August 12, 2016
Dear Everyone:
“Back to School!”
Three words that I used to hate to hear, but not anymore.
Haven’t had to do that in a
really long time. But I
still love not having to go back to school again each year.
Nevertheless, it is a wise person who avoids the Really Big Office
Supply Warehouse Stores on the weekends around this time of year.
That’s because they’re crawling with anticipating students
accompanied by harried parents, who don’t have any other time to do the
requisite “Back to School!” shopping.
So, when I needed to get some supplies for the
Homeowners
Association (HOA) office, I made a point of going in the middle of
the day on a Tuesday. You
see, I’ve been organizing.
As you may recall, this HOA is extraordinarily fortunate in actually
having an office to use for HOA stuff.
Most HOAs are considered lucky if they can store boxes of records
in the “pool house”, or someone’s garage.
Back around 2005-2009, when a developer was converting 188 apartments to
condominiums, part of the Fitness Center, also known as the Gym, became
part of the Sales Office.
There was a door from the Gym into a small room, with another door
leading into an actual office.
This office even had its own door leading to the outside of the
building.
In the past year, or so, “Mannie”, the Maintenance Guy, along with his
Minions, took out the door from the Gym, replacing it with drywall.
Thus, the original room to the office became a back room that
could only be reached by entering the office from the outside, through
the connecting door. This
explains why the light switch for the back room is clear across said
room from the doorway.
Basically, it’s now a nice large closet, with an inconvenient light
source.
This back room is also a favorite dumping ground for “Mannie’s Minions”.
Equipment, paint cans, stuff left over from the Sales Office, an
extra roll of carpet matting; just about anything can land in the back
room, and usually does. They
even added a metal shelving unit, left over from goodness knows what,
against the “far” wall. All
of this stuff on the floor made it very difficult to even get across the
room to reach the switch to turn on the light to see what you’re doing.
A few weeks ago, I decide that enough was enough.
Someone had to straighten out the mess.
For instance, there was a box of small
United
States Flags, the kind you see people waving at parades and
political rallies. Why was
it there? I’m just guessing;
but the Sales Office might have used them to mark which units were
available for sale. In any
case, no real need for little flags.
On the other hand, you can’t just toss them into the dumpster.
There are specific
protocols regarding disposal of flags.
In the meantime, I moved the box to an upper shelf in the
shelving unit against the far wall.
I also found three more, much larger, US Flags, one still in the
original box, the other two unceremoniously folded or rolled up and
stuffed in a couple of different places.
I put them on the shelf with the box.
Now all flags are located together, in case they are ever needed.
Or until we find an appropriate method of disposal for them.
Meanwhile, I discovered another small box, about the size of a large
shoebox, marked “Box #2”. No
sign of any “Box #1”. When I
opened it, I found bunches of Visitor Cards from the Sales Office.
The kind that a Prospective Buyer might fill out.
This is where being a Certified Records
Manager really paid off.
Where they Records? Of
course they were. Were they
Business Records? Yes.
Were they HOA Records?
Certainly not. They
belonged to the Sales Office.
Should the Sales Office have taken care of them?
Not really. Their
business value was temporary at best.
After seven years even the Sales Office would probably not bother
contacting any of those Prospective Buyers.
And it was the Sales Office that had left the cards behind.
I personally carried the box across the street and dropped it
into the recycle
bin.
I also picked up many, many paint cans, which “Mannie’s Minions” had
left on the back room floor, this being one reason why it was so
difficult to get across the room to the light switch.
Most of the shelves in the metal shelving unit were only high
enough to hold one row of cans.
But at least one shelf had enough clearance to stack the paint
cans two-high. In this case,
I made sure the top can would be much lighter than the one underneath.
Didn’t want a whole shelf to come crashing down, making a big
mess.
Having actually cleared a great deal of floor space in the back room, I
proceeded to tackle the office itself.
This was also a favorite dumping ground for “Mannie’s Minions”.
There are a couple of two-high
lateral filing cabinets, also left behind by the Sales Office.
I have actually been using the top drawer of one cabinet for HOA
documents. I talked with
“Mannie” last week about setting up files for each of the 16 buildings
that make up our community.
Lots of times something will occur with a building, like working on the
outside balconies of the upstairs units.
Or that time some kids set fire to one of the units.
If we had a file for each building, a copy of a work order, or
some other documentation, could be dropped into the file.
Then, when a questions arises about that building, a quick look
into the file will let us know if that was the building we replaced the
siding on, or was it the other one?
“Mannie” agreed that it sounded like a good idea.
So I set up another drawer for Building Maintenance and that’s
why I needed to get some filing supplies, which precipitated the visit
to the Really Big Office Supply Warehouse Store earlier this week.
That and the printer needs more ink.
In the meantime, the office and the back room are now thoroughly
organized and much easier to navigate; a fact greatly appreciated by one
of “Mannie’s Minions” when he stopped by to pick up some equipment.
And deposited three more cans of paint on the floor while he was
there.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |