In store shopper

Mary Jo Blake

** ***** ********* ******

W-***

Lansdowne, PA 19050

610-***-**** (cell)

********@***.***

PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: seeking a position in to provide customer service, particularly as an in-store shopper, customer service or re-shop.

Mid-Atlantic Management Corporation (MAMC), Newtown Square, PA

Community Manager: April 2007 – September 2009

Responsibilities:

Maintain the safety, integrity, and welfare of the primarily senior citizens residents as well as a six-story, aging mid-rise building.

Conduct regular building inspections as part of a program of preventive maintenance and proactive problem-solving, such as bringing in a drainage specialist, and overcoming the Council reluctance to attempt another repair of a persistent flooding of a home when others had failed in the past.

Manage the office – act as my own administrator, typing letters, follow up on correspondence, copy, file, type, maintain supplies.

Respond to resident concerns or concerns for other residents. In one instance, one condominium owner, who lived alone, was clearly declining physically and mentally, and not eating. In the middle of a sweltering heat wave, her air conditioning unit broke, and she sat alone in her one room apartment, with the windows closed. I brought her a fan from my office, made arrangements for her to stay in the air-conditioned community which at least had comfortable sofas and a TV room until she could have the a/c fixed. I contacted the very reluctant family, who visited very briefly, bringing some food, but immediately left for the shore. I caught up with them on a cell phone En route, and insisted they return to take care of their mother. They came back, bringing more food and arranging for the air conditioner to be fixed. It was not long after that incident the family agreed to make other living arrangements for their mother and sold the condominium.

Act as liaison to the elected condominium council, and the residents.

Prepare and facilitate the residents and building for Fios installation – a major, several months operation, involving scheduling and access to apartments, and common areas

Determine maintenance responsibility, initiate, update and resolve work order maintenance requests, with written work orders to contractors, and letters to homeowners at the start and completion of the work order.

Maintain critical records of each unit, including payment history, account billing for charges other than rent, maintenance history, rules enforcement and correspondence to and from residents.

Track delinquent challenges of residents to resolution, up to and including attorney & court involvement, if necessary.

Create, promote, and participate in community-related meetings and events; usually two annual meetings of all residents – one to elect new Council members and one to present upcoming budget year.

Invited and attended community-based celebrations, Hanukkah, Passover, Christmas. Created community building events, like Bingo, presented dollar store prizes. On occasion, invited residents to the management office for coffee and donuts. Used Laundry Machine money to buy decorations, snacks, and prizes – money kept in a drawer, that had never been designated for any particular use, so the small costs for these events did not affect the budget.

Review and approve payment authorizations of community vendors.

Responsible for 24/7 emergency calls, situations like a major leak in community room about midnight. The contractor I brought in was able to close off the leak and found the source by the next day. Supervised the maintenance repairs and insurance claims for three homes that were struck by falling trees in late evening during a fierce windstorm

Perform all other MAMC management services as noted elsewhere in the resume.

NOTE: After eight months as part-time manager, the Council decided that they preferred a full-time manager on-site and my position was upgraded to full-time. I was sent to this particular community to save the MAMC contract, which after several years, was in danger of non-renewal. Council members and the then manager worked in a fractious environment. The Council President and the manager came to each monthly meeting with their own agendas. They did not communicate. The Council requested a manager change. I worked closely with the Council President to assure him of my support of his position as leader of the Council. I did not run the Council meetings but either met with him or spoke together beforehand to prepare one meeting agenda, a meeting which he ran. When the contract came up for renewal several months later, the community renewed it for 3 additional years.

Interim Community Manager: January – March 2007

Responsibilities:

Provide management services to an older community of adults (200+ homes), on an interim, emergency basis to facilitate the transition of management companies; the proposed new manager quit with three days’ notice, before the MAMC contract was set to begin.

Manage the office, maintaining all services during the transition period.

Collaborate with the Treasurer in installing an accounting system.

Oversee a major heat/hot water replacement project, keeping homeowners regularly informed of progress.

Maintain residents’ accounts.

Act as liaison for the board, homeowners, staff, and contractors.

Install MAMC filing system and prepared new policies and procedures for the Board to approve, in accordance with the community governing documents.

Assist in training the new permanent manager.

Community Consultant: January – December 2006

Responsibilities:

Train and mentor new managers. Assisted them with understanding their communities’ documents and by-laws, as well as professional standards as Community Managers, as required by the Management contract.

Complete special projects normally fulfilled by the Regional Director but the increasing volume of new communities coming on board and time restraints due to other areas of responsibility did not allow for such time-consuming and vital detail work with each new community. To that end, I prepared the introductory work in setting up new communities for the Regional Director, including thorough review of the community declaration and by-laws, set up clear Delinquency and Rules Enforcement procedures; created appropriate Rules and Regulations based on the community documents and state law; prepared maintenance responsibility chart for the community managers and the residents. Completed on-site inspections with new managers to become familiar with the property and identify areas of maintenance concerns in the common areas that needed to be addressed by the builder of new communities.

Revise managerial, administrative and communication policies and procedures in collaboration with the regional director and assigned managers.

Community Manager: September 1990 – October 2005

Responsibilities:

Day-to-day management of multiple (usually 5-7) full-service off-site communities, including:

-Prepare agenda and monthly management report and attended monthly evening meetings with the Board.

-Prepared and attended/usually hosted two Annual Meetings for all residents, for Board/Council Elections and Budget Presentation.

-Development of community contracts, including setting the contract specifications, meeting with interested contractors on site, reviewing bids and comparing contractors’ bids by line item, made checked references, presented spreadsheet presentation to Board/Council, including recommendation for final choice.

-Emergency operations including the ice storms of 1993-94 – the entire area was hit with a massive ice storm in late December, early January and there was no rock salt available in the region. One contractor drove to Chicago to get salt. In the meantime, the only way to minimize possible sliding cars on the roads and parking areas and falls on sidewalks and steps was to allow contractors to use cinders, commonly not permitted. During the blizzard of 1996, all roads were shut down by the governor and only state or municipal snow contractors were permitted on the roads. Private contractors hired by my communities could not drive at all, but homeowners did not understand the difference in the kind of contractors permitted on the roads, and I fielded many calls from homeowners and Board members alike about the states of their communities.

-Initiation of preliminary annual budget process, including bids for upcoming contracts such as landscaping snow removal, roofing, painting, concrete and stucco repair, insurance, audits, and other contracts pertaining to a particular community.

-Recommendations of financial actions to the board; Investment (CD’s) interest, annual audit review, and presentation of auditors’ recommendations.

-Familiarity with governing documents, by-laws, and rules.

-Conduct regular property inspections for maintenance needs, rules enforcement and resolution of maintenance projects.

-Responsible for 24/7 emergency calls/situations involving all assigned Communities

-Responsible quarterly for beeper emergency calls on the weekends for the entire Newtown Square region (about 50 communities)

-For several years during this period, managed 5 to 7 55 and older communities, in West Chester and Avondale.

Facilitate communications with boards of directors, community leaders and members.

My real estate career spanned about thirty years, beginning as a rotating vacation front desk clerk (4 buildings, 1125 apartments), and some evening desk clerk work at the main building at the Presidential Apartments on City Line Avenue. I believe it is now referred to as Presidential City. There was a hotel in the main building at the time, and I managed the check ins as needed.

The Presidential called me back to work full-time in the leasing office the following year. Eventually, under new management, I became the Leasing Manager, then Assistant Manager of the entire community. Toward the end of my time there, I learned how to use a computer and then put the Presidential on a program designed for apartment buildings.

EDUCATION

Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA

1974-1976: French/then Theology major starting 2nd year.

West Philadelphia Catholic Girls’ High School, Philadelphia, PA

1970-1974 – graduated 4th in class.

VOLUNTEER WORK

From July 2007 to August 2013, I had been a volunteer administrative assistant on a project called “Father Chuck’s Challenge (FCC).” The project, begun in 2007, in conjunction with Food for the Poor and the American Nicaraguan Foundation, has been responsible for building over 400 homes for more than 2,700 people who previously lived in hurricane-ravaged plywood and plastic shacks. Monsignor have raised over $7,000,000 not just for homes, but for clean water, latrines, furniture, tools, chickens, trees, community centers and church renovations, as well as a motorcycle and ham radio for the priest who ministers in his far-flung parishes.

In Spring of 2019 through March 2020, I volunteered with Monsignor Schmidt, after he retired from Father Chuck’s Challenge, to work on a new project of his concerning The Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Prepared and sent mailings, copied, and typed workbooks, tracked attendees, attended meetings, liaison between participants and Monsignor. He presented meetings with two test groups before finalizing the finished presentation, but then Covid shut the program down.

I have been a volunteer Eucharistic Minister at my parish, Blessed Virgin Mary, in Darby. I had to stop because of Covid, and only just recently have been able to attend Mass in person. I expect to resume my ministry soon.

In Lent, 2021, assisted in preparing a 6 week Seminar, learning, using, and teaching Power Point and Zoom, to present a virtual version of “The Real Presence” .to a group of 30 persons, from several states around the country. Because the Villa was closed, Monsignor and I each had to work remotely together to prepare for the sessions.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT AND REFERENCES

References and information regarding previous employment are available on the application form.

PROFICIENT IN WORD, EXCEL, OUTLOOK, ZOOM, AND POWERPOINT

AFTER LEAVING MID-ATLANTIC MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

I did have two seasonal jobs, and one overnight position that each lasted very briefly. I am including that information here.

Kohl’s

Seasonal cashier – November – December 2013

Performed customer service at the cash register. Provided GREAT Customer service – Greet customer, Request Credit, Explained email, Ask survey, Thank the customer.

Vector Security

Seasonal Staff Member – July 27 – September 1, 2012

Responsibilities:

Internal customer service to technicians in the field, assisting in setting up accounts for at home security system installations, 12 hour shifts overnight.

Kohl’s

Overnight staff member – June 2011

Responsibilities:

Clean store and restock merchandise

ARCHDIOCESAN CONNECTIONS

MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH

My diocesan connections started in CYO in high school, co-leading the 10:30 “Guitar Mass” in my home parish, Most Blessed Sacrament.

DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH ACTIVITIES

I met Monsignor Schmidt in my Senior Year of high school, 1974, while playing the guitar for a Camp Fire Girls Mass at the Cathedral. He asked me to come to work for him at the Department of Youth Activities as a liturgist for the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO)/Community Service Corp (CSC) Officers who attended Sunday monthly meetings at the Department’s center city office. I worked part-time in the beginning while I attended college, then moved to full-time. Aside from liturgies and a monthly liturgy column in “The Hint”, the archdiocesan Youth Department paper, I took part in general office work, attended weekend retreat (Search) gatherings, ran a program for summer camp for inner city children, and was adult moderator for a diocesan wide big brother/big sister service program, called PATH. I worked extensively on the Youth Committee of the Eucharistic Congress in 1976, and suggested and succeeded in bringing “The Demeans” to Philadelphia to lead the music for the Youth Mass.

TEACHER

I taught 3rd grade at St. Ignatius of Loyola school in Philadelphia, for a year and a half, to fill a sudden vacancy at the New Year, and continued for one more year before the Presidential called me back full-time.

CHOIR CO-DIRECTOR/BOOKKEEPER

Co-Leader of Choir at St. Anthony’s Parish in Philadelphia for several years, and also worked there as Part-Time Bookkeeper at night for five years from 1990 – 1995.

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