Resource Panels

Committees of Dedicated Members

The ECHO resource panels are committees of dedicated business and professional members representing many of the major homeowner association service areas. Panel members are expected to demonstrate a special commitment and dedication to the goals and mission of ECHO. Membership on panels is open to any full-time employee of an associate member business who meets the initial and continuing approved requirements for panel members.

The ECHO board of directors, based on written panel purposes, goals, statements of ethics, and other business-specific membership criteria, approves resource panels. The board of directors, upon recommendation of professional peers, also approves membership on panels. The panels serve as an information source for the board and general membership, prepare many of the articles published in the ECHO magazine, and provide speakers for the ECHO seminars.

Resource panels fall into two general categories. The first are those panels composed of individuals with related business or professional interests; there are three long-standing panels of this type. The second panel category is multidisciplinary groups of persons who provide services within a specific geographic area; there are currently six panels of this type. Each month the ECHO Journal lists the members of each panel and provides the telephone number of the panel chairperson. The following paragraphs give a synopsis of the mission of each panel.

Business Panels

Accountants

The mission of the Accountants Panel is to educate association board members and CID professional colleagues about the general financial needs of associations; to serve as a resource to associations and professional colleagues for answering accounting and auditing queries; and to promote favorable taxation positions for CID associations with the IRS and Franchise Tax Board.

Legal

The Legal Panel consists of attorneys in good standing with the State Bar of California who do more than fifty percent of their practice in the field of homeowner association law. Panel members provide guidance to associations in the areas of rules enforcement, interpretation of governing documents and state and federal laws, and assessment collection.

Maintenance

The goal of the Maintenance Panel is to provide assistance and information to ECHO members that will help them in the areas of requesting and receiving quality bids, educating themselves about association maintenance needs, and providing assistance in preparing maintenance budgets.

Regional Panels

The regional panels support ECHO in specific regions by providing a forum for discussions of current common interest housing concerns among a diverse group of business and professional people, by assisting in homeowner association and business membership growth, by informing, assisting and educating the governing boards of member and nonmember associations in the region, and by supporting all ECHO events, publications and legislative advocacy initiatives. There are currently six regional panels:

North Bay

Marin and Southern Sonoma and Napa Counties

Wine Country

Northern Sonoma and Napa Counties and Northern California

East Bay Panel

Alameda, Solano and Contra Costa Counties and the I680 Corridor

Central Coast

Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties

South Bay

San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties

San Francisco

San Francisco County