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We have seen the following issues with DIY websites:

(1) The volunteer totally controls the site. If the volunteer moves away, the Board may not have the ability to update it, the domain name will expire and the community loses it's website. We've had many Boards come to us for a professional website after this problem.

(2) The volunteer gets unhappy and takes over the site for his/her own purposes, like bashing the board/community. Since the volunteer totally controls the site, the Board cannot stop this. Yes, we have had Boards come to us for a professional website after this happened.

(3) The volunteer loses interest and the site dies.

(4) DIY websites normally are not secure. Industry attorneys recommend password protecting many types of HOA information/documents for members-only. Board members may incur liability for publicly publishing certain internal HOA information. For example, the DIY site mentioned above has no security and a place to publish Board meeting minutes to the public. Minutes are one of the document types recommended to be secure for only members to see.

As you know, Community123.com built HOATalk and we build affordable, professional websites that are designed to industry standards. Your website is a corporate asset and should be managed as such ... professionally. Why take the risk to save a few dollars?

Richard, with all due respect, I think you are taking HOATALK's comments personally.

This isn't about whether boards or volunteers are good or bad, or which are worse, etc.

They are relay facts about websites.

And they are absolutely correct in their assessment.

The "Association" isn't a living entity that can monitor and maintain a website in and of itself. The people who run or manage are left to do that.

By DIY HOATALK is referring to EITHER the board OR an association member OR the management company being the entity to set up, run and maintain the site.

By contracting it out to a vendor that exists specifically to service individuals or companies with websites, the association avoids all of the traps and issues that both you and HOATALK present.

I am a webmaster myself. In the early years I even set up a website for our HOA. But I realized that there were a lot of landmines by doing that so I turned the domain name over to the corporation (and took it out of my company's name), and now we use a free website that all board members can administer. It's not Community 123, but it's provided by our local municipality free of charge to local neighborhood groups. By doing this it eliminates any power struggles down the road as well as issues already mentioned above.

Of course, since only about 10 to 20 people in our entire association of roughly 600 (300+ homes), even USE the internet, it's really sort of a moot point.

Michele,

You appear to have too much free time on your hands.

Michele,

I will make one last pitch here, not that it will do any good. Besides, who cares?

A little background. Wife and I moved here April 2008. I am from the corporate world and wife is from City Government. Went to a number of board meetings when I first moved in. I saw they were completely run by the PM company. Only one of the five board members were ever elected, the others appointed over the years. None of the community has any contact information for any board member. All communication must go through PM. For over a year I have volunteered to put a website out there for them, free of charge. Not interested and the community not interested, so the PM says. Last month, the old PM got booted and in with a new PM. Same old story. They return emails faster than the other, but still the board allows them to run the show.

This is the age of technology. People get their information via text messaging, internet, message boards, etc..My putting up the web site came from our events committee trying to put together a Halloween Costume Contest for the kids in the neighborhood. It allowed the parents to sign up the kids, the email could be routed to another committee member for the goody bag and so on. Took it to the board for approval and the PM, not the board said no. Now the new PM had only be in place for four days. Couldn't get the Halloween event ok'd becuase it wasn't on the agenda that the PM said would be there, have to wait until the following month. Again this is the PM talking. We have two board members who would like to see change, and we have three others that "Couldn't find their butts with two hands and a flashlight.

I understand that being a BOD is a volunteer position and that they aren't going to know it all going in. Three BOD have been there for 5 years, the other two less than a year. Since the 24th of September, I made a commitment to read all the documents pretaining to this assocation, so I was prepared to run for a BOD position in November. They were the ones given to me when I moved here. All of them are 9 years old, as long as the HOA. There are no amendents to any of the documents, which I find hard to believe. Only one committee, the ARC, knows what its doing. I am from the school of personal responsibilty, if you don't something look for the answer, educate yourself. You owe the community in which you chose to serve. I know you will disagree, but I feel strongly that no PM runs this organization or BOD. I have just as much ownership stake as any BOD. Where our pesent BOD feels its residents are a pain in the butts and wish they wouldn't show up for meetings, I want to see everyone there. At the very least, and that is why the web site was utlimately built, so that there would be transparency between BOD, PM and homeowners. One of your commnets were the webmaster could go rogue and start bickering with the board/committee. I am too much of a professional for that and believe the community deserves better.

Much of what I read on this discussion board deals with BOD and not PM making decisions. I am in a situation where that isn't the case. Through my searching I have found the ways to change things and if neccesary, to change parts of the board, but not for myself, but because its the right thing to do. I want the community to have input, because its what I would want for myself. Technology can make that a become reality.

On a side note, as I mentioned, my wife works for a City Agency in Southern California, which is in financial turmoil. I see similarities between the two parties, passing the buck and blaming others for their incompetence.

PS: Let me give two real examples of communities that had problems with a DIY website and are now our customers:

EXAMPLE 1: The volunteer moved...Now what?

A HOA in Georgia had a well meaning volunteer build them a website. The volunteer registered the domain name (like yourcommunity.com), got web hosting and built the site. The site was well used and became an asset for the community and was the community's 'official face on the Web'. Some time later the volunteer moved away and the website kept running. Months later the domain name came up for renewal and no one knew how to renew it, etc. The domain expired and the website went down. Eventually, the community came to Community123 and we built them a new site on a new domain name (the old one was still not released although it was no longer able to be used).

EXAMPLE 2: Nice volunteer gets mad & takes over

The board member of a HOA in FL gets a domain name for the community website and begins work on the site. Later, this board member has problems in the board and resigns. He then refuses to give the domain name or the site back to the community. Community123 is brought in to build a new site on a new name. The new site is launched and works well. After a year of negotiations, the board member turns the original name back over to the HOA and Community123 converts the new website to run on it. All is well...

Last pitch for what?

How many times do you have to be told that the commentary about DIY websites in general are not directed at you? You are not being attacked and no one is telling you you've been a bad person! Yeesh.

Your story is a good one and I and others have applauded your efforts.

No one has told you that what you did for your HOA was "wrong headed" or that you (and now your wife is brought into it) or your wife need to be chastized in any way!

And if you think for one minute that I or anyone else here believes that a PM company "runs" or rules a board or HOA, you are sadly mistaken and have not taken the time to read our historical posts. Every single regular poster on here, including me, advocates for the homeowners to maintain their responsibility to their HOA. The board members have the same single-vote power that all homeowners have. It's the homeowners responsibility to ensure that they have elected board members that understand their role in the association as well!

But I will add one more caveat to you: you cannot "force" all communication to residents to come by and through the website or email. You can use the website for "transparency," (with the proper security in place), but you cannot switch the communications mandated by your governing documents to solely electronic and force all homeowners to then have to go online to access them.

Websites are nice additions to a robust communication program, but they are only one strategy.

And HOATALK was appropriate in providing real-life cautions to the Original Poster, CityO in Virginia about why it might not be a good idea for every HOA to build a DIY website.

This. Wasn't. About. You.

Richard,

I agree with what you say and give you a thumbs up. As a burned out board member I wish you good luck. I have lived here for eight years (3 years on the board) and can't understand why owners are not involved. We have (or had) a web site where 40 members of our 101 association signed onto but the new board has not kept it up..so needless to say it is now worthless, that, together with the total apathy of owners and our board not sharing financials at the board meetings and a mangement company that is next to worthless has me wanting to move to a cabin in the woods. I'm sorry to be such a downer but for myself, I intend to visit the management company periodically to see the financials but other than that I'm done. When the owners were sent a letter saying they would use reserves or special assessments to cover day to day expenses it peeked my interst. In Florida there have been several management companies that ripped off associations so, for now, my interest is in seeing where our funds are going. Unfortunately the majority of owners ignore everything until it hits them in the pocketbook. Good luck to you.

hey CityO I got an idea to help you out with your issue! lets email or if you have a few minutes lets talk!