When agreeing to serve on a board of a community scheme consider that this is the same as if you were serving on any board of any business entity. So often do members of an association serving a residential community agree to serve without considering the knowledge, skills, and experience that you will need to perform this role.

It is not necessary to attend long drawn-out training programs in order to grasp the knowledge you need, but it is necessary that you equip yourself with the basic requirements that you will need in order to fulfill your fiduciary responsibility. Here are the reasons why you should register to the recently launched online director and trustee induction programme developed by the Association of Residential Communities

1. As a director or a trustee, you will be faced with many decisions that you will need to take and participate in. Legislation requires that one becomes fully informed and acquires the necessary knowledge to assist when making such decisions, those decisions that will impact on the community as a whole. Making important decisions especially where the spending of funds is necessary is a requirement of the” job” and the online induction programme deals with these requirements.

2. Ensuring good governance and meeting all best practice guidelines is fundamental within your role as a director or trustee of a Community Association or body corporate. When members of your community scheme elect you as a director or trustee, they will expect that you are familiar with industry except its standards and norms. The director and trustee induction program deals with this important aspect.

3. You know role as a director or trustee is one of setting strategy for the community scheme and being equipped to ensure that members of the management team are skilled to implement all elements of that strategy. Being on hand to provide guidance to your community manager or managing agent requires a high level of dedication passion and support. So, while you may perform this role as a volunteer on a part time basis, the strategy that the board develops needs to be implemented monitored and reported on to the very members that elected you

4. Members of a community scheme have become much more aware of their rights as homeowners or tenants, and all too often you will find, within your community scheme groupings of residents that will “watch your every move” so to speak. Hence the necessity to equip yourself with the basic requirements of serving the community in which you live.

5. Whether your scheme is a nonprofit company, a common law association, or a sectional title scheme, there is legislation that you would need to familiarize yourself with. This includes the Companies Act, the sectional title schemes management act, the community schemes ombuds service act and the protection of personal Information Act, all of which are covered fairly extensively in the induction programme.

The Association of Residential Communities has vast experience in the roles of directors and trustees and for that reason has developed this five-hour, modular based induction program that is available online where busy directors and trustees can go through the programme in their own time, at their own pace as often as you would like. Integral to the programme are live online sessions where we provide support and clarity on any issues covering your role as a director or trustee.

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