Management Committee (EC) SoP

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

A well-run residential complex adds a lot to the quality of life of its residents, the workers and service providers employed by it.  A structured, repeatable and predictable manner of managing the complex is vital for this.

This document provides a Standard Operating Procedure for the management committees of 24K Glitterati.  It will enable them to provide their services smoothly and efficiently for day-to-day activities and for the longer-term planning and delivery of improvements, upkeep and financial health.

Management Committee Overview

Composition

  1. The Committee should ideally comprise 2 representatives from each building
  2. A new Committee needs to be formed in August/September each year
  3. Before or after the AGM the new Committee should meet and decide the office bearers, i.e. the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.  The office bearers are collectively known as the Executive Committee. The terms Management Committee and Executive Committee are used interchangeably except for decision, approval, or legal situations where they are disambiguated.
  4. In the same meeting or soon after, the focal and backup for each of the areas below should be decided.  As there are 5 principal areas and 10 members, about 2 members per area, with one as focal and one as backup utilises the team well.  EC members can contribute to these besides their formal duties.
    1. Security & Parking
    1. Garden
    1. Housekeeping & Cleanliness
    1. Utilities (Water, Power, Gas, etc.)
    1. Automation (Access Control System, CCTV System, Audio/Video Intercom, Attendance System, Gas Alarms, Panic Alarms, Automated Lighting, etc.)
  5. The handover of all ongoing activities, status updates, briefing and training from the previous to the new EC should be done within 3 weeks after the start of the term
  6. The fiscal signing authority should be transferred to the new EC within 4 weeks after the start of the term
  7. The ApartmentADDA admin and access control rights should be transferred to the new MC/EC members within 4 weeks after the start of the term
  8. The new MC can request members of the last MC or sub-committees to continue to support any activities as required

Roles & Responsibilities

Roles & Responsibilities will be as per the Maharashtra Apartments Act, the Deed of Declaration and the Model By-Laws of 24K Glitterati.  Within those broad definitions, the MC and EC have the flexibility to allocate responsibilities as necessary at a practical level.

  1. Get the BMS (Knight Frank) to handle all regular and normal activities and resident complaints and issues.  If a matter is beyond the capabilities of the BMS it shall be handled by the MC.
  2. Get the Accountant to manage all regular and normal fiscal book-keeping with the BMS and all regular accounting matters.  If a fiscal or tax matter needs a decision from the MC the accountant shall work with it.
  3. All MC members should understand and use the ApartmentADDA system.  It has all the data of the apartment complex, fiscal information, communication facilities, helpdesk ticketing, etc.

Contributing Time

While it is understood that the MC is an unpaid and voluntary body, it plays an important part in the well-being of the entire community.  Therefore, all the members of the MC should approach it with a sense of duty and dedication.  Here is the minimum time commitment expected to discharge the responsibilities properly.  Of course, some may be able to give it more time, and that will always be fruitful for the community.

  1. President – 8 hours per week
  2. Vice President – 8 hours per week
  3. Treasurer – 8 hours per week
  4. Secretary – 6 hours per week
  5. Focal – 4 hours per week
  6. Backups – 2 hours per week

MC Meetings

Frequency

The suggested meeting frequency is below.  It can be varied as required by the active MC.

  • Month 1-3 – Once a week
  • Month 4-6 – Once in 2 weeks
  • Month 7-10 – Once per month
  • Month 11-12 – Once a week

Quorum

  1. Wait for a maximum of 10 minutes after the scheduled start of the meeting for all members to arrive. 
  2. If there are at least the 4 office bearers or any 5 members present take it as a quorum and start the meeting.
  3. MC members should attend at least half of the meetings held in the year so they can share their ideas, views and knowledge effectively.

Minutes

  1. The Secretary or any other member should bring along a laptop and take the minutes of the meeting and review them with attendees at the end of the meeting
  2. The scribe should finalise, circulate to the MC and store the MoM in the MC Google Drive MoMs latest by the next day.
  3. The minutes should be printed out and signed by the attendees and filed, as required by Act and By-laws.

Calendar of Important Tasks

  1. September
    1. Elect the office bearers and decide the area focals
    1. Take over from the previous EC after the AGM
  2. October
    1. Do the invoicing for Oct-Apr Maintenance payments
    1. Monitor and follow up on the maintenance payments
    1. Take stock of the overall fiscal status; Create the Discretionary Spending budget
  3. November
    1. Impose Defaulter Penalties (see chapter 5.3, pt. 5)
  4. December
    1. At the end of December do the quarterly financial check and progress review on new proposals
    1. Audit ADDA flat and owner/resident data
    1. Audit Staff Attendance; Audit Helpdesk Ticket Management
    1. Audit Security Issue Management
    1. Send the Quarterly Newsletter to the community
    1. Impose Defaulter Penalties (see chapter 5.3, pt. 5)
  5. March
    1. Audit ADDA flat and owner/resident data
    1. Audit Staff Attendance
    1. Audit Helpdesk Ticket Management
    1. Audit Security Issue Management
    1. Send the Quarterly Newsletter to the community
    1. At the end of March do the quarterly financial check and progress review on new proposals
  6. April
    1. Do the invoicing for Apr-Sep Maintenance payments
    1. Monitor and follow up on the maintenance payments
  7. May
    1. Impose Defaulter Penalties (see chapter 5.3, pt. 5)
  8. June
    1. Audit ADDA flat and owner/resident data
    1. Audit Staff Attendance
    1. Audit Helpdesk Ticket Management
    1. Audit Security Issue Management
    1. Send the Quarterly Newsletter to the community
    1. Impose Defaulter Penalties (see chapter 5.3, pt. 5)
    1. At the end of June do the quarterly financial check and progress review on new proposals
  9. July
    1. Get the financial audit started for the previous Fiscal Year and get it completed before August 15th
    1. Appoint a new auditor if required and get an NOC from the previous auditor.
  10. August
    1. Ensure the financial audit is ready and signed off by the auditor for the previous Fiscal Year
    1. Send the notice for selection of the next MC
    1. Prepare the AGM agenda and send out the invite for it
  11. September
    1. In the second week of September do the quarterly financial check and progress review on new proposals
    1. Audit ADDA flat and owner/resident data
    1. Ensure all annexures for the AGM are sent out at least 2 weeks before the AGM date
    1. Prepare the list of on-going work and issues to hand over to the next MC
    1. Hold the AGM
    1. Hand over to the next MC

(Throughout the Year)

  1. Support the focals and Cultural, Sports, Utilities and any other sub-committees for events on their calendar of tasks
  2. Support the BMS for events on its calendar or tasks, e.g. AMC renewals, etc.
  3. Impose Late-Payment Interest on defaulters)

Fiscal Management

Non-Discretionary Spending

This comprises the regular expenses of the complex such as the Building Management Services (BMS) Vendor (currently Knight Frank), Security (SIS), Lift Maintenance (KONE), Diesel procurement, Water Charges (PCMC), Common Electricity Charges (MSEDCL), Gym Manager, WTP and STP maintenance, Vendor AMC, necessary repairs and maintenance of existing assets and systems, etc.

  1. The Treasurer and MC need to only keep an eye on these by using a quarterly financial report from ADDA and seeing there are no significant deviations from the normal. 
  2. The Treasurer and Secretary should also ensure that the BMS and Accountant are working well together to ensure the book-keeping is up to date in near real time and there are zero gaps in ADDA ERP.

Discretionary Spending

This comprises any significant new materials and services that are invested in for the improvement of community life or for the saving of a regularly occurring non-discretionary expense.  E.g. the investment in a music system to avoid the hiring charges and start getting a positive return on investment after 2 years.

  1. At the very start of the term of the new EC create a list of new proposals, owners, priority, cost estimate and saving (if any)
  2. For each new proposal, there should be a sponsor from the MC who carries it through from proposal to implementation, taking help from others as necessary
  3. The solution, vendor, equipment and services for every proposal shall be chosen through an objective comparison of 3 alternatives ideally, or at least 2.  The pros and cons of every alternative shall be put in a table, weighted and scored to select the best techno-commercial option. 
  4. The sponsor shall present this to the MC and if it is found fine the proposal will be implemented if the Discretionary Spending funds are sufficient and the proposal has the required priority to consume its part.
  5. A quarterly check should be done on budget vs actual spends by the EC
  6. The Treasurer and Secretary should ensure that the BMS and Accountant are keeping ADDA up to date on all discretionary spending.

Payments & Income

  1. Avoid cash payments as far as possible.  In any case, do not allow it for any expense above 10,000Rs.  Do not break up larger payments into smaller amounts to allow cash payments.
  2. Ensure we get a proper GST Invoice with full GST registration, address and contact information of the payee for all payments, including cash payments
  3. Issue a proper GST invoice with 24K GST registration, address and contact details, for any income from residents/owners/others.
  4. The Accountant shall make the regular TDS, Income Tax, Interest and other statutory payments to government bodies on behalf of the association, online from the bank account of the association.  This is to relieve the burden of these frequent and standard activities of the Treasurer and Secretary and ensure they are done in a timely manner as the accountant knows the last dates to pay, etc.  A separate bank account has been set up for this in which the treasurer shall maintain sufficient funds as advised by the accountant.  In each case the accountant will email the details of the calculations and payment to the EC and either the Treasurer or Secretary will give the go-ahead by return email before the payment is made.
  5. To expedite the collection of Maintenance Fees and minimize defaulters, inform the community and take the following steps:
  1. Provide 30 days for payment and recognise those who pay early by publishing their names in a broadcast and in lobby notice boards (<1 week – Gold, <2 weeks – Silver, <3 weeks Bronze <30 days Honourable mention)
  2. Beyond 30 days Impose a late payment fee @18% simple interest per annum, updated weekly pro rata
  3. Additionally, beyond 30 days suspend the first level of common services – garbage collection and security calling (all visitors will have to call the owner/tenant directly and the owner/tenant will have to come to the entry gate and take them to the flat)
  4. Additionally, beyond 45 days suspend the second level of common services – DG Backup power supply and access to Recreational Facilities
  5. Additionally, beyond 60 days suspend the final level of common services – STP water for flushing (and garden watering, where applicable) and participation in cultural activities

Communications

  1. Create a new Google Group for the MC members and use it for internal communications
  2. Create a new WhatsApp or equivalent chat group for the MC members and use it internal co-ordination.  Avoid using it for critical discussions and decisions.  Rather do these in the regular MC meetings and follow up on email.
  3. Use ADDA Broadcasts for the community to announce non-critical or informal events such as health camps, Aadhar camps, etc.  and reminders.  Please note that you cannot attach a document to a Broadcast (although you can still put a link to a shared google drive folder in the text).  Be sure to select the right type of recipient for the broadcast (e.g. all owners, all users, residents of a building, etc.) and set the reply-to email as care.glitterati@gmail.com.  SMSes can also be sent along with the emails for urgent reminders.
  4. Use ADDA Notices for the community to announce formal events, requests, new rules, document circulation, etc.  Attachments can be put in notices.  Be sure to select ‘Administration’ as the type of notice, select the right type of recipient for the broadcast (e.g. all owners, all users, residents of a building, etc.) and set the reply-to email as care.glitterati@gmail.com.
  5. If an ADDA Conversation needs a response from the MC/EC then reply to the conversation in ADDA
  6. On the open 24K Glitterati WA group the MC should not put any announcements or posts except in response to a question, request or complaint directed at the MC.
  7. On the 24K Glitterati open WA avoid posting any opinion while you are an MC member as it can be taken as the position of the MC.  Posts that are obviously only informative or helpful are fine but if in doubt always make it clear that you are posting at a personal level.
  8. The MC shall be proactive in communicating important matters to the community
  9. MC members, especially EC and focal members, shall be constantly alert to matters raised for them and emerging situations that can have a wide impact.  They shall respond quickly, even if it is only to acknowledge the issue or request and seek time for a resolution.
  10. Review all important communications from the BMS for content and language

Documentation

  1. Create a new Google Drive for the new MC, with all members having read-write access.  Create a backup Drive and set up an automatic synchronisation to it.
  2. Give write access to the IT expert of the previous EC to copy across all key folders and documents to the new EC’s Google Drive. 
  3. Document everything diligently
  4. Maintain all important documents like MC MoMs, AGM and SGM MoMs, Vendor Contracts, Vendor/Equipment Comparisons, Quotations, Society Documents such as DoDs, Occupation Certificates, etc.  In MC communications send links to the documents as far as possible to reduce network load and share the latest versions.  The folder structure set up by the 16-17 EC can be followed once step 2 is completed.
  5. Support the incoming MC to transition the documents as per steps 1 and 2.  This way, every MC will have its own baselined set for later reference instead of everything getting mixed up.

Decision Making

  1. Decide by consensus for critical matters that affect the safety, health and finances of all or a large part of the 24K Glitterati community
  2. Decide by simple majority for all non-critical matters
  3. Decide singly or in minority for day-to-day matters in focal areas, especially those involving expenses less than 5000Rs, not adding up to more than 10,000 Rs in any half-yearly period.
  4. Review and approve modifications in apartments as per the steps specified in the Handbook, via the BMS and Modifications Review Sub-committee.  The MC should itself not take more than 10 working days to complete its review and approval.  Any additional elapsed time should only be due to dependencies on the owner/architect/engineer.
  5. Every MC member must read the 24K Glitterati Handbook and be familiar with its guidelines.  The Handbook must be referred while taking decisions on resident issues and decisions must be consistent with it.

Sub-Committees

  1. Sub-committees shall exist in parallel to the MC.  For example, there will be a Cultural, Sports, Cleanliness and Modifications Approval Sub-committees, at the minimum.  These should be encouraged and supported by the MC as they relieve the MC of a lot of burdens and can focus on these areas to deliver better outcomes.
  2. Sub-Committees should have their own meetings and plans and submit any Discretionary spending requirements to the MC for approval, with the proper explanation, fiscal case, comparative vendor/equipment/supplies/method selection, documentation, etc.
  3. The MC shall appoint a ‘Modifications Review Sub-Committee’.  Any apartment owners planning any modifications shall submit the designs from their registered architect and/or structural engineer to this sub-committee that shall examine it, inspect the site, meet the owners, architects and engineers as required and approve the design without or with changes as deemed fit as per the by-laws, government regulations and handbook of the association.  The work can be undertaken only after the receiving the formal approval of the sub-committee.

Guiding Principles

  1. The MC shall serve the community
  2. The MC shall not discriminate nor allow discrimination against anyone based on their tenancy/ownership, marital status, place of origin or any other characteristics (on any matter not covered by specific existing laws and regulations).
  3. The MC shall strive to be wise, impartial, rational, sympathetic and balanced in everything it does
  4. For important issues, the MC shall provide mature and inspirational leadership and strive for resolution rather than just management
  5. For good things, the MC shall take a stance of freedom, sharing and tolerance.  E.g. sports, swimming, cycling, music, dance, exercise, etc.  For the fairness, safety and security aspects of good things the MC will rely on education and self-restraint rather than rigid rules and policing.  The latter are impractical and unsustainable anyway.
  6. For bad things, the MC shall take a stance of rules, controls, rigidity and zero tolerance. E.g. Non-payment of Dues, unauthorised modifications, encroachment, changes to façade, damage to public or private property, disturbance, littering, smoking, wrongful parking, rash driving, etc.  For enforcement, the MC will rely on appropriate notices, fines, punitive service suspension, legal action, etc.
  7. While serving on the MC members will prioritize the interests of the community over their own personal views, opinions and situations
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