"Can someone tell me what relation a management company has to an
association? IOW, what do they do for us? "

The management company works for the association, is hired by the board
and manages the day to day operations of the condo. That includes
collecting maintenance fees, sending out late notices/fines, paying
bills, keeping the books, responding to unit owners requests for info
or maintenance, etc, soliciting bids for work that needs to be done,
recommending vendors/contractors, verifying work being done by
vendors/contractors, periodically inspecting the property and putting
up with a lot of abuse