Page 18 - New England Condominium November 2020

18 NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -NOVEMBER 2020 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM Flynn Law Group 185 Devonshire St., Suite 401 • Boston, MA 02110 617-988-0633 “Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates - $150/Hr.” Contact Attorney Frank Flynn Frank@ ynnlaw-ne.com www. ynnlaw-ne.com ATTORNEYS INDOOR AIR QUALITY • VENTILATION • DUCT CLEANING AIR DUCT & DRYER VENT CLEANING 800-893-1117 www.continentalcleanair.com Property Managers • Multi Units • Associations • Condos Continental clean:Layout 1 12/22/09 11 See Our Display Ad on Page 18 BetterVent is a NEW kind of Indoor Dryer Vent. www.adr-products.com 1-888-609-5512 Merrill & McGeary 100 State Street, Suite 200 Boston, MA 02109 617-523-1760 • Fax 617-523-4893 Contact: Mike Merrill, Esq. mmerrill@merrillmcgeary.com DUCT/DRYER VENT CLEANING ACCOUNTANTS Accounting • Auditing • Taxes • Consulting Worcester 67 Millbrook Street 508-797-5200 Grafton 80 Worcester Street 508-839-0020 Holden 795 Main Street 508-829-5544 M Love Associates, & LLC Certified Public Accountants Serving Condominium Associations mlove 2.25 x 2.5 condo association color 9.19.2017.indd 1 9/19/17 12:59 PM Greater Boston’s Full Service Condominium & Property Management Firm 617-202-3815 admin@yifmanagement.com www.yifmanagement.com | • Competitive Customized Rates! 100% Transparency! • • No Unnecessary Fees! Guaranteed Communication! • DAL CPA David A. Levy, CPA, P.C. Certified Public Accountants Areas of expertise in Condominiums ■ Cooperatives ■ Timeshares ALL COMMON INTEREST DEVELOPMENTS Call our office for a complimentary review of your financial needs 617-566-3645 or 866-842-0108 20 Freeman Place, Needham, MA 02492 SERVICING THE EAST COAST FOR 30 YEARS Member AICPA, CAI-NE www.DALCPAPC.net dlevy@dalcpapc.net DavidALevy_E4C_NEC_Sept15:Layout 1 10/7/2015 3:54 PM Page 1 185 Devonshire Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02110 Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates. (617) 988-0633 Contact Attorney Frank Flynn: FRANK@FLYNNLAW-NE.COM Flynn_E4C.qxp:Layout 1 12/8/14 2:30 PM Page 1 3. All owners are put on mute during the meeting to prevent peripheral sounds and people interrupting. 4. All meetings are conducted on a share screen via PowerPoint presentation for the owners. “Th is helps signifi cantly with a natural fl ow and allows people to follow along easily,” he says. 5. At the end of the meeting, residents on the video are permitted to ask ques- tions via the chat icon. LeBlanc reads them aloud and then either he or the board answers. 6. All necessary trustee elections are conducted aft erward via a mail-in ballot sent directly to the management company. Joanne Gardner serves on the board of directors at Sherman Terrace Cooperative in the Bronx and chairs its rec room com- mittee. When New England Condominium spoke to her for this article, the 66-unit co-op had just held its annual meeting a few days prior in a hybrid virtual-physical format. “It was actually better than ex- pected,” she tells us. “We had both virtual \[participants\] on Zoom, and we also used our rec room, where shareholders who at- tended in person \[socially\] distanced and wore masks. So we had both going on.” Of the shareholder response, she says, “I didn’t hear any complaints about it. I think most people were appreciative that we were able to, you know, have our annu- al meeting given the circumstances, and the extent that everybody went through to make it happen.” In addition to setting up the Zoom meeting, the board went out of its way to make the rec room available for the ten or so shareholders who don’t have access to the internet, or for those who just wanted to attend in person. Addition- ally, some of their more tech-savvy board members gave personal assistance to resi- dents who needed a Zoom tutorial or to simply get people comfortable with the platform. “Everyone was grateful to have the opportunity to participate,” Gardner continues. “I walked away feeling pretty good about it.” As long as virtual or electronic meeting formats are permitted in an association’s or corporation’s governing documents, conducting meetings to accomplish the business of a multifamily community should not be hindered by coronavirus constraints. In fact, you might fi nd these methods of meeting and voting preferable to traditional “physical” ones. Necessity is the mother of invention and can lead us to adaptations or alterations that have lasting benefi ts. n Darcey Gerstein is Associate Editor and Staff Writer for New England Condominium. REMOTE... continued from page 17 See Our Display Ad on Page 4