Community newsletter

This is clearly a case of "Be careful of what you wish for... you may just get it". What really is the purpose of having a "B*tching" website? Which this will basically turn into. If you want to make a private one do it on Facebook yourself or other social media. Think there are websites like "Neighborhood etc...".

Believe me, your not going to be happy with the results... It will be good for a bit and then go downhill to a rabbit hole in a quick minute...

The capitalized LITTLE FREE LIBRARY was and is the way it is always advertised. No undue influence to “educate” the community.
The issue was the MC dictating location of the library, not the board or community members being involved with placement. The objective is to provide something, anything as a community builder. In the five years I’ve lived here there has not been one community activity. NOT ONE. The apathy can be cut with a knife. I’m aware the board And MC have no obligation to provide The residents with any community building activities. Their ONLY obligations are to maintain the appearance of the community. I get that. But it might be nice to once a year offer a social or something and my feeble,
Efforts are to that end.

As for a website put up to be a B session, That absolutely is not and never will be the purpose of it. My question which was not properly
Phrased was this: The MC and the board are totally adverse to any HOA business Posted by anyone aside from the MC which is why the
Site offers NOTHING board related at this moment. I asked the MC if we could combine the two and the answer was NYET. So, I post non controversial social items as to not run afoul of the MC and board. Is there any reason I would run afoul of the MC and Board if I were to send to all
HOA members via the email addresses I now understand we are entitled to but have no access to? The objective here is to peacefully coexist. The MC post their info via portal which not too many people access. I think one community website featuring social and business would be the way to go but I suppose Things can continue with a “them” and “us” mentality which I wanted to ameliorate. This community has a very apathetic community and very apathetic board. My hope is to somehow bridge that which was the original purpose of setting up another website to be used by both.

When a site allows anyone to post it generally becomes a bytching site. Avoid this mistake.

Or worse: Next Door

And from experience, I would say 80% or more of the complaints will have no basis in the covenants or state law.

When a HOA/condo owner feels the association is truly breaking the law or a covenant, and can cite the law or covenant, I still support the owner ultimately using a home-made web site to get out the word. But I think less than 1% of owners know enough to read the HOA/condo's governing documents to see if their gripe is legitimate.

Shortly before our takeover from the Declarant one owner, cajoled by two others, started a newsletter whose overall tone was negative about the Declarant. I was on the Declarant appointed Advisory BOD. I started to write a rebuttal by then I thought of a better idea. Knowing there was nothing hidden, I advised the Declarant to invite the newsletter publisher to be on the Advisory BOD. He was invited and accepted.

Soon the tone of the newsletter changed to being positive about the Declarant and the Advisory BOD. Soon thereafter the original publisher decided it was to much effort to keep publishing it but nobody had any interest in taking it over so it died.

The two dissenters that had egged the publisher on and had been quite outspoken at Annual Meetings realized they were getting nowhere with their constant bytching. Several fellow owners had even turned on them at the Annual Meetings. They both stopped attending Annual Meetings.

We do not have a website but we do have an Email address (hoa name at g mail) and when an Email is sent to this address, it automatically gets distributed to each BOD Member so we all know what is going on.

Hi,

As others have mentioned, these sites can invite a lot of unproductive complaining and criticizing. The community could use something like Facebook to create a group where they can discuss issues. I think having contact information for the board available to homeowners is a great idea, but unfortunately you can't force the MC to make these changes.

Many of us probably have same experience as Barbara.

I'm in a new neighborhood of 659 single family houses and not on the board, but am on the financial committee (but still on Board of my rental neighborhood), and have been watching the fb page that is administered by a couple of board members.

Last night someone noted how unhappy they were that they didn't receive monthly financial statements since they pay dues monthly - now, I rarely do this, but wanted to gauge the neighborhood a bit:
- I responded assessments were annual and the tradition in the neighborhood was that payments were made quarterly
- They noted the lack of monthly financial statements delivered to them was shady
- I responded, noting the location in the Bylaws where it said they could review financial simply by asking in writing, or attend a board meeting where they we usually available
- They responded that I seemed like a know-it-all
- They noted with 1000 houses we collected over $1M a year
- I noted we have 659 houses and the exact amount that represented
- They got really upset, noting I didn't know what I was talking about
- They asked for the biggest cost item
- I provided the top three with approximate numbers and the percentages
- They noted security costs were out of control
- I noted the cost of security divided by the number of hours contracted was about $22, which included some overlap in the 24 hours per day 365 days per year. and included the cost of the security company
- They noted that was ridiculous
- They demanded I deliver the monthly financials to them
- They said they were going to have their accountant do an audit
- I note FS720 required an audit because our financials were over $750K
- They said they didnt care
- I noted an audit was usually over $5000
- They disappeared

So, my opinion is the same: provide one way information to HOA/COA/POA owners - LOTS of it! Do it often. This makes it really hard for them to complain about a lack of information. Most anything else, they should attend the board meetings and annual meeting.

Depends on the people making the exchange. What I like about George's exchange is that he stayed reasonable and answered with information, not name-calling, shouting (the all capital letter thing in emails). There are a lot of "I've made up my mind, don't confuse me with the facts!" people in HOA land (and some of them are HOA board members!" and when you hit them early and often with the information they can't withstand or contradict, they usually pipe down.

As for the HOA, I think it's in the packaging. If you're posting financial information online, it may be helpful to include sidebar articles explaining what's behind the information. For example, if you were to post the reserve study, it would be helpful to have another article summarizing what they are, how they're put together, and how the board uses them in budgeting.

Even so, too many people are just lazy these days and don't want anything to do with something that requires you sit down and take the time to read the information or listen to what's being said because critical thinking makes their heads hurt (especially if they realize they're wrong). I say boards should strive to put out the information anyway - you can't control if people will read it or how they'll react to it, but they'll never be able to say they weren't informed.

I think being repetitive goes with the job. Once a director or HOA/condo owner has the spiel down and is well-versed in the governing documents, being repetitive is no big deal.

Our Association also developed its own website with Board approval. The purpose of the website is to provide information about the community and to HOA members. Like Michael's, part of our website can be viewed by the public, but the majority of the information is limited to the owners. Things like our legal documents, rules and regulations, architectural guidelines, annual budget summaries, neighborhood activities calendar, even Board meeting minutes are available for owners to view. This serves as a useful reference when responding to residents questions and complaints. In addition, we publish a Board approved monthly neighborhood newsletter and a monthly communication from the Board and management company on the website.

Though the website has the functionality built in, our Board explicitly decided NOT to provide a 'message board' for residents, due to the high probability of griping, non-factual statements, and arguments. Not to be outdone, our residents are using Nextdoor for complaints and rants. People will find a way to express themselves! Our Board does not post responses on Nextdoor. We regularly remind residents that our HOA's official communication policy is to send correspondence to the property manager, who will share it with the Board.

In particular, I believe the probability of non-factual statements is 110%. I believe I am someone who especially wants to see HOA owners' rights protected. Still, I figure like 95% of the time, I see HOA owners clueless about what their lawful rights are and bothering directors inappropriately or worse.

Then again, some HOA/condo Boards are even more clueless about what the lawful rights and duties of a HOA/condo board and HOA/condo corporation are.