HOA reinventing wheel?

We are a small condo-35 units. We elected new board members in Jan. One of the new members feels we should digitize everything-all contracts, emails, work orders, everything. We pay a Management company to keep track of all this.Are they wasting time and is this even legal?

Your secretary should have back-ups of all contracts, plus your bylaws, CCRs, annual reports, annual meeting minutes, and regular board minutes.

However you want to do this is up to her/him.

We also digitize everything and put important, non-confidential things on the web site.

* It's convenient for homeowners to find information, and it allows us to provide *more* information to them than we would otherwise be able to.
* It saves money because we don't have to provide paper copies of everything.
* It's an important part of our disaster recovery plans (what would you do if your association's paper records were destroyed in a fire?).

Not only is digitizing records *not* a waste of money, I believe that failing to do so is irresponsible. I understand that many smaller, self-managed HOAs may find it a burden, and it's questionable whether digitizing all of your historical records is practical. However, board members are responsible for running a corporation and have a duty to preserve the corporation's records; digitizing them is the easiest way to do so.

We do as well, and for some things a piece of paper with physical signature may be required. More and more, though, e-signatures are acceptable. As with everything else, best to check governing documents and state laws to see what's allowed.

Why not contracts? The "official records" (FS 720) include, "A current copy of all contracts to which the association is a party, including, without limitation, any management agreement, lease, or other contract under which the association has any obligation or responsibility."

I suppose if you have copies on paper there's no need to digitize them, but if an owner wants access to them it's so much easier to just print out a PDF instead of manually digging through piles of paper or filing cabinets.

As a management company, everything for every client is digitized and placed in the cloud with multiple backup storage. Outside of onsite inspections, I could handle any type of situation from any place in the world with an internet connection, and have done do on occasion.