BLMH Website no longer available as of September 2021

 

WWW.BLMH.org no longer exists

I was able to access the HOA website a week ago, but a neighbor reported that they received an error when attempting to reach the website over the weekend.

I attempted to go online and got the error above.

The problem with the "deletion" of the website is that a lot of data, be it older newsletters and so on, has also been deleted. The current board purged a lot of the older newsletters from that website in 2020 and 2021.  Controlling information seems to be a theme with this board. "Autocratic" is a term that comes to mind. But, oh, aren't these board members the "representatives" for the owners, and aren't they supposed to be "fiduciaries"? To readers, I can say that this association has been in this place before and it did not end well for owners. 

I emailed management and the service manager confirmed that the website has been taken down.  Apparently the new HOA portal is intended to replace the website. However, the new portal is under construction and is incomplete.  Furthermore, the website was public. The portal which replaces it requires an invitation to access from management and each person granted access has a unique sign-on and password.

In other words, access is restricted.  An owner who is in the process of a sale discovered his/her Realtor and the buyer can no longer freely access documents because of the unavailability via the old website. 

I emailed management and did get a response. 

My email to management: 

"The website www.blmh.org is not available.  I get an error message when I attempt to access it.  Is this a result of action by management, or is it a technical problem?

Please advise me.

The new portal, only available to subscribers via management is not complete.  That makes certain documentation about the association unavailable at this time. Which raises other questions.  Are non-owners allowed to subscribe to the new portal? How are interested buyers to get access to a range of information about the association? "

Here is what the management office had to say about this, via return email:

"This google website has been deleted due to the site no longer being able to be edited because of it being outdated.   The Board made the to decision to delete it because owners can now sign up for the portal.  We are working on uploading approved docs/policies. If an owner emails us regarding a docs we know has not been uploaded yet – we will assist the owner.  No owner at this time has requested they need something they can’t find."

Here is a link to the new portal. It seems only owners will be granted access.  What about potential buyers and Realtors? They will need to go to the management website, is my guess.

Website:    BLMH Online Portal Access

Here's a link to the management company website:

Website:    G&D Property Management - Briarcliffe Lakes

(c) 2021 Norman Retzke

Board President Presentation

Reserve Fees 2002-2016 - Part of Video

I'm posting a link to a video because of the change to the HOA approach to online access.  Certain information will not be available but to BLMH owners.  The website WWW.BLMH.org was removed by management at the direction of the board a few days ago.  A new "portal" for the association is under construction and will be very limited in scope.

I began this blog on September 7, 2008.  There are presently 705 published posts. 

I may expand it with the removal of the BLMH.org website by the current board.  Odd timing, as the election is a few weeks away and any new board members will have no say on this.    Older newsletters were removed earlier from the website. With the ending of the website they are all gone.  I may upload them with links here. 

The diagram above is from a video I created for owners. I've included a link to the video in this post.

After significant effort by me, and equally significant effort by opposing forces in our HOA I was elected to the board of this HOA in 2010.  Eight years later I declined to run in September 2018. There were valid reasons, including the departure of the other board members who were the motive force for most of what was accomplished during that period. I saw no point in being a part of the board of 2018 and beyond because I saw no commitment to transfer the water mains to the City of Wheaton by that board. For example, even the most recent "candidates forms" for the 2021 elections doesn't mention the water mains and the newsletters which had been published every other month were changed immediately after my departure from six times per year to four.  I did create and send a MS Word template document for the newsletter to the board at the time of my departure.  I also provided a link to board members via email to management about a variety of important issues, with data.

There hasn't been a lot about the Water Mains transfer to owners in the last year and the board seems to hide behind management. Yet, the board makes all decisions.  

When I was on the board I could only do so much considering the headwinds posed by a few other board members. One voting block of three did its best to stonewall my efforts. 

I had taken on the production of the newsletter in 2011 because of my commitment to communications with our owners, who are our shareholders and do pay all of the bills via their fees. I left the owners and the board with a "Guidance" insert in the August-September 2018 newsletter and I created an elaborate presentation similar to the one in the link on this post. It was presented to any owner who attended the September 2018 annual meeting, as were all of the others from the period 2010 to 2018.

For anyone interested, here is a link to a YouTube video presentation which is a version of a presentation I made to the owners of our HOA in September 2016.  This is not representative of the methods and communications of the current board. In fact, with the removal of the website older newsletters, etc. are no longer available to the general public. 

President's address to Owners, September 2016

 (c)2021 Norman Retzke