voting on new management co

we are currently self managed and have done alot to bring our neighborhood up to date
we are complete at 42 units and would like to get a qualified company to do the day to day
so we can have our lives back. we are in florida and have interviewed Sentry they sound good
and will charge $6000.00 a year. Do we as the board have to include HO feedback or invite them
to our BOD meeting when we vote on this matter? Thank you for any information

Is the management company in the budget? Can you afford them this year? How about next year? Will you have to perform a special assessment to cover some of the costs? The answers to these questions may help you decide if you are going to include the membership. In our Association we invite any members that want to attend to do so and consider their votes in all matters not explicitly for the board only (like voting for officers).

Be aware of a few things when you are using a mangement company. Your office supplies/postage/copying/faxing costs will at least double (probably triple or quadruple). Many management companies will expect you to use their vendors. But there are a lot of hidden costs that you don't neccessary think about right away (or budget). My father's Association (he is the Treasurer) uses Sentry and has had good luck, so I can only speak in general.

You will still have to do a lot of double checking because ultimately you are responsible. Our last management company didn't update the electric company to their address and we only learned about it when they shut off the power for non-payment. They didn't pay our landscapers and we learned about it when the grass stopped being mowed. The financial statements were wrong and the figures on the summary and details sheets didn't match. You still are responsible for running the Association and ultimately it falls on your shoulders to make things right.
Because you have a management company doesn't mean you can just put your feet up.

We had an almost identical situation and we have 51 homes. Over the past year we first dropped hints about needing a management company, then sent out information about why we needed a management company, and finally held an open board meeting announcing we would be discussing hiring one. We had over 20 members show at that board meeting (although I guess it was not official, that represented a quorum) and by a show of hands had 75% approval to proceed. We hired a company the following month. Nonetheless, we have 5 owners who are absolutely livid that we hired a management company without a special neighborhood door-to-door vote. They harassed the board at its last meeting and attempted to get enough votes to oust the board. At our annual meeting this past week only one of them managed to get on our 7 member board. The ones who did not get on demanded an immediate recount of votes and openly questioned the honesty of the volunteers who counted the ballots.
We were fortunate to find a small home-based manager who is trying to build their business. In a few years their rates will probably go much higher, but we wanted everyone to see how nice it would be if a professional looked at violations without the bias of past boards, handled the nasty people, and made sure the board followed the rules. After the past meetings I am wondering if the management company we hired is wondering what they go into, but they seemed to take it in stride and handled the abuse very professionally.
I suggest making sure you follow your rules closely and be totally open as Roger noted. Also remember to follow through as Brad noted. You will all be in a horrible position if the company you hire does a bad job.

Thank you Gloria for all the good advice. I am so happy to have this forum to ask questions and learn the proper ways of Hoa protical. When I volunteered to pay the bills we had no Bod and was told we would wards of the state. I knew nothing about the rules of the Bod just always did my part as a Ho to obey the rules. Now I feel like the person sho pulled over at an auto accident and are being sued by the person they saved. The person attacking us is new to the neighborhood with a cold stare and law book. It is quite intimidating and makes me wish we had gotten a management company sooner. But like you said want to make sure as with all the other vendors that they are the right one and that we can do this the way we did the landscape contract without being held to some law by the HO. I told the Pres (whose feeling are really being taxed) we need not rush into a burning building unprepared. once again thank yiou all, BJ