Private or Public

Sounds interesting. Make sure that you go through the files to protect the privacy of those you need to protect the privacy of.

We simply put all of our governing documents (CC&Rs, Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and Resolutions) and all of our minutes (in a members only area), all newsletters and audits on our website. This allows any member to have access to everything except the actual bank statements and members accounts. However, every set of minutes has a Treasurers report which includes an Income/Expense Statement and budget (adopted, actual, difference) along with an accounting of how many accounts are x days behind.

The difference between the two methods as I see it would be the human interaction which allows for immediate Q&A.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

Well if that is what Washington State's Chapter 64.38 says then that is what you need to comply with.

However, it also says that all records would be made available upon request. If the request isn't made, there is no requirement for the Association to make them available.

I would say that in addition the the Associations general files, if you would like to look at your individual assessment account and/or your individual Architectural file then those will also be available. I wouldn't even mention that they have a right to see others. If you do this, it's likely no one will question the issue.

I put this advice in another post here as well. However, I also think it applies here in your situation. My first thought was why was any of this hidden in the first place? We always brought our financial statements to our board meetings. The only thing off limits was the collection reports. Those ONLY went to the board members. We discussed it openly but never referred to names of owners. It was just lot #'s. (yes people could guess who the person was but we did not confirm/deny it). The ONLY information the membership needed from this was that we were pursuing collections on the delinquent accounts and what those actions were. We had an established 6 months behind we liened policy in place. So the report basically just stated the status of the lien, if we were close to liening, if they had made payment arrangements, or we were ready to discuss foreclosure proceedings. As long as we showed we were following policy and pursuing debt, that was good enough than revealing personal information.

Remember the rules like CC&R's and Articles of Incorporation are considered PUBLIC information. They do NOT need to be provided by the HOA. If the HOA does this, they may charge for copy fees or do it as a "courtesy". It is NOT their responsibility to provide. The by-laws are internal documents of the HOA that may need distribution. In any case, it's just good practice to ALWAYS bring a copy to the meetings you hold and reference them when need be. When giving official notices one should always quote the section of violation or issue.

This is best advice I ever got as President is: The money is EVERY MEMBER's money NOT yours!!!. It was the best way to view my HOA's budget. It is VERY hard as a BOD or officer position give up control or trust to the general membership. You want to hold on tight and protect your HOA's money. There is always someone who wants something crazy to do with the money that would make no financial sense at all. However, they are a squeaky wheel about it and it's hard to turn them down. Sometimes getting others to join their ridiculous ideas.

The HOA budget is like setting out your checkbook on the dining room table for your whole family to see and make decisions about how to spend. The parents the BOD members and the kids the general membership. Your going to get an "x-box" every once and awhile and a spouse that spends the money behind your back. It's your job as the head of household to manage. It's all written in the check ledger and your job is then to explain to the family what happened.

You take the approach of the "open checkbook" on the table, you will find yourself being more productive and pro-active. Hiding and holding things close to your vest isn't protecting your HOA or building trust. What does is being honest, open, and letting people in to see the reasons behind each decision. Your on the right track of doing so with an open house. Just don't go overboard like revealing the past violations details. Just show the facts and what steps the HOA were allowed in pursuing correcting the situation.

Mmmm. . . first, to my Maryland colleague, perhaps I should have used the singular "moron," as it is only one moron who wishes to be President, naturally the one with the thickest file for everything from covenant violations to bullying tactics when he doesn't get his way. When we needed a Vice President he heeded the call and volunteered for, wait for it, President! He didn't want to "serve" the community. It is his bottomless desire to have me out of the position so I would, for God's sake, stop enforcing these pesky covenants!! Then there is my former Treasurer, who was on the Governing Documents Review Committee with me, insisting the Bylaws he was referring to to prove a point were the ones we amended, until I had to get up, show him our recorded copy, and see the one he was referring to was the DRAFT started by the former President nine years ago! Good grief! And this guy was on the committee!!! So, he complained about not having the recent docs. I reminded him and my former VP who was also at the meeting, that every year since I have been President I have wanted to provide all our 42 homeowners with a Governing Documents Folder, so everyone would have the same thing at the same time. And while they could as easily "not find" these the way they can never find their originals that came with their house, I will at least know that they actually do have these. But I have been voted down each and every time, including by him. Now he's screaming, "Everyone should have the most recent documents!!" Well, duh! Other than that, I am surrounded by good, thoughtful, competent, caring people who are just grateful to have their neighborhood so well-managed that they don't want that to change. Alas, competency breeds complacency, yes?

Every year we beseech everyone to come talk to any officer about the position, to learn about it, to understand what they would need to to do should they wish to serve. Every year no one wishes to change the good thing we've got going. There is not a feeling that anything is hidden. Most people probably think I have our governing documents attached to my hip. I always have them at our meetings. I am always referring to them and highlighting the pertinent Article when an issue arises. Our budget is small and one page and everyone gets a copy. Any big project gets vetted and explained.

You suggested I consider, "What neighbor has shown real concern for the HOA as a whole? Who asked or offered enlightening thoughts or ideas? Out of all of my neighbors, who makes a conscientious effort to not call their neighbors names or spreads gossip? Who has show leadership when meetings got a little tough?" The answers are: My neighbors don't understand the HOA as a whole, just as a vessel to create a wonderful community in which they live. They understand it piece meal, as in can't have a shed, gotta trim the park trees, the light is out on Street X, etc. Hence, my desire to show them the HOA as a whole with an Open House. The folks who have offered enlightening thoughts or ideas are precisely not interested in holding a position. They want to give their ideas to the people in charge. Other than the aforementioned, there are two or three neighbors who spread their negativity about, but 95% of my neighbors are wonderful, respectful, kind, and caring people, who would make excellent officers, except, like most people, they are seriously conflict adverse, and can't cotton to the idea of confronting a neighbor for a covenant violation. And related to that, when the annual meeting gets rough because of the, again, aforementioned, and his cohorts in the back row, my lovely neighbors clam up. They know I will handle it with grace and professionalism. Later, after the meeting, they will contact me individually, express their sympathy and dismay, and thank me for handling it so well. What I say to them is this: "This is not about anyone disrespecting me. This is about disrespecting the neighborhood. Somebody other than a Board member needs to publicly tell Mr.X that he is out-of-line, that his behavior is not helpful to our community, and that his personal agenda is not relevant in a common interest community." My neighborhood is full of doctors, teachers, CEO's, a famous children's author, talented, creative, highly skilled people -- who do not want to have their refuge potentially compromised by being a "leader" of their neighbors.

Understanding all this is why I came up with the idea of the Open House. The best outcome would be the process of running the association being demystified, and seen as similar to running an organization, which many of them already do, and a volunteer emerges. However, it's not the competency or interest that is lacking in my neighbors. I know people have the "skills" to do the job. But it's not just skills now is it? I believe the chronic reticence comes from our singular, molecular desire to avoid conflict at all costs. However, if more people can see what it is we do to manage their neighborhood, to protect their interests, then maybe, just maybe, they will have a more resonant understanding of the need for a cohesive community effort in stopping the bullies and naysayers.

err, printed and bound.

The law says protect the phone numbers. Good idea.

Regarding covenant violations....if the violations were brought into compliance, then there's no violation ongoing and, therefore, it's no longer part of active HOA business.

Regarding account books and governing documents....those are excellent to open as an antidote to incompetence.

Go for it!

So, BanksS, out of 911 words you focus on the two times I used the word "my" in reference to "my" fellow Board member. Either you believe I would actually call a neighbor a moron in public, which "probably isn't the best way to recruit participation either," or you don't believe in calling anyone a name, privately or publicly, yet you then call me a "control freak," which is usually considered an insult. I view the word complacent in the same vein as the word apathy, and if there is one word we as HOA volunteers have in common is "apathy." Anyway, I guess you just missed the other few hundred words praising the 95% of my community and neighbors as kind, caring, intelligent, creative people, the majority of with whom I and the Board have a good relationship. You apparently also missed the five times I used the word "we" or "our" in talking about the Board and the Association. No, you don't know me. Before I was President, there were no welcome gifts for new homeowners, there were no cheerful newsletters, there were no standards for appeals, there were no holiday gatherings, there were no Minutes for Board meetings, and on and on. So, yes, I am a perfectionist and yes, I do resonate more to control than chaos. And most of the time these tendencies of mine are consistently challenged precisely because I fully understand what "common interest community" means. It means you give up some of your control. It means you give up some of your perfect construction of a world. Pete Seeger was asked if he really was a Pollyana. He said, "Well, every night when I go to bed, I say, 'Aw, the hell with it.' Then I wake up the next morning and start all over again." THAT'S positive. THAT's what I do when I've spent a day or a week dealing with a MORON!

Dorothy, I feel your pain. It's okay to use "my", it implies possession, which you do, in fact, have. The temporary, voluntary, -possession- and subsequent fiduciary responsibility of your association. If using "my" helps justify this Sisyphean task, so be it. If you've been voted in every year (I am assuming a quorum is necessary to have an election), the the membership gave it to you.

My two cents.

I was President for 3 years or so. What I found is my interest in the HOA is NOT the same interest others have in the HOA. Most only peak an interest when something effects them. Which is probably the reason you became President.

I found that in a well run HOA with a BOD and officers members can trust, most members do not see the need to participate. You may have done such a good job, that your members have the attitude of why do you need me? So offering an "Open house" may still bring little or no visitors. It does not mean non interest but no want or desire to know.

My opinion if you are NOT already providing this information at your meetings already then what are you doing at your meetings? Your list is everything we had at our meetings each time. The HOA is NOT responsible for passing out rule documentation. That can be expensive. It can be requested and provided for copy costs but NOT required. I always brought a copy each meeting. Our whole meeting was based on our collection and spending reports. The collections portion for BOD members ONLY.

Every meeting should be an open house. You do not have to cover it all. Keep to the meeting structure. However, if someone wants to see something at the meeting let them After business is done then have an open discussion period and review.

Just keep in mind you live and breath the HOA as President. The HOA members just live in the HOA. Expect them to breath down your neck when their living is effected.

Melissa, I suspect you are right about the no-shows at an Open House. But much in the way we offer an Autumn Pot-Luck, or a Summer Camp-Out in the park, it is another way to extend an opportunity to get to know the neighborhood. It is also a gesture for transparency for the problematic homeowners who cry "Police State!"

As for the HOA not being responsible for passing out rule documentation, I couldn't disagree more. After twenty years, with many of the original homeowners still here, these documents get buried. I agree that it is a big expense (it cost us @$140 for 45 copies), but it was the first time it was done en masse, and it surely won't be done again for who knows how long.

As for covering things at the meeting. What we cover at the meeting will no doubt have some reference to one of our governing documents, but not necessarily. Last year our meeting was a whopping thirty minutes. It was a quiet, uneventful year, thank you Jesus! This year's was an hour and half, and the governing documents were used and referenced quite a bit. In my mind, our one annual meeting a year is not an "Open House," in the sense I mean. Yes, there is always time for other business and open discussion. But in all the years I've been President, no one has ever used this to inquire about the governing documents. What we do get throughout the year are calls from people wanting to do something that start out like this, "I can't find my CC&R's, and I want to do. . . do I need to have the Residential Committee do a review?" Even though we changed the name to Architectural Review Committee (ARC) six years ago. And, I, of course, realize that it's always easier to call someone for an answer than to do the research yourself. So the GD's could be sitting right there by the phone and a person would still make the call. I take no responsibility for what a homeowner does after the GD's are in their possession. I am being proactive in covering the association's butt by making sure every homeowner has the relevant documents.

BanksS, I've taken your advice and am referring to the homeowners-formerly-known-as-morons, as "problematic." Thank you for working that out with me! And, even if the Seahawks lose, it is still an all Western Super Bowl which is nice, and if the Sea-turkeys weren't in it we'd be rooting for Denver. Who doesn't like Peyton Manning??

Richard,
I do like the idea of a website, and had no idea it could be done as inexpensively as you said. I wonder if I could communicate with you privately about the pros/cons, logistics, etc, of having an HOA website? I could present all the information to the association and get feedback.

As for our meetings, the good things that happened over the year take up the majority of the Agenda. Elections have never been a large part of the Agenda. Projects completed, projects anticipated, are usually the backbone of the meeting. And this, "What providing information openly to members does is not allow that one individual to gather any support for his or her cause," is crucial in my reasoning for having the Open House as well. It'll be telling to see if those who like to use misinformation (i.e., old Bylaws, misunderstanding of language, no knowledge of distributed Resolutions, records of communications on issues etc.) for their antagonistic cause will show up. Even if they don't show up, knowing the invitation went to everyone and knowing that everyone received the same Governing Document Folder at the same time will weaken any accusation publicly directed at the Board for selective and dictatorial governance. No, it won't stop a bully, but it may inspire others to take a stand against the chronic criticism. My hope is to have more voices heard publicly for what they support privately. If we have a public cohesiveness as a community then those who poison the well from which we all drink may no longer be able to spread the toxicity. Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but I do believe in the goodness of my neighbors. And they may just need the reassurance that they won't be the only person speaking out. The more non-Board members speak up in recognition of the great community in which we live, and it is great, the less power the problematic homeowner(s) wield. I believe this can only happen with consistent invitation to be a part of the association, which provides knowledge, which provides power and which provides courage. Amen.

One bit of advice on web sites. Make them informational only. Informational means make it site that distributes/gives out information like BOD Minutes, copy of Docs, calendar of events, announcements, etc. Keep it upbeat. Be friendly. Make people want to live there. It is a sales brochure. Make it accessible to anyone to look at, owner or not. Make them think, man I want to live there.

Do not allow a discussion/chat section on the site as it could turn into a bytch and moan site.

Control it and it can be a useful tool. Do not control it and it can turn into a cudgel real fast.

I have problematic people too. and wish you luck. I am considering a blog, instead of a website, We can list the Land Records, the county depository link, where they can print out all the governing documents, so we don't have to host a site for them, just direct them where to go to get them for free.

Got it KellyM3, thanks for the suggestion of a disclaimer, it sounds like an excellent idea and as well, confirming that a blog might do the trick!