Using WhatsApp for Board communication

Started by SibinP • 11 replies • 1656 views

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SibinP (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Hi guys!

I am part of a small 3 member HOA board (President/Secretary/Treasurer only) for a brand new 35 home community in GA that was recently turned over from the builder a couple of months back. We are all new to this and are slowly learning our way. In order to understand more about what exactly I have gotten myself into, I have been looking at various youtube videos on HOA board member roles and responsibilities.

We still have the Property Management group that was hired by the builder. Being a really small community, our budget is very tight. Especially since all the homes are sold out and we won't be able to collect the HOA initiation fee anymore in addition to the annual assessment.

Right now, we have created a private Whatsapp group for the board members that we use to communicate amongst ourselves when we are not on a scheduled meeting. This is mostly to discuss ARC requests that come in as well to get status updates on the various tasks assigned or to help out with additional info for tasks assigned.

Based on what I have seen and heard, any time board members discuss association business it constitutes a board meeting. Does this mean that we should not continue to use WhatsApp? Or if we can, what are the topics that we can and cannot discuss using WhatsApp?

Examples of what we discuss - when are the board members available for an introductory meet with a legal firm that we are looking to hire? What is the status of an ARC request that we had discussed? What is the status of getting quotes and proposals from landscapers? etc. Would any of these need to be covered in a board meeting with these items on the agenda and meeting minutes instead?

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Some of what you've discussed should actually be part of an open board meeting - the attorney meeting may be the only exception.

It's one thing to say in an open board meeting you're going to get bids from three vendors and end the information to the others to review before the meeting and then discuss them in in an open meeting. The trouble with communications outside board meetings is that they have the potential to morph into discussions and decisions on what the board will do, and then make it a formality during the regular meeting. Homeowners don't have a chance to hear the discussions and sometimes the board just does whatever and doesn't tell the homeowners at all. That's how rouge boards get started and for the most part, nothing the board does or doesn't do should be a surprise to homeowners.

Since the law is still catching up with what's proper or not regarding emails, social media, apps like Zoom and WhatsApp, I suggest you create a policy on meetings and communications outside board meetings. If you've hired an attorney, that could be the first project. You'll need to consider what circumstances would permit such meetings (e.g. emergencies and what constitutes an emergency), documenting what you do, making the documentation available to homeowners, etc.

You can use the search button on this website to see older discussions on how meetings and communications outside board meetings are handled - remember we're in different states and what's ok in mine may not necessarily be the case in yours, but you can pick up ideas on what could work and what to avoid. Don't forget to review your documents to see what it says regarding homeowner rights and responsibilities regarding access to association records (which would include emails).

Finally, since you are new to this, you may want to check out the community association website, which is a national organization of HOAs and related vendors. I like them because they have a lot of educational materials on dozens of HOA topics like selecting an attorney or property manager, rules enforcement, reserves, and so on. It may have local chapters in your area and you can attend those meetings to meet other HOA board members and pick up even more ideas that could be adapted to your community. Good luck!

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

I would suggest reading your docs, Georgia statute, CAI pubs, and free Georgia HOA attorney summaries on your communications.

YouTube videos? You haven’t read statute? What does your Bylaws and CCRs say about meeting? Did you meet with other board members from local neighborhoods to gain their assistance or experience?

Are you using video and audio on WhatsApp?

Usually, intended board discussions must be noticed, and allow attendance by owners ... most rules were put in place to prevent what you have described - it sounds like your board is “meeting”. It does not sound like the phone discussions were noticed for owners ... you are holding secret meetings.

If the core purpose of these closed Board meetings is to evaluate ARC requests, then the easy solution is to separate the ARC from the board ... but this must be in your docs. Is it?

Is it easy or hard to rewrite your Bylaws? Can you quote applicable components of your Bylaws and CCRs for us?

Your community probably does not need professional management ... but, it’s up to the board and owners whether the expense is acceptable.

SibinP (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful information indeed. I didn't even know about reading all the By-laws, CCR, Rules and Regulation in addition to the Association Law, Fair Housing Act, etc. till I watched the YouTube videos. And that was the very reason I started watching them - so that I can try to understand more of what I don't know. I have so far read the CCR and Rules & Regulations document and learnt a lot from that.

This is an example of a video that I have been watching --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVkMAv5Fw0M&list=PLOKBvBs_6yw-ADh9ZP3QMDCGDA1iOR6vy&index=3 Even though they are in Arizona there is a lot of general points that are very useful to me.

Thanks for letting me know about open board meetings. I will admit, I am confused by 'homeowners not having a chance to hear discussions'. Does this mean, for every board meeting homeowners should be invited and that is what makes it an open board meeting? This is the first time that I have come across the term and will try to find out more about it vs closed board meetings.

I am trying to find more resources to learn and understand and really appreciate the community association website recommendation. https://www.caionline.org/ was mentioned in one of the YT videos and I have started looking into that. It is not free to join unfortunately.

We are using text on WhatsApp and zoom for scheduled board meetings.

We haven't met any other board members from local neighborhoods yet.

As far as separating the ARC from the board, the docs do tell us that we can form a committee.

And also, just so that I am clear on how we should operate, knowing very well that I should read up on our by-laws, but how would you go about a sample scenario like this - Property manager sends an email about backflow inspections are due. They tell us we can either go with the same company that performed the inspections last year or find a new company. In this scenario, would you say that the proper way to do it is to schedule a board meeting, put it on the agenda and then discuss with the other board members? Should the homeowners be invited to this meeting? Can we send a message on whatsapp to the other board members asking who wants to take this up and get updates from the assigned individual?

I am so glad to be part of this community since I get to learn so much from all of you! Stay safe out there meanwhile.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

I would be very leery of using third party apps like WhatsApp, Zoom, etc. There are just too many opportunities for hacking and hijacking of data. my personal ISP provides me up to six email accounts, all of which I can archive on their server and an external backup hard drive connected to my compute. I have a Mac and Time Machine is a perfect platform for just this instance. I can look up emails from ten years ago very easily using key words or the senders name or email address. There are a host of ISP's and email hosting platforms to chose from. Even the NEAT desktop scanner can archive printed emails and documents. That might be the route to go so you can archive your important doc's like ARC applications etc.

MarshallT (New York)
Posts: 414

Posted:

Hi,

I hope you are enjoying your new role! I would recommend using something a little more formal for board discussions. While WhatsApp is supposed to be secure, it could be difficult to keep track of older communications. Always remember that any conversations relating to board business could be requested for a legal purpose. Pulling those conversations from WhatsApp could be tedious.

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

No, joining CAI isn't free, but you could get a group membership that could reduce the cost per member. Or just pay for one and that board member could be tasked to read the magazine articles and attend the seminar (the board can always authorize which one) and then that member can summarize the training and provisioned of the material.

Homosexuals be invited to every open board meeting -they can decide if the want to show up or not. When you approve last month's meeting minutes at the next meeting, they could be posted to a community website if you have your one. They may not t read it either, but that's not the point. The point is you're making an effort to give them a chance to educate themselves on what the board is doing and why - it's their responsibility to take advantage.

And that's how your question about the property manager gets answered. Put it on the agenda and discuss how you will approach this. This isn't something you will figure out in one meeting. You may want to start with someone developing a homeowner pool to see what they think of the current manager. Open a survey monkey account so the pool can be answered online a d the discuss the results at the next meeting. If there are pro, discuss with property manager and develop a performance improvement plan. Over the next few months, discuss the progress and determine if you want to stick with the manager or to another way.

There's more to this and you still have other association business to address, so take advantage of some of those educational resources and get yourselves organized, with everyone having something to oversee so one or two people don't get overwh. Good luck!

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Dang tablet - I meant homeowners, not homosexuals - although some could be both....😊

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

SibinP (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Thanks for the security perspective. But tbh, I am not too worried about someone hacking in and getting access to our WhatsApp chats. Being an IT professional, I have as much faith in WhatsApp security as I have in gmail.

And based on your email archives, are you using email threads to discuss between board members?

So you are saying, that we should save and archive all our WhatsApp chat history. But then when you meet in person are you also saving and archiving audio coversations or transcripts of what was said and discussed at the meeting? Besides the meeting minutes which are just brief summaries.

For archiving our ARC applicatons, we are currently using our Property Management's Vantaca tool. But I am also looking into saving these in the Google Drive for the account that we created for the HOA. That way if we ever switch or stop using our current Property Management, we would still have access.

SibinP (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SheliaH on 05/05/2020 12:44 PM
Dang tablet - I meant homeowners, not homosexuals - although some could be both....😊

At this point, since we are on a tight budget and looking to cut down on expenses, we might not be in a position to get the CAI membership. We have had to trim our summer flowers option just to be able to free up the budget for hiring and retaining legal services. But I will definitely bring this up and see what we can do.

Regarding open vs closed board meetings - what I am hearing is that regular board meetings to discuss should be open where all homeowners are invited to participate and there are some extreme situations where board members would have closed board meetings that are not open to homeowners.

Thanks for filling in all these gaps in my knowledge guys!!

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

CAI material is pretty openly available online ... just search for it.

Videos are not a substitute for you knowing state law and regulations, and your own docs. Continuing to talk about videos is a bit concerning. Perhaps this is a Gen moment, but ya just need to read and know the material.

When I don’t know stuff, I ask those that know stuff ... this is the point of my asking if you have met with other board members from other neighborhoods ... this is the easiest thing you could do ... even better than a video. It is STILL not a substitute for knowing statute, code, Articles of Incorporation, Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, Rules and Regulations, Architectural standards, Bylaws, etc ...

You were not aware of the need to read and understand your own docs, but you are an officer of a not for profit corporation?

SibinP (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By GeorgeS21 on 05/05/2020 2:21 PM
CAI material is pretty openly available online ... just search for it.

Videos are not a substitute for you knowing state law and regulations, and your own docs. Continuing to talk about videos is a bit concerning. Perhaps this is a Gen moment, but ya just need to read and know the material.

When I don’t know stuff, I ask those that know stuff ... this is the point of my asking if you have met with other board members from other neighborhoods ... this is the easiest thing you could do ... even better than a video. It is STILL not a substitute for knowing statute, code, Articles of Incorporation, Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, Rules and Regulations, Architectural standards, Bylaws, etc ...

You were not aware of the need to read and understand your own docs, but you are an officer of a not for profit corporation?

I typically use YT to learn new things and come up to speed on new topics every day. And I agree with you, they are not a substitute and will not make you an SME. But they have helped me quickly learn the basics. In fact, I probably wouldn't have known about the importance of knowing Association Law, Fair Housing Law, etc. if it weren't for hearing about it on the videos. I did skim the materials and its not a fun read.

I am the same way as well - ask when you dont know! And that is why I am so excited to be here.

As for being an officer of a non-profit and being unaware, well you can blame that on my newbie status. I have never been a non-profit officer before. And I am a first time homeowner as well. I ended up being an officer because no one else volunteered for the position. We struggled to come up with 3 volunteers to nominate themselves. And it turned out that all 3 of us are newbies at this.

In a way, I am glad because this is all a new experience to me that I am really enjoying a lot.

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