Community Newsletter

Need some suggestions. Our community has a community newsletter written by the wife of the President of the Board. She attends every monthly meeting and any "closed meetings". After these meetings she does a newsletter and puts info in it regarding card parties, lunches, new restaurants and her comments regarding the weather, birds, bees, etc. Then she bashes the homeowners that have gone to the meetings asking questions, like our finances and important projects that the Board is mishandling. She never mentions any names, but, the way she writes it is quite obvious who she is referring to. The homeowners do not have any rebuttal as to the false information she is putting in the newsletter. The cost of this newsletter comes out of the Assn income. The homeowners are afraid to go to the Board because they don't want to be the object of her opinions. She intrepids our Covenants wrong and prints it in the newsletter. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this situation.

Thanks Carol. I am the past President of the Assn. I was on the Board for 3 terms and then resigned. I still am concerned for our Assn.for the way the Board is handling things. I guess the Prez's wife is welcomed at the closed meetings. She is not a board member.

I don't know if the entire Board approves the newsletter, I think it is just written by her and the Prez writes some of it. It only has her name as Editor. There is no Prez's corner or anything coming from the Board. The Board we have now is a horrible Board. They go by the seat of their pants, don't adhere to the Covenants, make up their own rules as they go along. Lies to the homeowners and nobody challenges them. We tried to vote 3 of them off but with the proxies they won. One Board member is being treated for cancer and can't attend the meetings so until he is capable to return, there are only 4 people on the Board and at the meeting plus the Prez's wife who writes the newsletter. The Board could have approved her newsletter I don't know. I would just like a way to let the homeowners know that the Prez, Treasurer & the Editor of the newsletter are telling lies against the homeowners. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

Nancy,

The recourse a member would have for defamation is to file a legal action for libel.

Perhaps you could volunteer to write articles for the newsletter
Perhaps you could volunteer to start writing the newsletter

Not being on the board, you are limited in what else you can do. You could certainly attend a board meeting and explain the issue in the hopes other board members will speak up. You could also resubmit your name for nomination to serve on the board again (which would give you more authority to act on the issue).

As Glen said, you could also start your own newsletter.

Suggestion - Make sure that you have Committee charters which outlines their duties and responsibilities. Establish a Communications Committee charter that spells out the responsibilities of the committee or in this case the wife of the board president. She is not a board member so make her a committee member and have her sign a committee member application that spells out her duties. If you need samples of both documents, let me know and I'll either link them or send them.

You should have them now. Hope that this helps.