HOA BOARD MEMBERS ON NEWSLETTER

Hello, All.
Our community has not published a newsletter in over seven years.
I as Vp have discussed with the board, and they all agreed to publish quarterly.
The "Fly in the ointment":
Some members do not want their phone numbers or E-mails published in the newsletters.
I disagreed, and mentioned that I believe it is important in the interest of transparency that at least e-mails ought to be included, and that HOA board members can respond with a simple "Your concerns are duly noted, and will be discussed with the entire board, and management company for a resolution" Or something similar.

What if any, community newsletter contact info does your community include, if any?
Thanks!!
Fred

Fred,

Having been on the receiving end of member's calls and emails, I agree that publishing the otherwise private phone numbers and emails of board members is a bad idea.

Your association should have its own permanent email address for owners to post their questions and concerns to. You can establish one for free on Gmail or some other service. One of the officers should be tasked with responding, even if the response is, "Your concerns are duly noted, and will be discussed with the entire board, and management company for a resolution".

If you have a management company, use their phone number. If you are self-managed and have neither a phone nor someone to answer the phone then do not print a phone number.

Fred

Our association has an Email address such as ourassociation@whatever. We ask that all Emails go there. The account is setup so each Email if forwarded to all BOD Members and to the management company.

We also have agreed that only the President will respond in writing so we do not have BOD Members and the MC tripping over each other as had happened in the past. Occasionally the President will ask a BOD Member or the MC to directly respond.

We do not publicly reveal BOD Members Email nor phone numbers.

I agree with other's that I wouldn't want my personal email address distributed. It's much better to create permanent email addresses for each board position that can be passed on to new board members so that the senders don't have to keep up with changing addresses. For example, in my association, we have addresses like [email protected], [email protected]. That way homeowners/vendors, etc. have permanent addresses to communicate with the board, and board members don't share their personal addresses.

Great suggestions, everyone. I appreciate it.

We are going with the management companies' e-mail and phone numbers.

We have all the Board members names and E-mails on our secured website, but will just have the names.
Thanks again!!.

Fred

We are just the opposite. All unit owners have every board members phone number and email. We also distribute all unit owners emails and phone numbers unless they opt out, and only a couple do. Until I took over they did not get to opt out. Mostly people use our Facebook page to get in touch for non emergencies.

We had a board member that mentioned screening her calls. She was told she must always answer her phone. In an emergency they may be using another persons phone, a repairmen may need to know if something is allowed and what color, or it could be a dead body, we're 55+ so that happens.

The only thing we ask is no calls after 8pm unless it is an emergency and do not leave messages. If a person doesn't answer call another board member. They may be leaving a message for someone that is out of town. All board members are authorized to call whatever repair person needed in case of an emergency.

Every condo I have owned has been this way. If you don't want calls don't run for the board.

Now my number is listed in MLS when a unit is for sale so I get a fair amount of calls then. Mostly about pets, FHA, sometimes general info. Not a big deal.

Fred,

We allow the Board members option of posting their phone number or not within our newsletter.

However, since the Association owns a domain and provides e-mail addresses for Directors, Officers and Committee Chairs, those e-mail addresses are published. I would never publish a personal e-mail address without permission.

We do exactly this.

Board and Committee contact info--email and phone number--is in every monthly newsletter. Member contact information )address, phone and email) is included in the annual Community Directory.

One of the keys to a successful HOA is communication. Locking people out, or acting like you don't wish to hear from them, is a great way to create arrogance and encourage indifference, at best, and hostility, at worst.

When a member calls with a serious issue, we inform them that their concern will be added to the agenda for the next Board meeting. It raises things to a formal level, and ensures that the Member has a little skin in the game. If it isn't important enough for You, the Member, to bring it to a meeting, then it isn't important enough for the Board to expend time and effort on your behalf.

Engagement. One of the keys to a pleasurable community.

CORRECTION: If there's someone out there at 7:30am, I get a phone call at 7:31.

We don't list phone numbers and never have.

Once upon a time there was a Hotmail account for the Board, but the president at the time deleted it when he left the board (there hadn't much correspondence and the amount that had been received was forwarded to the property manager and saved accordingly).

His successor then had the board members' emails published in the newsletter. I was on the board at that time, and had begun hearing about various issues regarding emails and phone numbers and people calling all day and night about Association business. I set up a separate email account to only deal with Association business. A good idea because I then read various blogs from HOA attorneys who suggested this as well, since your emails could be subject to discovery in a lawsuit and if you use a personal email, you'll have to cough up EVERYTHING so defense counsel can sift through it to find the Association emails.

I'm no longer on the board, but we still publish board member emails (some set up separate emails as I did). However, homeowners have been told that (1) the property manager is still primary contact for most questions regarding the Association, such as maintenance requests (2) all correspondence is property of the association (a good way to ward off people who might use threats and nasty language or otherwise show their ass when writing an email!) and (3) some correspondence may require a review by the entire board before a response is sent because it may involve something that requires a Board vote.

Fortunately, we haven't had any issues with emails - and pretty soon, it'll be a moot point because we'll be setting up a website (FINALLY!) and it will have an option to contact the Board on various issues.