Going Digital - Architectural Approvals

Hello! I'm interested in homeowners being able to submit documents through email or another online method for approval. Right now everything has to be hand delivered and stamped/signed by the architectural chair. It seems our community is way behind the times. ;) Any ideas of how to get this done would be greatly appreciated! What is your community's approval process? Thank you!

I agree with Geno.

We do utilize e-mail and some requests are sent to the Architectural Committee that way. However, it's an e-mail address that is maintained on the Associations domain.

What you need to be concerned about when implementing technology is the next Architectural Chair or the one after that. For example, we had one Architectural chair that took the time to develop a database, entered all the architectural information for each lot and developed menus to easily update the entries. When she left, nobody knew how to use the database and therefore ignored it. 5 years later, when serving on the Architectural committee, I came across the database. Fortunately I had the program it utilized and was able to recover the information. Our committee then took the time to organize the architectural files with classification folders and establish a policy for maintaining the records.

That individual spent hours developing and entering data only to have it not utilized because of the computer skill level and access to the program (MS Access) of those who served after her.

I'm curious how if everything is done through email it meets the open meeting requirements of some states. How do you know if your arch committee is treating all homeowners fairly and equally. What if the arch committee approves something not in compliance with your arch guidelines for some homeowners but not others. Where are the meeting minutes or your arch committee if they never meet and simply do everything through email. What if you're driving through your neighborhood and see a giant windmill being constructed on someone's house and when you stop to inquire about it they whip out the approval given to them by the Arch committee?

Thanks for the info. Yep, I'm only talking about how the requests/approvals are submitted and received. I'd love to setup some sort of database but I would also worry about it not being used in the future. Everything is filed away in boxes right now. So does everyone use the stamp and signature approval process? If so possibly using genius scan or something similar to scan the document and then email it to the homeowner after approval? Is asking the architectural chair to print out a document that's emailed to them for approval too much to ask? Is there a simple way for homeowners to type their name, address and lot number onto a pdf document before emailing it so that when printed all information is on the document? Just thinking out loud. Our neighborhood is quite young so many owners want/expect more to be available online. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

From my experiences with them over the years (1) they are overpriced, (2) if you search a domain name at their site, find one you like, and don't buy it immediately, godaddy will own it the next day, (3) their online services are slow, (4) their customer support is awful, (5) their proprietary user interface they make you use to manage your accounts is designed to sell you things rather than actually manage anything, (6) if you ever need to make any changes they are incredibly slow to respond.

Ten years ago I used godaddy for a lot of things, domains, email, some light web hosting, SSL security certs.... today I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. If all you're getting from them is email addresses it might not be too bad, but I wouldn't because they are, in my opinion, just that bad all around. YMMV

We too have boxes and boxes of paper - my best guess is around 20 of them. We changed management companies 3 times in the last five years. Each company had a different way of storing things - so we know what's there is a real mess.

On the other hand, we have been emailing approvals for 3 years now. We started it one day and 3 years later, we have an on-line record of every approval, rejection, and follow-up. And next year, it will be 4 years of on-line data. Each year that goes by, those boxes of paper become less and less important - We only had to dig through them once in 3 year to look for something.

Re meetings, we can have 2 or 3 in a month - or we can go without a meeting for 3 or 4 months. We get together only when we need to make policy, not when we need to execute policy.

I only see 2 problem that FL's open meeting rules would create for us. 1. Advance notice of meeting date and time. Without a pre-set meeting schedule, we spend a good deal of time checking board member availability. Adding the delay of notice to homeowners could be cumbersome. 2. Attendees. We hold meetings in board member homes. Not sure what we would do if another 6-10 people showed up.

We have minimized our paper by scanning documents into a pdf file, placing them on thumb drives, burning CD's and placing them on the website.

Just as paper can be lost or destroyed, digital files can also be lost or destroyed.

Therefore, make sure you have backups of the backups.

Now, since I've been the main individual digitizing the records, I doubt future boards will continue. However, hopefully they will.

Thank you for all the info. I greatly appreciate it! So for all of you that have started doing approvals through email, do you still print out the approval request (for example: fence, concrete rv parking, home addition, etc...), stamp and sign the document? If so, do you then scan this document and email it back to the homeowner? Or does the email to the owner stating that it's approved suffice? Just want to make sure I have all the details as it's going to take quite a bit of convincing to get this done.

We do not print out docs or make any notations on the docs themselves. If approved, we send email to HO which states "Your attached ACR for (work) has been approved." The email approval (with attached ACR) is moved to the HO's folder in our email system. If there's ever any question, it's easy to find. (Our email folders are identified by unit number and owner name).

We have monthly meetings on the first Monday of every month to approve any ARB requests and address any other matters. in January I posted a meeting notice with all the dates on the one notice. The residents know about the monthly meetings but no one ever shows up unless we ask someone to come over to answer questions about an ARB request. We always have the option of holding a meeting between the monthly meetings and when we have no business to discuss we cancel the meeting.

So if a resident submits an ARB request that follows all our guidelines and there is no reason anyone would deny it, we sign off on it and ratify it at the next monthly meeting. If there are questions, we do not approve, we wait until the meeting.

With regards to documents, we too were in the hording status. We purchased a scanner, got a Google docs account and scanned in all our documents. They are organized into folders and named appropriately like "ARB 486 Oak St landscaping" or "Rental Agreement 486 Oak St approved". Google docs can be shared with all board members, which is a nice feature. I subscribe to the notion that if a resident wants a copy of documents, they email me and I will send them what they want (except attorney confidential things). We have no employees. The Google docs makes it easy to share information and it is accessible at a moment's notice, even on my IPhone. This system is easy for anyone to use so I am not worried about future boards. Additionally, I created an MSAccess database (actually I modified a contacts database I found on MS Template Gallery) and its in the Google docs also. I put a note field in it, which is useful but I do not use it as often as I should. That being said, any board member can open it and make entries or read what is there.

Also, I created an ARB fill-able form in Adobe (you need the full version), and its posted on our website and can be emailed as well. There is an email submit button on it, so when they are done, they click the submit button and it gets emailed to me. Email is its own time stamp. If it will be longer than the 30 day limit in our docs, I send an email back to the person (using the receipt feature) and tell them we need to meet to discuss it further. I request that they email me back so I know they received the email. Not everyone uses email (most do though) and for them, we use paper.