Estate Living Magazine Design for living - Issue 42 June 2019 | Page 53

C O M M U N I T Y
L I V I N G
• apathy is as much of a concern in the common-interest ownership
world today as it has ever been
• getting owners involved remains a challenge for all communities
and a source of frustration for many
• building a sense of community is more likely to be a question
asked (‘How do we do it?’) than a statement made about how
it is done.
So perhaps it is worth taking another look at these familiar
community-building concepts – communication, commitment,
and concern. They are trite perhaps, but also unquestionably the
true cornerstones on which a strong community is built.
Communication
We’ll start with communication because, in structural terms, it is the
support beam on which all other community-building efforts rest
– the mortar, without which, as a Yeats poem suggests, ‘things fall
apart, the centre cannot hold’. Communicating with owners isn’t
difficult and it needn’t be complicated or expensive, but it does
require commitment (recognise that term?), planning, and ongoing
efforts by the board to ensure that owners know what is going on
in their community – what has happened, what is happening, what
needs to happen, and why. The more people understand about
the board’s decisions, the more likely they are to support those
policies, or at least not resist them. The more residents know about
the community, the more likely they are to feel connected to and
concerned about it – concerned not just about their own property
and their personal investment in the community, but concerned
about other residents and about the community as a whole.
The communication effort starts, or should start, when new owners
arrive. The board or a designated committee should be responsible
for creating a welcome pack that includes:
However, associations that take communication seriously
understand how their residents consume information and include
as many channels as possible. Boards that don’t have news updates
will tell you they are too much trouble; those that have them will tell
you they are essential. A news update doesn’t have to be elaborate
or expensive to create; it just has to be informative. Make the news
update a channel the residents want to read – better still, make it a
channel they feel they must read and don’t want to miss. Also make it
a channel with which owners identify and view as their own.
Encourage them not just to read the news but also to submit ideas
and articles of their own. Use the channel not only to report board
decisions, meeting schedules, agendas, and the like, but also to
provide news about community events (tennis tournaments, the
planting of new shrubs, a clothing drive for needy families) and,
equally important, about community residents. People enjoy
reading about themselves, and learning about other residents who
are interesting or who share their interests. After reading about the
Smiths’ trip into Africa, Mr and Mrs Jones may call to talk about their
trip to that area. One thing may lead to another and perhaps the
two families will decide to create a travel club in the community.
It could happen. This is the kind of connection well-crafted news
updates can forge. And it is from connections like these that a sense
of community evolves.
The association’s website or app is, or can be, an equally effective
communications tool, but only if it is informative, relevant,
interesting and accessible. So put the emphasis on clean design,
good organisation, ease of navigation, and on the content, of
course. There is no single template for what your website should
O
Don’t leave this welcome packet in a mailbox or outside the door; have
someone – a board member or a volunteer – deliver it personally, along
with a welcome to the community. The message you are conveying is:
‘We have a real community here, and we want you to be part of it.’
Newsletters, websites, apps and other communication with owners
should be ongoing, and should take many forms. Notices posted
online, signage in the parking lot and discussions at board meetings
all provide means of keeping owners informed.
• the community’s governing documents, including the rules and
regulations, which the new arrivals have almost certainly not read
• a copy of the association’s newsletter
• a list of board committees
• a schedule of board and committee meetings
• a list of association contacts – board members and volunteers
who can answer questions
• general information about the local community – schools,
hospitals, shopping, libraries, etc.
• an owner ‘profile’ card, on which new arrivals can indicate special
interests or skills that might match volunteer opportunities.
Simbithi Estate