrid going forward. I do too. And it would be kind of nice, you know, some people want to only be, but then I think the hybrid are going to be good for the people that cannot attend in person because of work or whatever other issues. You know, so I think the hybrid model is going to be really really beneficial. And we'll be able to reach a broader audience that way as well. And I've seen that happen a couple other boards that I'm on, because they said, Oh, hey, we're getting ready to go back in person. And over half of the people said, Hey, can we just keep it hybrid. I like doing it on a zoom. Whatever platform are they using. I can't wait till we get back into in person I'm going to kind of missing people's faces, you know, now that's true too. You know, so I think what I might be doing is because if I usually open the go to webinar platform I usually start it kind of early, like an hour ahead. So I might, and I'll probably just leave it for people that an open mic. Yeah, before we start people have a dialogue back and forth with each other, you know, they can network that way as well via webinar. And even after the webinar we can leave it open for people to have discussions as well. Well I hope the military changes mind soon because I know they've loosened up at their other locations on what their requirements are but yeah, probably take some a while to get around to the hotels and things. I'm sure the catering people can't wait to get back to their positions. Oh yeah, they've been moved around into other positions in the hotel, but I'm sure they can't. They really want to get back to it. Because I don't even know if they're doing all the other like, didn't they used to do who the walls and stuff like that out there. Yes, they did. Yeah. And that was a good location because people had parking and get there and that was good. Yeah, decent parking. So again to recap, you know our board of director training is on Saturday April, April 29. Right. Yeah. April 30 April 30, Saturday April 30. Oh yeah, you're right April 30. So we're just going to start at 9am lunch will start to get delivered via bite squad about around starting at around 1111 30. So we encourage I encourage people not to use their phones to get on to the webinar, because the bite squad people might be calling you because either they're lost, or they need to get into the building. You know, I know a couple years the drivers ended up with a bunch of lunches because they couldn't deliver because people weren't answering their phones. So I said, just keep it. I don't know what to do with it. Just keep it. You know, we just have to kind of deal with it at the time. But everybody should be cognizant that bite squad and they call from an auto area I think it's a 619 or 614 area code, because they're in Minnesota the corporate officer in Minnesota. So all the guys have a company phone. So it's a phone call. Yeah. It's a California. Yeah, I think something like that. It's a six one something number. But they're after something really weird because when I get delivery, my doorbell rings, and I don't have a doorbell. It's a weird thing that they do and I'm thinking where I don't have a doorbell what what I'm hearing. So that's what happens when you go through bite squad. They have something that it sounds exactly like a doorbell, and it just blows my mind the first time I'm like, I don't have a doorbell. Okay, so it's going to be a full day where you're going to have be able to have questions questions and answers. That's going to be opened up. We really need everybody to register by our deadline date. I believe it's the 15th, because we need a week to get your workbooks mailed out. And we want to allow a week because they go priority mail, but one year, it took like a week to 10 days to get to some people. Yeah, so we want to make sure even though it's priority mail, we really want to make sure that everybody gets their booklets on time. And there's going to be some other handouts that we're going to have. We're going to probably recap some other trainings that we've done in the past. One of the other frequently violated one is 125 a the communication outside of a board meeting right decisions and stuff like that. So that's another frequently violated one that keeps coming up. And it's really nice when people they've attended in the past they go, can you send me that thing again about the, but not talking you know and so I'm just emailing it back to them and they're like yeah yeah I remember that. You know so it at least we know we're kind of getting through to everybody. And some of the information that in that 125 a was done by in conjunction with DCCA the condo specialist. So I'll put it together as well. They had a lot of input on that. So, that's important. Yeah, yeah. So, again, we really want all the board members to try to even a property manager, you know, or your site managers, resident manager should attend that training. It is well worth the time. The one day, it's well worth the lunch, you know, but it's full of information. Right. Our resident manager has attended at least once because he was relatively new he wanted to know and he picked up a lot of information by attending. Yeah, I know someone they said they just hired a new resident manager she says 20 something. And I'm like well I hope he attends because you know that's going to be his intro to to a career. You know, your top general managers like that her cool and one after lane they all started down at the bottom, you know, and work their way up and it's their it's their career so livelihood. Yeah, that's true. So, okay Mike, thank you so much for filling in with me today on this topic. And it's, it's something that I'm really like a little passionate about on the training and the education for people. So, I hope we see a lot of people at this training. We usually get a we usually get a lot like about 200. We've been averaging about 200 every year so that's really good. But we know there's 100 condos out there. And you guys got to realize 40% of the population live in condos. So we should have a lot more people in attendance at these events. You're right. That is important. It is. Okay, can we pull up the slide one more time as we get ready to sign off. Okay, great. Okay everybody we hope to see your registrations coming in soon. And your registrations fees help to help us to further along education activities that Hawaii console also does. We do a lot more education items. Yeah. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us. Thank you Mike especially you for joining me today. And having a discussion on this topic. And I will see you again soon. That's for sure. Thank you everybody. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at think.kawaii.com. Mahalo.