Social Media

Ha ha ha ... Sorry but that cat out of the bag of dirt at this point. I look at it as someone is extremely stupid and does understand how HOAs work or no one cares as that person looks kind of stupid for doing it ...

The question to ask is why are they being posted.

If they are posting so other members can know, then I expect that the Board isn't posting the financials on their own website or private social media.
If the board starts doing this, then the posting by members may stop.

We do post them on our website in pdf format.
There is a homeowner that constantly attacks the board on social media,anf others usual join in. We usually pay no attention and let it go as the soical media post is not a board account, so we try to stay off as much as possible.I'm just thinking ahead...I think I'll watermark the pdf with website use only something.

Concho

My recommendation is you simply ignore the social media posts and the person making them.

You can watermark the financial reports all you wish, doing so will not stop anyone from using them if they wish the fan the flames of discontent.

Financial reports in Texas are essentially public documents, if someone asks a question, answer it and move on.

I agree with you too but what is a member to do when the board ignores things? Not saying that Concho's board does.
cA law effective 1/1/23 forbids anything in gov docs that limits what members can say online even if critical of the board. Fine is $500. per incident.
And it's illegal for the board to post personal info of member anywhere without member permission; name, address, email, phone.

My concern is board not listening to a member simply because the member is critical. The criticism could be valuable, as mine have been, where it makes the association better. I think sometimes a board doesn;t want to look weak in fromt of their friends so they stubbornly pursue a course that's a mistake. Again, not saying Concho's board is like this.

The board does not run this social media site, and we do read and listen to what homeowners posts and address items in the meeting; they just don't come to meetings or read minutes. They don't email the board to ask questions; we have told them in posts and emails where to find financials. AT some point, it would seem it would fall on the homeowner. It's sad that they can post misconceptions on social media, and we must wait for a meeting to address it.

oh well, that is how it is.

Vocational dissidents in a nutshell. Social media is their playground. Every community has a few of them, you're not alone.

You have to understand what drives them. It's not participating or making the community better, regardless of what they say. Their goal is to stir up conflict and controversy, and they get an emotional charge when others get upset. It sounds like the board is doing the right thing by not responding; otherwise you're playing their game, and they're better at it than you are. All communications with them should be through official channels with scripted responses - brief, bland, boring. Take all of the emotional energy out of these communications. Absolutely no one-on-one discussions with any of them beyond "hi, how are you?" - it's way too easy to be pulled off message when you respond in the moment, and you're words will be misused against you.

To repeat: you can't win their game against them, you only win by not playing. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep an eye on what's being said, and you don't have to wait for a meeting to address misinformation.

Your goal is to allow the complainers to discredit themselves by being transparent and making correct information freely available on your community's official website and through other avenues. Maybe increase the amount of official communication. If you know some homeowners won't go get the information, provide it to them without their needing to ask. If the complainers post some misinformation on social media, you can address it indirectly in a newsletter "Did You Know?" article without calling them out specifically. Financials can be especially confusing for people, so there's plenty of opportunity for short articles that each explain a single aspect of HOA finances. Stick with it, and over time most of the community will stop listening to the complainers who will be stuck ranting at themselves.

Come to think of it. a series of short articles on HOA finance topics is a good idea. I should write some...

I would agree with ElleN's take on things if this group were making an effort to learn through the normal channels where they can get good information, which also includes many sites that educate people about HOAs in general. But it sounds like they're choosing instead to post on a site that's a well known echo chamber of conflict and misinformation. Which suggests something other than a good-faith effort to learn.

There is an easy way to figure out which of these options is correct. Are the social media postings mostly hefty doses of criticism and accusations against the board? Or are they mostly educational/informative in nature? How much venom is there, or are the postings mostly matter-of-fact?

Or the board can hire someone to provide education to the membership - will these folks participate, or will they ignore it in favor of social media? Do they want to learn, or do they want their biases and ignorance reinforced?

Vocational dissidents have some pretty obvious tells.

In my opinion many of the critics who take to social media are not trying to learn. They do not understand why such-and-such is happening, when in their minds the 'plain meaning' of a situation clearly should dictate that something else should be happening. They are frustrated. They get a kick; a charge; or a positive brain chemical stimulus from venting and possibly getting people to agree with them. I think this is different from getting a kick from stirring up dissent just for the sake of stirring up dissent.

Studies show that even an evil dictator will always have something like 30% of the population supporting him. In HOA land, I think this translates to the inevitably of there always being a meaningful number that loathe the board. Those who serve as HOA directors should try to accept that even if the board does everything as well as possible, a certain faction will make no effort to become educated. This faction will always dislike the board.

Two thoughts:
1. Instead of providing financials online to all owners, keep them for the Board, only. Then, whenever the owner requests to see them, make them available on paper, in the HOA office (or home of the Treasurer), for viewing whenever they like – no photos of the document allowed (please leave your phone outside); nothing to post online.
2. Or (if you want to email), you can save .PDF documents so they can’t be copied or printed or transmitted. That might solve your problem, too. (Perhaps a tech person can chime in and advise.)

Surely the Board has a duty of confidentiality. And is, therefore, responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of Association documentation.

In that case, then creating an encrypted .PDF to email the owner should help. Of course, the owner could take a photo of it on their screen (not the clearest visual), or they can recreate the information (time-consuming) - but this might discourage online posting.

Actually, that is not true. If the author(s) has not signed away the rights, then they automatically own the copyright.

Key words: "for a proper purpose." There's a reason non-members are not entitled to attend meetings. I don't see why a non-member would be interested in the financials.

Of course you can seek a claim for copyright infringement even if your work is not registered. Copyright is dependent on authorship, not on registration.

The Board probably generates far more documents annually than it is necessary or affordable or practical for them to register. So what is the value of them owning copyright if they can’t defend it?