HOA Flyers and Minutes ON Mailbox or Post?

We have a round tube mounted at each mail box. Our stuff goes in there.

You can't put anything in the mailbox without postage and sticking things on it and tacky (to me, anyway). Besides, it can be blown away or damaged by rain or whatever, and no one will be able to read it.

Apparently, you're not willing to stick the things in the door - you can get those plastic bags from an office supply store, put your announcements in it and hang them from the doorknob. A community volunteer can walk around and hang them up, or maybe you can hire a teenager or two or three for $25-$50 a piece.

Finally, consider a website - then you can pass around a flyer announcing its existence and urging people to go there for information. For the people without email or internet access, you could also have copies of the previous board minutes made available at monthly meetings (the ones already approved). In the end, people have to take some responsibility for keeping up with association affairs - they either go to the website or come to a meeting to pick up information. Between meetings, an information box posted at the clubhouse, if you have one, can also work - get one with a door so they don't fly out and create litter everywhere.

All of our homes have railings and we place newsletters on the railing or on the front door.

Granted, I'm in a townhome community, therefore, delivering to 130 residents only takes about 1 hour.

You may want to consider hiring local children to do the delivery or hire a temp service.
I'll bet that some of the residents might even be willing to do this to supplement their income.
If it costs less then mailing, the Association is ahead of the game.

Just cut up a piece of PVC and attach to the mailbox post or below. It doesn't have to be big. Just enough to accept a piece of rolled up paper. I would avoid any kind of contact of inside mailboxes. It is illegal to put anything in a mailbox without a stamp on it.

There are other ways of putting the word out. Electronically is the most popular. However, you can set up an information box with a locked glass case. We had one at our mailbox group at the front entrance. Where does your HOA hold it's meetings? Those should be open for people to attend to be informed.

I would not be so free in sharing the minutes except upon request. Found your wasting your time and energy sharing information no one wants. If they want it, they will ask for it. You can't change apathy in a HOA by freely handing out information even if they have a right to it. It only does good when it's given to those who want it.

Our tubes are black ABS, painted white on the outside. They are capped on the back to protect the mailings from the weather. We use the black and paint them white so that a white piece of paper in there shows up very well from a distance. (this was already implemented before I moved into the hood)

Federal Regulations, specifically 18 U.S.C. 1725, address the mail box itself. Basically, only mail may be placed within or on the mailbox itself (no placing flyers between the box and flag).

Other then height requirements, there are no prohibitive regulations for the post the mail box is attached to. Therefore, with the owners permission, you could attach a newspaper tube to the post. you may not attach a newspaper tube to the mailbox itself.

Regarding attaching a piece of paper to the post, it's open for debate. The regulations state that any advertising on the mailbox or it's support is illegal. Would a newsletter be considered advertising? In my mind, no. The post office may or may not agree. See: Postal Service controls the outside of your mailbox, too: Money Matters

Tim - I went back and reread the USPS "regulation" - while there is no way we could talk folks into allowing us to attach a tube, being able to tape the flyer on the post does look to be "legal."

As I started researching this, it started me thinking ... when will this USPS thing finally be deregulated in some manner to disconnect them from the Federal Govt ... not sure the current structure has a place like it did ...

As always, thanks!

To close this thread out and let everyone know how we did this ...

The delivery team decided they would rather insert in door area somewhere ...we got the first Board meeting minutes approved in time so included them with the Spring Cleanup flyer - recall the goal was to increase communication to everyone possible - even those that are not members (voluntary organization).

I also emailed the Minutes to the 85 (out of 189) owners who provided email addresses - continuing the concern with apathy, so far I have received zero responses. Beginning to wonder if I have an email problem :-)

I also asked if the delivery volunteers heard anything from residents as they were delivering ...only saw a few people, and they detected no theme that would help us increase membership.

We’ll keep working it!

Thanks, Melissa - good suggestions.

I was burning to get this thing out quick - while following the rules :-). Some teeth pulling required ...

I plan to give the effort more structure, and having common email and name of the association on the From is part of the plan.

I bought the appropriate website URL address (a year was $1) ... will have to work with the Board to see if they are interested in spending the $30-50/month required to get it hosted somewhere - I would prefer a package wherein the hosting service also provides financial software that is accessible anywhere ... I think this I something that will have great impact and get us off the pretty difficult to use Quickbooks ...

Lots of things to work on ...

Just sent the other Board and Committee members a couple of articles on neighborhood apathy ... we'll see if they read them :-)

LOL ... I think (age of residents) is an OLD “excuse” still utilized. My husband’s soon to be 80 year old mom and my 74 year old mom BOTH know how to send email, text, and can even use “face time” via their cell phones and/or iPads. So ... How many years from now are citizens still going to be using this same excuse? After many, many years of the computer age it has become very OLD!

How many YEARS ago were computers developed? Personally I have began to think it is not an issue of “can’t” and instead has become “wont” figure out how ... especially when you consider how long we have had computers in our lives. And if your mother-in-law stated could not read a “Certified Return Receipt” letter ... how well would that hold up in a court regarding any very important issue where such letter is required for notification?

May I add that I do not text. Think I've only done it a few times if any. Why? I don't have TEXT as an option on my phone. Plus I don't have a "smart phone". So I just don't text. Do work with computers too... So first one to understand why someone may have trouble texting or not doing it.

90 cents a mailing may not be a lot of money for some HOAs but for others it is. An easy solution is to send everything by email (allowable by law) to those who provide their email address. For those who don't provide an email address, send by regular mail. I would go a step further and advise owners that only assessment bills and ballots/notices of elections will be mailed to those without email addresses. Other items such as newsletters and social event notices only will be sent by email and posted to the website.