Door to door campaign - any tips?

In January, our BOD sent out an information sheet on our swimming pool with the Board's argument for closing it permanently. We included a ballot so homeowners can vote on the issue and a stamped, self addressed envelope so they could return it. Out of 145 units we received about 20 responses.

Then, we ran two areticles in the next two issues of our newsletter, asking (again) for people to vote and a summary of the information sheet explaining the pros and cons of closing it, along with another ballot (people could drop it in the clubhouse mailbox or return it to our property manager.)

As I write this, we've received about 47 votes, which isn't enough to close the pool (we need at least 117 or 75% of the homeonwers) so during last night's meeting, the Board decided to do a door to toor/phone call/email campaign to get people to vote. We hope they will vote to close, but as long as they vote one way or another, I'm ok with that. We have to call and email some of these folks because many of them live off site (some out of state)

In case you're wondering, our CCRs currently prohibit delinquent homeowners from voting in Board elections, serving on the board or using amenities like the pool, but everything else is fair game. The CCRs also state if the pool's been closed for two consecutive years, homeowners must vote to reopen it or close it permanently. We recommended permanent closure because the area is now in need of repairs we really can't afford, given the rest of the community's needs and - the delinquent fees (if people had paid like they were supposed to, we might have had something to relieve the heatwave this summer!)

Many of you have talked about assorted door to door campaigns to get CCRs passed and board members booted out, so I was wondering if you had any general tips on how to approach people - starting the conversation, how many times we should approach them before moving on, and such. I'm perticluarly concerned about responding to the homeowners who (1) want to spend more time ranting about what the Board isn't doing and the fees being "too high" and (2) the delinquent homeowners who may yap about the Board being unfair in suing them. Thanks in advance!

I agree with Tim. People are touched by the fact that a real person is taking the time to speak with them and I predict you'll get your ballots. However, if someone is busy and can't talk at that moment, nail down a time when they will be available.
Jeanne

Thanks, everyone! One of our board members also suggested using some sort of script (she’s secretary, so I’ve suggested she come up with one!)

I’m not so concerned with people saying things like “well why the board isn’t doing something about X?” when we talk to them, but I want to make sure we can get to everyone without being bogged down in a discussion over something that (1) we might not be able to address until the next board meeting, and/or (2) needs to be reported to our property manager. It’s one thing if they did that and nothing was done (we need to know about that to investigate), but some homeowners don’t think to even call – and complain that nothing’s being done!

As for the delinquent homeowners, I wanted a nice way to to avoid the “if you stop suing me, I’ll vote to close the pool,” but now that I think about it, I doubt that’ll happen (in some situations, some don’t care if the place crashes and burns!) And it should be relatively easy to say “I’m sorry; we really can’t discuss individual situations, especially since your account is with the attorney, so all contact has to go through him or her).

Melissa, you're right that having a pool can be a great sales tool, but unfortunately between our delinquencies (well over 30% at this point, despite our taking every action we can think of), other community needs (we’re a 40 year old community and it’s beginning to show its age), and underfunded reserves (partly because of the delinquencies!), we just can’t afford it anymore. This is the Midwest and we’d usually get about 4 months use out of it anyway (Memorial Day – Labor Day was the schedule). As hot as it’s been, you’d think more people would have asked about the pool, but no one has. Personally, I don’t think it’s missed and since less than 5% of the residents used the thing before we closed it in 2009, I’d rather fill it up and create some sort of outdoor entertainment area that more people can use and be cheaper to maintain.

Doing door to door campaign is not at all easy; you should have ability to listen anything good as well as bad. And you should have a perfect knowledge about product as your presenting that product face to face.