Estate Living Magazine Design for living - Issue 42 June 2019 | Page 54

C O M M U N I T Y
L I V I N G
will conclude that your community is also interesting, lively,
well governed and well maintained. Work with a marketing and
community expert like Estate Living to secure the right messaging.
Communication is a two-way street
Atlantic Beach
contain; that list is limited only by your imagination, by your budget
and, even more, by the energy, time and commitment of the
volunteers responsible for maintaining the site and keeping the
information current. With those limitations in mind, it is usually a
good idea when you first introduce your site to start small. ‘Don’t let
your eyes get bigger than your stomach,’ as your mom used to say. In
website terms, don’t bite off more content than you can comfortably
produce and update consistently.
The following list is a reasonable starting point, a basic content
menu to which associations can add over time, if they choose:
• a calendar of community events
• essential association contact information – for the board, the
management company, and the maintenance staff
• announcements of board meetings and other upcoming
community events
• the minutes of board meetings
• the association’s newsletter
• the association’s governing documents, including the rules and
regulations.
• information about the broader community, including proposed
ordinances about which residents might be (or should be)
concerned. Links to local resources and articles of interest
beyond these basics; the sky, literally, is the limit.
Many associations also allow owners to transact business – submit
maintenance requests, fill out forms, and even make payments –
online. Although your website will function primarily as an internal
communications tool aimed at community residents, it is also a
looking glass through which others will peer to form an impression
of your community and, perhaps, to determine if it is a community in
which they might like to live. In this respect, your site will function as
an online marketing brochure, so you want to make sure it conveys
the image you want to project. If the site is interesting, lively,
well organised and well maintained, then prospective residents
Newsletters, websites, welcome packets and the like are all means
through which the board and management talk to owners, but it is
equally important to listen to them. You want owners to know and
understand what the board is doing, but you also want to know
what owners like or don’t like about what the board is doing, and
what they think the board should do. The best way to obtain that
information is simply to ask for it. Owner apathy is real; unless it’s
a policy or decision they hate (a levy increase, for example), most
owners won’t comment or make suggestions on their own. But the
board can at least create an atmosphere that encourages owners to
speak up by making it clear that suggestions and input are welcome.
Openness and accessibility
Open meetings are essential. If the meetings are closed, owners
will assume the board doesn’t want to hear from them and (even
worse) doesn’t want them to know what the board is doing. To
counter those assumptions, invite owners to attend board meetings;
announce them well in advance, and schedule them at times when
people are likely to be able to attend. You’ll have to make it clear
that owners can’t participate in board discussions or vote on agenda
items, but set aside a designated (and limited) time during which
owners can express concerns, make suggestions, or discuss issues
the board is considering. Residents will be more likely to support
decisions in which they think they have had some input.
They will feel more a part of the community, and will be more
concerned about it if they think their opinions matter. So, ask what
they think – position suggestion boxes in a few convenient locations,
and respond to the suggestions you receive. Conduct surveys
on important issues and publicise the results. Above all, follow up
on suggestions. If you reject an idea, explain why; if you adopt a
suggestion, publicly recognise the owner responsible for it. Make
accessibility to owners a board policy and a commitment. Board
members don’t have to be on call 24/7, but they also shouldn’t
insulate themselves from residents, or create the impression that
they are trying to do so by being unnecessarily and unreasonably
hard to reach. You want to fight the ‘us versus them’ attitudes that
create friction in so many communities.
Accessibility and openness will help reinforce the idea that the
board is an extension of the association, not an outside force with
which owners have no connection, and over which they have no
control.