Communications / Correspondence

What's the best practice of tracking correspondence? We have a phone number and sometimes people leave messages. I'd prefer that all questions, comments, requests be in written form so as ease of documentation and history. Should I create a form to track all other communication (in person, on the phone, etc.)? What do your HOAs do for maintaining historical communication?

Hi Charles:

Email is a good way to track (see previous post). However, another way is to use Excel; it's simple to create a spreadsheet that allows you to track phone correspondence and status of reply/response, etc. As someone involved in on-site management I use a spreasheet to track phone and walk-in conversations and encounters with members. Complaints have a code so that I can sort them out as needed. I include the date and time of each notation. Saving regularly helps; I maintain a single spreadsheet for each month. If I need to search through the current month, the FIND menu in Excel works great; if it's in a previous month, I use the search function in Windows Explorer to find what I need to find.

I'm attaching a copy of what I use, feel free to modify it as you wish.

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA

I had a database setup just for communication, but found that the paper records were lacking, not showing anything. Should I create a report that I can print of each persons communications and store it in the paper files? I'm the only person on the board who uses the computer for everything. I guess the paper records are the primary record source.

I used Microsoft Access but I'm pretty experienced with it. I created a database when I was working in a 2,000 + student high school to track grades, disciplinary problems, financial records, etc. I was able to make it multi user with different rights for different users (some could add or edit data, others could only view it).

The good part of using Access (some people like FileMaker Pro) is that you can design it for your specific purpose. The bad part is that it requires learning the program and understanding database structure. You need to create a relational database, not a "flat file" (that's what you get with Excel).

The good part of using an "off the shelf" HOA management program is that you can install it and begin using it. The bad part is that it may be expensive and it may not fit your needs. I don't know of any commercial software for managing HOAs but I'll bet there is some out there.