2012 November
Focus on... Building Maintenance/Expo

Maintenance Covering Your Bases
2012 November Covering Your Bases

 Warranties for products are simple to understand, most people might think. You  go to the store, buy a computer or a DVD player or a TV, or even a larger  appliance like a refrigerator, and you get a piece of paper describing a  one-year …

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Maintenance On the Bricks
2012 November On the Bricks

Brickwork is everywhere across the Chicagoland area. Around since the early 1600s, the popular building material is commonly used not only because of its aesthetic appeal, but also because of its practicality. Naturally weatherproof, b…

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Maintenance Smart Buildings, Smart Boards
2012 November Smart Buildings, Smart Boards

 If phones can be “smart,” why not buildings? With the ever-expanding array of consumer technology  available today, it should come as no surprise that residential buildings are  incorporating more and more cutting-edge technology into the…

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Maintenance Notice to Cure!
2012 November Notice to Cure!

 Despite the due diligence of boards and property managers, building code  violations can occur during routine inspections—be it a faulty pipe, broken step or rusted fire escape. It is the speed and  accuracy of addressing these infraction…

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Maintenance The Water Way
2012 November The Water Way

As we go about our busy lives, we often forget about everyday physical facts—like the unceasing tension gravity places on the materials we assemble into buildings and other structures, for example. Whether or not we are paying attention…

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Maintenance Breathe In, Breathe Out:
2012 November Breathe In, Breathe Out:

 Few things are as important to our health and well-being as the air we breathe,  especially inside our own homes. That is why it is so important for individual  homeowners as well as management to stay up-to-date on issues of indoor air  …

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Management Isn't That Capital!
2012 November Isn't That Capital!

 Sooner or later, every co-op or condo owner will have to deal with the  inconvenience of living through a major capital improvement project—a roof replacement, an elevator rehab, serious exterior work, or something of  that nature. No mat…

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Management The Tipping Point
2012 November The Tipping Point

 According to some sources, the word “tips” is actually an acronym—it's short for “To Insure Prompt Service,” and the list of people who are commonly tipped—at least in the United States—includes everyone from hair and nail salon workers t…

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Board Operations Keeping the Look
2012 November Keeping the Look

 Most people assume that as soon as they buy their first home, they will finally  have the freedom to paint their decks purple, to hang fluorescent window  treatments and colorful sconces, or to litter their lawns with political or  yard s…

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Maintenance The Ice Squad
2012 November The Ice Squad

 As any good condo administrator knows—either through common sense or painful experience - failing to clean up snow or  ice promptly can result in injuries, acrimony, and expensive lawsuits. Any one  of those is reason enough to get seriou…

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Maintenance Romancing the Stone
2012 November Romancing the Stone

 If you want to make a good impression, nothing quite says luxury and elegance  like a vast expanse of polished marble—particularly in the lobby of an upscale condominium or co-op building. Marble  has been used in palaces, temples, and ho…

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Maintenance Inventory Control
2012 November Inventory Control

 You may not realize it, but your building may be hemorrhaging money. Not in the  form of disastrous lawsuits or maintenance crises like a collapsed roof or  exploded boiler, but in a steady trickle coming from your method of ordering  sup…

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Neighborhoods Aurora, Illinois
2012 November Aurora, Illinois

 Aurora is known as the City of Light, a homage to the fact that the city was the  first city in the nation to install electric streetlights. Though overshadowed  by its big brother Chicago, Aurora can easily stand toe-to-toe with the Wind…

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Organizations SOARing High in Chicagoland
2012 November SOARing High in Chicagoland

 The Streeterville neighborhood in Chicago’s Near North Side is home to tens of thousands of Chicagoans, important  cultural, educational and medical institutions, some of the area’s greatest retail and dining, and a destination for countl…

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Board Operations Please Come to Order
2012 November Please Come to Order

In a community association or HOA meeting, without procedural rules and organization, it’s amazing how quickly a room full of adults can devolve into a room full of toddlers—everyone talking over one another and no one listening, insuri…

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Q&A: What to Do About Noisy Neighbors?
2012 November Q&A: What to Do About Noisy Neighbors?

Q Our upstairs neighbors always have loud noises coming from their unit: TV,  music, video games, etc. Our condo building is older and everything can be  heard from above. Our bylaws don’t really specify any rules about noise except that …

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Q&A: Getting People to Serve on the Board
2012 November Q&A: Getting People to Serve on the Board

Q We have a small condo association and it is difficult, as I assume it is for  most, to get people to serve on our board. The idea we came up with is to have  one person serve as the treasurer/secretary. In Illinois, is this legal? Is it…

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