Briarcliffe Lakes Manor Homes Newsletters - Links

 

December 2008 Briarcliffe Lakes Manor Homes Newsletter Treasurer's topic
Hint: Click to enlarge

I updated 9/25/2021 to add a link to three of the 2019 newsletters, warm weather tips, Newsletter template which was provided to board in October 2018, and a copy of the street map. Faulty links repaired. Links are later in this post.

Note: As a board member 2010-2018 I expanded the scope of the newsletters and viewed them as educational material for current boards and owners, and also as useful source material for future boards and owners.   It was a method to pass along "expert knowledge" to future boards.  In fact, it was the only method because there is no such mechanism in place at the association.

Earlier boards placed links to the newsletters on the "official" association website.  The removal of the newsletters by the 2019-2020 boards thwarted my intention. In fact, the newsletters are but the tip of the iceberg. 

As a consequence of the recent board action which deleted the newsletters, I uploaded copies to my cloud storage and posted links on this blog. As a result this information remains available to the public, to new owners and to board members. It is my opinion the recent board action was to the detriment of the performance of boards, and to the owners. 

If you need additional information, you can email me via the link to the right.

Be aware I am no longer a board member and therefore I am not bound by any fiduciary duty to the association: "Briarcliffe Lakes Manor Homes" and "Briarcliffe Lakes Homeowners Association". 

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I have posted links to earlier newsletters in this post.  There were some really interesting things about the association in the earlier newsletters. The  above is a clipping from the Treasurer's Report in  the  December 2008 newsletter. This was published by the new board, after the old lost the election. Owners had expressed concerns about the finances and the fees of the Association.  The December newsletter answered some of the questions avoided by an earlier board.

During my brief, 8-year tenure on the board, certain board members did their best to prevent this type of information from being discussed in front of owners, much less be printed in the association newsletter. My attempts were rebuffed and certain board members argued that information they deemed as sensitive was "executive privilege". Today, some are inclined to run the association this way.

However, newsletters provide owners with their only reliable information about the association, other than letters mailed to all, which are infrequent.  Newsletters don't replace the financials and governing documents, which also should be read and studied by all owners. However, getting a copy of the financials is not easy in this association. 

Newsletters provide insights into the character, capabilities and leadership of a board.  Perhaps that is why the current board stripped most of the newsletters for the period 2008-2018 from the official website before it was taken down by the 2020 board. The current board (2019-2020) also stripped the email addresses of board members from the newsletter. Such communication is not allowed. 

The new "portal" for residents and owners has limited newsletters available. As of 9/23/2021 those available to owners include only:

• June 2021 Newsletter.pdf
•  February 2021 Newsletter.pdf
•  March 2020 Newsletter.pdf
•  November 2020 Newsletter.pdf

Note: I advised management that the "Rules and Regulations" documents on the portal are incomplete.  Rule changes about antennas on the buildings and the carpet/noise rule that occupied so much time during 2018 board meetings is not on the G&D Management website nor at the new "Portal".  These were on the BLMH.org website prior to being taken down. Management acknowledges the portal is incomplete. No word about when it will be "complete".

I was very involved in creating the association newsletters when I was a board member.  As a fiduciary I viewed communications with owners to be very important I also viewed the newsletter as a valuable tool.  "Everything can be resolved in communications" is an old expression.  The newsletters informed our owners, who are the shareholders of this not-for-profit corporation of what the board was doing as their representatives, presented plans, made requests and also presented some problems. I viewed this as responsible communications with our shareholders.  Of course, some owners didn't like what they read in the newsletter.  They could voice their opinions and vote for change when the opportunity was presented.  Being on the board is merely an opportunity to perform work, and if owners don't like a board they can do things about it. 

On finally achieving a position on the board in 2010 I began nudging the newsletter and those who prepared it in another direction.  In December 2008 the new board did take a stab at a more factual newsletter, but that changed. The association is not a social club and but the newsletter began to look like it was, with "Owner of the Month" articles, articles about architecture in "Merry Old England" and so on.

When I achieved a board position in September 2010 I wanted to expand beyond this.  Newsletter were normally four pages with a "Winter Tips" insert. The newsletter grew to as many as six pages. 

Owners had been complaining "Where does our money go?"  Of course, they are given annual budgets, but those don't list the actual dollar amounts in reserves and the cash in banks of the association.  I made a pie chart from the budget and brought it to an Association meeting.  I suggested it be included in the newsletter. The Communications Director liked it, and so it was included in May-June 2011.  A copy of that chart is at the end of this post. That was a first of many steps.  While I was on the board there was great resistance from some board members to running the association as a business.  

Clearly, not all board members understand the need for robust communications. Boards are prohibited from creating multiple classes of owners. In other words, all owners should be communicated with equally and fairly.  Not all owners attend monthly meetings. For offsite owners this may be impossible.  A newsletter is a means for equal treatment of all owners. Not all board members agreed during my tenure. Today, with the arrival of ZOOM meetings, it may be easier for all owners to attend, if they have the technology available. However ZOOM also provides a shield for boards.  A common refrain from the board when asked questions is "We'll get that to you".  One owner (not me) is still waiting for the financial information she requested nearly two years ago.  This is why I videotaped board meetings using my own equipment. This was intended to make everyone more accountable and keep people on their best behavior. Some board members did work around this by saving general discussion items for "Executive Privilege" closed door meetings. That was not proper, and he/she knew it. But it did shield discussion from owner observation, which was the purpose. 

Owners need to provide ZOOM enabled communications technology at personal expense.  This may not be the case for board members, who may have technology and support provided to them by management at owner expense. 

For whatever reasons, it is my understanding that the annual meeting a couple of days ago via ZOOM was attended by most of the board and only a handful of owners who were not board members, or board candidates.  That's indicative of the consequences of a lack of board commitment to robust communications and is also indicative of where owners lie with such tech. 

Obviously, old school newsletters are superior in practical terms.  They can be referred to by owners and the written word cannot easily be misconstrued or denied. One board member frequently argued that we can't make owners read the newsletters so it was a waste to provide them.  My rebuttal was always "It is our duty and responsibility to provide the information with easy access. What owners do with the information provided is their choice." 

The most recent association newsletters are not indicative of the lack of breadth of newsletters in 2019-2020.  At one time you could open them and compare by going to the links at the official BLMH.org website.  A sea change in communications occurred in September 2018 with the departure of three board members.

Perhaps I'll scan and upload the newsletters of 2019-2020.  

In September a couple of weeks prior to the 2021 election the board had management take down the public BLMH.ORG website. With that, all links were removed. Newsletters prior to 2020 are no longer available online.  I don't know why the board found it necessary to take away that web access for newsletters, etc., but they did. Perhaps it will be restored. Via email Management stated that the new portal is a work in progress. However, the new portal does not allow public access.

Commencing May 2011 I prepared and managed most of the newsletters until fall of 2018.   I have MS-Word originals and PDF copies of these and a few others. I also have hard copies in the 7 boxes of stuff I have about this association. I also have videos of many of the meetings I attended after 2008, and all of the board meetings when I was on the board. I provided the technology, as usual. 

I have uploaded the pdfs of the electronic copies that I have; I haven't scanned all of my hard copies.  Here are links, arranged by year. 

Links to folders with Newsletters, by year:

Briarcliffe Lakes Street Map

Newsletters 2008

Newsletters 2009

Newsletters 2010

Newsletters 2011

Newsletters 2012

Newsletters 2013

Newsletters 2014

Newsletters 2015

Newsletters 2016

Newsletters 2017

Newsletters 2018

Warm Weather Tips March 2018

Guidance - Newsletter Insert - September 2018

Newsletter Template October 2018 - MS Word version given to board

Newsletters 2019

Preparing the newsletter was difficult. Writing the many articles was not an easy task, with a purpose to provide information and to educate owners and future boards. I was running a business which involved an extraordinary amount of travel. I was President and Systems Engineer for a high tech Industrial Automation - Process Control firm I created. Some board members were also working full time. The newsletter were considered an imposition by some board members.  That included  retirees who certainly had sufficient time to do this.  After all, at a bare minimum commitment, one article every 60 days, reading two management packets and attending two meetings was really not much of a duty, was it? Each month management provided the board with a packet of information. It was 60, 90, or more pages long. Finance, contracts, legal, maintenance, rules and violations etc. were within.  Each and every board member could draw upon that information as well as the discussions during the open portion of meetings.  I kept copious notes.  It really isn't that difficult to get a lot of information as the basis for newsletter articles. 

A skimpy newsletter which contains the phrase "The board is very busy." is a real contradiction.

Board members were requested during each board meeting to prepare a brief article and submit it with a "by when" date.   They had 60 days to meet the publishing date. A few played their power games or perhaps they were simply lazy. I got so desperate to collect sufficient information on all aspects of the association from each board member, in their own words, that I would make multiple phone calls; emails were sometimes ignored. As a final resort I would interview board members, ghost write their articles and with their permission publish under their name. Frankly, I thought this was ridiculous.  It was obviously a power trip and perhaps a sadistic game. 

I would finally get sufficient text the day before the final printing day, sometimes handwritten. Then I'd have to figure out how to format the newsletter and shoehorn it all in, or expand the text to fill all of that white space. On the maintenance and architecture aspects there was absolutely no limit to the material I had available and ditto for finance. Of course, I was supposed to get "permission" from some board members to edit their text, if I ran out of room in the newsletter.  Sometimes I let the spelling errors and so on go through, as well as poor formatting.  I fully understood the covert FU attitude.  

In general, six newsletters were prepared each year.  For budget reasons they were printed in Black&White but the originals when I did them were in color. I provided a color PDF file of each newsletter to management for posting at the association website. B&W copies were posted on the bulletin boards by board members and a few owner volunteers, who walked the property and did this.  It was one of many, many tasks which were done so as to keep owner fees "as low as practical".  One copy was posted for each unit in each building. Management mailed copies to offsite owners.  The actual printing was the easiest part as I would prepare a MS Word document, print it as a PDF file and email to the printer. A board member or myself would then pick up the printed copies. Copies to be mailed would be delivered by a board member or volunteer to the management office. 

A lot of my time on the board was spent walking the property making problem lists, notes about possible improvements, managing the management, creating financial documents and spreadsheets, participating in or leading infrastructure condition surveys, and so on. On occasion another board member would assist me. 

In my spare time I revised the "Winter Tips" which were discussed by the board.  I even prepared a "Warm Weather Tips" which was sidelined.  It was heavy on keeping rules and a lot of common sense. It was intended to provide owners with timely reminders and reduce rules violations, and address a board member complaint that "The owners don't know the rules." I provided a laptop computer to the "Welcoming Director" so she/he could update the "Welcome Packet".  That effort was from 2011-2013. I stopped assisting in the preparation when it became obvious there was no interest in annual updates.  I don't think there is a current copy available at the portal or on Management's website. Such communications is no longer deemed important by the board.

I always had a camera with me and so I took thousands of photos and a lot of videos to document the issues, whatever they might be.  In all, about 1 TB of data. During site surveys, many conducted with management I photographed what we discussed, in addition to taking copious notes. On my own, I made stream condition videos, driveways, exterior of roofs visible from the ground, window sills, brickwork, drainage and so on. One year I even took a whiteboard, marked addresses on it and took a photo of each and every driveway, all 84 of them.  This was to assist the board and management in determining which driveways to replace each year. I have a different approach to managing the managers and view them as a part of the team. I've posted some of this here, on earlier blog posts. 

A lot was presented to boards during meetings and some found their way into the newsletters.

I also took general photos. I selected one for each newsletter and put it on the masthead. Not everyone appreciated my "NORMR60189" tag on those photos.   I handled that by saying "Send me your photos and I'll include one on the masthead of the newsletter".  There were no takers, as I recall. I gave a digital camera to a board member to use.  Not one picture over the span of the year or so.

By fall of 2018 after an even more rancorous, contentious board year, worse than 2015.  Some materials I prepared were ignored. The water main project which could save the association $millions and reduce future owner fees languished while the board argued about noise restriction rules and other trivia.  There are limits and I had reached mine. Three board members decided they would not run for re-election and I was one of them. I'd met my goals which I set in 2008 when I first decided to run for the board. My final newsletter articles were prepared on August 16, 2018.  It included a "Guidance" insert to inform owners and prepare new board members.  One of the things about BLMH is the "old school" board members don't train or mentor.  The association is their personal fiefdom. The first thing the new board of October 2018 did was to raise fees, even though their prepared budget dated October 2018 indicated a more than $100,000 surplus for the year 2018.    

In October 2018 I prepared a MS-Word template for the newsletter and gave it to the board and management. With that task I was done. I was no longer a fiduciary and no longer required to be "nice" to the individuals who made my life difficult when I was a board member, drove off a very competent member, attacked others to drive them off, and then with the champions gone, raised fees unnecessarily in the fall of 2018.  The entire board passed that fee increase, even though the numbers indicated it was not necessary. I sent a stern and very detailed email to management and asked them to forward to the board. I never got a reply from the board. 

Pie Chart, May-June 2011 Newsletter

Here's the Pie Chart I prepared for a newsletter of May-June 2011, using the budget data provided to all owners. This was intended to better illustrate and communicate the issues. That was an expanded, 6-page newsletter:

Clicking on this image will enlarge it

Post updated 9/25/2021

(C) 2021 Norman Retzke

Newsletter and Communications - "Like Herding Cats"

Warm Weather Tips - Why?

Here's a copy of the unpublished "Warm Weather Tips" for BLMH.

These were never published. I discussed the merits of such tips with the board early in 2018 and it was agreed they might be useful.   As usual, the Rules & Regulations Director didn't want to do this. So I  prepared them and they were presented to the board. After I got some feedback I revised these tips, but they were never used.

One concern was the fact that these tips were primarily about our rules.  However, that was intentional. In the warm weather violations go up. Flower pots are rested on second floor balcony railings above other owners heads. We have extensive grounds and some owners want to move into the common areas for the summer. They would love public parties, firepits, BBQs, sports games, and even portable pools.   Some would enjoy flea markets and so on.  Some store their cars on the street or parking areas and then leave for weeks or months.  That causes serious problems for maintenance crews and contractors.

However the rules prohibit all of the above.

Experienced board members, or those members who walk the grounds or interface with maintenance, management and contractors know of all of these issues. They are very visible. There are work stoppages in the summer while management attempts to locate the owners of automobiles parked while seal coating is underway, or a water main issue occurs and so on. Sometimes management gets calls from "out of towners" to advise them that "Our vacation is over, we are returning and could you check our car and put air in the tires for us?"  Etc.

Under my leadership there were frequent board discussions about fairness wherein all owners are treated equally. There were also discussions of issues from owner interference with contractors, both accidental and deliberate.

The summer tips were designed to answer questions and provide guidance to owners. In an association where we have difficulty getting a quorum of owners to vote, and seldom did more than six attend monthly meetings from the period 2011-2018, these types of newsletter communications made sense.

However, our most senior board member argued against these communications.  The position was basically "owners who are interested should come to meetings." But they don't! That attitude is why these tips were never published.

Nevertheless, I do think communications has merit. I pointed out to the boards of 2010-2018 that it would be preferred that owners be informed this way, rather than showing up in small numbers at meetings to simply ask the same questions over and over. Residents also call management office and do the same this.

But the rebuttal was "No one reads the newsletter."  That's a very self serving opinion, isn't it?

Winter Tips - Coming Eventually to Our Residents and Owners

Hint: Clicking on the image below will open it in "full screen" mode. Using your browser "zoom" feature you can enlarge it. I uploaded a better version which is quite readable. This is the November, 2017 version:

It is my understanding that the Board elected in September has decided to abandon the newsletter.  I'll explain.  I sent a copy of the Winter Tips to the board member who made a request for the template for the newsletter. I created a new, simpler one for her. I also sent the Winter Tips and reminded that these are sent to residents and owners before winter sets in.

Apparently, this is too much of a work load for the new board. So it was decided during the November 8 meeting, after missing the publishing of the September-October Newsletter to simply reduce the number of newsletters per year from six to four.  Voila' problem is solved.

I can assure the reader that I spent more time setting up the templates, sending several emails to the new board, etc. for the purpose of getting a newsletter to the residents and owners than the current board did. This is precisely why I am no longer on the board. Far too many 'do little' or 'do nothing' people out there, and I've re-evaluated where to put my considerable talents. Certainly, no longer will I cover the butts of the 'do nothings'.

An abridged version of the "Winter Tips" will eventually get to owners, probably with their December fee invoice. I understand it has been modified by one board member because it was "too wordy."

Ok, so a single board member (who has about one years experience) made this decision, and didn't send or provide the new text to the other board members before this decision was made. Hmmm, sounds like we are back to the old autocracy where one rules and the rest do whatever pleases them, assuming they can get it past the "pod queen".

Before the old Winter Tips vanish from the face of the earth, I'm putting a copy here.

Waiting for the September - October Newsletter

If you haven't yet received your association newsletter, there is a good reason. The new board is figuring out how to accomplish this.

Am I surprised? Not at all. I'm not sure who the President is, because that will be revealed in the newsletter, when I receive it. However I can state that if it is the longest standing board member (30 year, GHUA) then I can say that communications is not her forte. Which is why, even with 30 years on the board, you don't have your Sept-Oct newsletter.

On October 31 the previous Maintenance Director and I did receive an email from a current board member "Would you have an old copy of the newsletter and a version of the software you used to edit that you could send me? Sent from my iPhone so forgive Siri's interpretations."

I discussed with our previous maintenance director and I prepared a new "template" to send to the board member who originated this email. I also sent subsequent emails which detailed who the printer was, the requirement to send a pdf copy to our Management so they could put it on the association website, the issue of our "Winter Tips" insert for owners and so on.

"Hello XXXX:
Attached are two "templates" for the newsletter; I'm copying [our former maintenance director, who was responsible for the most recent newsletters]. This should address your request.

Board members have never been provided with software for our tasks. We use our home or office PCs and our own software; there are licensing and transfer issues.

To assist other board members I did lend laptop PCs to them (the 2014 version of the "Welcoming Packet" was created this way).

I created the version of the newsletter used since 2011 with Microsoft Word, a simple word processor. I wanted it to be as transportable as possible. One of the attachments I this email ends with the file extension ".doc" and is compatible with Word versions 1997-2003. The other file has a ".docx" extension with is compatible with newer versions of Microsoft Word.

 The "template" I have attached is a actually simple Word document constructed of text boxes. Whomever uses it will have to do the following:

1. Update date at the top of Newsletter.
2. Insert Masthead photo (replace with "insert photo") and I suggest the photo be edited and cropped so as to be less than 500 kb in size to avoid creating massive and difficult to use or transport MS word files.
3. Insert text in the appropriate text boxes and add the Director's or author's name.
4. Update the rear page to include the dates of future meetings and the names, onsite addresses and email addresses of the various board members.

This template accommodates up to six board members. Of course, the verbiage on the rear page should be modified to suit the current board culture. I sent the completed newsletter to the printer as a PDF file. However, I did not use MS-Word pdf print because it does sometimes create massive pdf files. I used my version of Corel PDF fusion. For example, most of my PDF transmitted newsletters were less than 350kb, which are easy to send via email. . If you have any questions, please contact me,"

I received this reply to my email:
"All very helpful, thank you!  I use Microsoft Version X and 365, so should be fine.
Sent from my iPhone so forgive Siri's interpretations "

I sent a somewhat tongue and cheek reply about "Siri's interpretations", although it probably wasn't interpreted as such:

"I'm glad to assist [you] and Siri. After you open the files then you will actually know if they are helpful or not.......   "Sent from my iPhone so forgive Siri's interpretations" which is why I will not use Apple's bots."  LOL.

Although there was no further request or comments, I sent additional emails with document transmittals:

"Hello XXXX:
In the fall a single page insert of “Winter Tips” is inserted into the newsletter. In 2017 this was in the Sept-Oct newsletter issued in October. It should be inserted in the next newsletter to deliver to the owners before freezing and snow hits the association.

 You didn’t ask about this. I discussed with [our former maintenance director] this morning and I am taking the liberty of sending a Word version and a PDF version to you. This version is dated October 18, 2017 (_____20171018.xxx)."

I then sent an email to our printer, to notify them of the procedural change:

"Hello Ken and Sheryl;

We have a new board and [our former maintenance director] and I will no longer be involved in the printing of the newsletters for our Association.

I’m copying [the current director who is apparently doing the newsletter] who I think will be your new contact.

Thanks for your good work while [xxxxx] and I were on the board. "

I then sent the following email about this to the current board member:

"Hello [xxxx];

 I don’t know if you have the complete procedure, or what procedure you intend to use. Nevertheless, here is the way it was previously done (approx 2011 to Sept 2018). This may be helpful.

 1. We send a pdf to the printer with instructions and they print it. When [xxxxx] was doing the newsletter she would pick it up at the printer’s and the bill. We had the newsletter collated and split into two groups. One group for distribution on the property. The other for mailing by management to the offsite owners. The bill with the offsite bundle was turned over to management.
2. The printer we used is A-Reliable on Roosevelt Road west of Park.
3. A pdf copy of the newsletter and any inserts are emailed to Rosemary at G&D with a request that she put it on the WWW.BLMH.org website. servicemanager@gd-pm.com

Here’s the text of the email that was used to print in October 2017. This was emailed to a-reliableprinting@sbcglobal.net

You probably would want to send them an email to the printer to introduce yourself. I have sent an email to A-reliable and copied you to advise them of a change in personnel and to expect to be contacted, most likely by you.

“Hi Ken and Cheryl;
This is for Briarcliffe Lakes Manor Homes newsletter for September-October, 2017. I’m sending this because xxxxx] DSL modem is down and she asked me to do so. [xxxxx] will pick up the newsletter when it is ready. She can be reached at 630-nnn-nnnn.

 Attached are two documents for printing.

These are to be B&W as usual (grayscale photos);

 1. 11x17 Newsletter to be printed front and rear and folded to give four 8-1/2 x 11 pages (pages 3 and 4 are numbered).

2. 8-1/2 x 11 “Winter Maintenance Tips” to be inserted into the folded newsletter. We’ll need 430 copies split into two groups, (1) 340 and (1) 90. .

 Thanks, and have a good day! Norman Retzke”


I then sent a final email to the board member:
"Hello xxxx;
 1. The frequency was every other month; six per year, with newsletters issued Jan-Feb, March-April, May-June, July-Aug, Sept-Oct, Nov-Dec.
 2. We included a special insert in the fall. October or November preferred months for the “Winter Tips.”
3. A Warm Weather Tips” newsletter insert was created in March 2018 by me, was reviewed by the board but there was no agreement reached to issue it to owners and residents. So it was not used. I have a copy. The purpose was to provide guidance to residents about the property during mild weather. A lot was based upon rules and the “does and don’ts” on the property.

 The association website has many of the newsletters, and these can be viewed or downloaded. WWW.BLMH.org I sent you a copy of the Winter Tips via a separate email."

==========================================

That's all I can do. The rest is up to the board!  I no longer have any obligations to this homeowner's association beyond keeping the rules, which includes paying my monthly fees. I am no longer a fiduciary. Yay!

Unless there are specific, timely requests,  then I no longer have anything to do with the operation of this homeowner's association.

I've not yet received a single phone call from  a current board member. That's not a surprise.

I did send a letter via US Mail to the newest board member with some information that had been provided to the board of 2018 and which was discussed during the annual meeting. I felt it was appropriate that the new board member be given necessary background information, which included a copy of the letter from the City of Wheaton about our water mains. A copy of that letter was included in the monthly packet given to the board in June, as I recall.

Creating a smooth board transition in a Homeowners Association HOA

One issue facing homeowner associations is creating a smooth transition when there is board turnover.   The purpose is to prepare owners, boards and board candidates for what lies ahead. How to go about that is the subject of this post. I see three approaches:

1. Communicate
2. Mentor
3. Remain on Committee

However, it is very important to realize that what is provided must be accepted in order that there be a successful transition. That is not always the case. Personalities of board members may clash and the consequence may be bullying, politics, subversive groups, personal agendas, resistance and apathy.

Owner apathy and disinterest can result in a lack of candidates and new board members to be mentored. These things will undermine the operation and prevent a smooth transition. Board members are supposed to operate as fiduciaries. Owners are supposed to be treated as the shareholders they are. These things don't always occur and not all board members believe in communications, etc. Some may harbor a deep seated loathing for owners, with the position that their duty is to the association and the primary purpose of owners is to keep the rules which includes paying their fees, period. Boards may see themselves as the "superior beings" in the association. Good luck transitioning when these things are present. 

If the remaining or new board members are emotionally unavailable and walled off, or expect to be power brokers, or are not open to change and learning, then any and all transition techniques will fail. Board members are volunteers. Owners sometimes forget that. Boards will only do what they are willing to do and there is no power on earth that can force one to do more than one is willing to do.  If boards fail to get the job done there is a natural tendency to revert to methods to "look good" to owners or promote popularity. Some of the methods employed may include:

1. Control of Communications. Boards may avoid providing certain information via the newletter or during open meeting sessions.
2. Save bad news for the Executive Session. This is a breach of duties but nevertheless it can occur.
3. Create board member groups (cliques) to control discussions during board meetings.

Communications

Communications has the purpose of preparing and passing information. Our association doesn't have a handbook. I chose a different route. One way to inform is to do so gradually and to publish. I've accomplished this several ways:

1. Communicate relevant information to owners in attendance during the HOA meetings. I've taken the approach that owners and other board members may require further explanations and I usually provide longer explanations when I am speaking. However, with near zero owner attendance in recent months and some board apathy I've altered my approach. 
2. Because open/executive session meetings in our association are limited to two hours monthly it becomes impossible to completely discuss some issues, projects, etc. in the limited time available. Obviously other methods must be employed.
3. Articles for eight years in the association newsletter which include methods. Reading the newsletters provides valuable insights into what needs to be done and one can glean how to do it. Reading the newsletters one can determine "How" and "Why". 
4. Publish the information on the web, so it is available to all owners and boards. Here's the link to our association website newsletters: http://www.blmh.org/newsletters
5. Send emails to boards during the period leading up to the transition which provides guidance and information about issues, projects, tasks and so on that will be incomplete after the election and will pass to the new board. Ask management to include these in the next board packet so the newly elected board members are also informed. 
6. Create a blog. The newsletter is very limited in space. In fact, owners have complained that it is "too businesslike" and one board member has insisted for years that "No one reads the newsletter."  This association doesn't have a  blog. I created this blog in 2008 as a means of further communications methods, issues, data, etc. This blog is sometimes read by board members and can be an effective method of telegraphing that they are, in fact, being observed. A blog can also provide alternative views. 

Here's a link to an article on cummunications over at Wharton:     http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-secret-to-great-communication-skills/


Mentoring
Mentoring is an approach which trains others to assume responsibilities. It may occur over years and is a useful approach for completing commitments which are not open ended in nature. It includes:

1. Specific guidance
2. Leadership through example 
3. Motivation
4. Emotional support

In practice I assist others in the performance of their duties, have provided technology, asked others to assist me, delegated to others but not abandoned them and so on.  I've approached my commitment on the board as both a member of a team and as a team leader. I've defended board members when they became the target of bullying by other board members.

Remain on Committee
Once that a board member's tenure is over, it is helpful if the board member remain available to the new board. One way is to become a committee member. Of course, the committee member does not vote and may not attend all board meetings.

The committee member is not a fiduciary and is not bound by such duties or responsibilities.

The committee member has specific assignments but is not intended to replace the responsibility of the board. In other words, there remains a requirement that boards be "working boards".  Some boards have not seen it that way, believing that their primary purpose is to read the monthly management packet, attend the meetings and vote.  The preference for such members is to exercise power and delegate. That approach is woefully inadequate in my opinion.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks
This is also sometimes described as "You can lead a horse to water but you can't force him to drink."

My point in posting the statement is to point out that boards do what boards will do, and this also applies to owners. In other words, one can do their best on a HOA board, but what happens is a consequence of group dynamics.

For boards, I think of the expression "A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link."  In boards we have a group of people who each have one vote.  With that one vote comes equal responsibility. However, in the real world that may not occur. Which is why there is such a wide disparity of duties among board. There may be abundant titles. However, the actual work load may not be shared equally.

Publishing an Association Newsletter

This post will look at some of the methods, benefits and issues of publishing an association newsletter. One might think that publishing a newsletter is a straightforward thing, but it may not be. It has been said that "Anything can be resolved in communications." Nevertheless, there are differing opinions about the value and purpose of an homeowners association newsletter.

Boards have a variety of fiduciary duties and differing perspectives. I've always considered the newsletter to be a vital part of communications with our owners, a part of board fiduciary duties and have acted accordingly. That is not a universal position among board members. In fact, providing a newsletter article may simply be another chore for a board member.

One thing to be aware of is board members can't be made to write articles or to be in communications if they are unwilling. Board members choose the technology they will make available for association use. Not everyone on our board has agreed about the importance of our newsletter and there have been differences of opinion about what to write. Should the newsletter be a business document? Or should it be a social calendar? Or something of both?  A very few owners have chimed in from time to time and stated their preference. While such guidance is appreciated, owners are not fiduciaries and don't have such responsibilities.

I suggest taking care of association business be the priority for boards. After all, our non-professional boards spend a lot of money collected from our owners. Boards determine owner fees and how much to save via reserves. They spend each and every dollar. Let's not forget all of that future planning and coordination with the City of Wheaton, etc.

I also suggest the use of the newsletter to communicate the business to the owners. In a well-run association after the business is handled everything else can fall into place and usually will.

However, boards have differing agendas, as do the owners who elect them. The newsletter is an opportunity for informing owners of these differing perspectives.  Of course, if board members were completely honest and forthright, some of us might never be elected. Some owners also only want good news and they will find a "good news" group to coddle them and provide it.

It is impossible for a newsletter to be all about "good news"and nothing else. That is not the real world. However, it doesn't need to be doom and gloom, either. Back in 2008-2010 our new board attempted to shift to a social newsletter with articles about England, certain neighbors and so on. They didn't have a lot of good news to share as delinquencies increased, there were foreclosures and the financial future for the association was gloomy. They didn't have a solid grip on the finances or the maintenance backlog. A social approach is easier to write about than tackling the problems head on and keeping owners informed of progress. Nevertheless, the December 2008 newsletter included delinquency numbers and reserves.  It was a good attempt at balance, but it didn't go over well with all owners.  Here's what was revealed in that newsletter:

• Our financial reserves totaled about $276,000 but had no funding for streets. Yet our major street, Lakecliffe Blvd, was failing. 
• Our delinquences had increased in two years from $5,000 to more than $30,000.

The above was not good news for owners. There must have been some negative feedback to the board. For whatever reasons in the midst of the "great recession" the newsletter shifted to a social one.  Such a shift doesn't solve any problems. However, if owners feel better they may be inclined to re-elect boards.

Another approach is simply about "looking good". The newsletter at BLMH sometimes occured to be "window dressing."  This is somewhat like our property street entries from Briarcliff Blvd. Over the years a lot of association money has been spent to beautify these, and it was considered to be good advertizing.  So too for a newsletter. However, if carried to an extreme one might argue this is misleading.

Nevertheless, it was possible to insert business data into the newsletter. Boards generally have an interest in presenting factual data to owners. Boards may have difficulting getting that data into a form that can be printed or finding someone to do the work. Boards do have difficulty in presenting "bad news" to owners. Some prefer to subject owners to the "slow death" of large annual fee increases rather than writing about the risks inherent in maintenance backlogs, long term solutions and potential special assessments. It does take some courage.

The shift from a "good news" periodical to one containing reality can be particularly difficult for a board. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and may be facilitated in associations by boards comprised of cowards.

The board of 2012 that followed the board of 2008-2011 continued a shift to a more realistic newsletter perspective while recognizing some of the issues and presenting solutions.

• Being responsible requires not only writing about the issues, but also providing insights into how the association is going to go about dealing with those issues.

When preparing a newsletter I think it is reasonable to consider that owners are just that, "owners." They aren't apartment dwellers who pay a monthly fee for the privilege of a space and move on in a year or so. Owners do have responsibilities to the association. They purchased as a choice. They made a significant financial investment. Boards should honor these decisions.

• A viable, factual newsletter serves "owners" and any renters, while informing all. It may improve board accountability. That's the approach I prefer. But others have strongly disagreed.

Creating a Newsletter - Tools
When the webmaster quit and some on the board also walked off I continued to publish the newsletter using Microsoft Word. To create charts I used Microsoft Excel. I also used a photo editing product "Corel PC Paintshop Pro".

To print the newsletter for the website and transmit it to our printer I used "Corel PDF Fusion" which produces smaller pdf files than the print function of Word.  I've done so since May 2011 and  I continue to use these tools to this day. Of course, I have upgraded some of these products since 2011.

• Document: Microsoft Word
• Spreadsheets and financial charts: Microsoft Excel
• Photographs: Digital Camera and Smart Phone
• Photograph, charts and JPG creation, cropping and file re-sizing: Corel PC Paintbrush Pro
• PDF file printing: Corel PDF Fusion
• Document transmission to board members, management and the printer: Email
• Foundation: A high speed internet connection.

I could have used MS Publisher, but because many people don't have that program available I decided MS Word was the better choice. I share the Word documents with others including management and in recent years our Maintenance Director took on the challenge of creating the newsletters.

Using MS-Word is straightforward for a newsletter, and I did create a template using a variety of text boxes. Photos, text and charts can be easily copied or dropped into these boxes. Box sizes and shapes can be changed as necessary. Boxes can be added to accomodate a larger number of articles, or deleted. Box backgrounds can be white, other colors or transparent. Boxes can have borders or not. I avoid the curleques preferring to save the space for text. The newsletter is printed in B&W. Photos are in color. To see the colors one goes to the association website and opens the newsletters there or downloads to their PC.

I use the paintshop software to edit photos taken with smart phone and digital cameras, or the charts created with Excel spreadsheets. Photos are generally recent and timely. I frequently change the spreadsheet charts to jpg files which are easier to manipulate.  This allows me to crop photos and charts, and I can edit the file size. Overlay text can be added. The smaller files can then be dropped into text boxes and the resulting word document isn't unweildy in size. For example, the newsletter for August, 2016 including the photos was a Word file of 307 kb. Easy to manipulate and copy from PC to PC, or via email.

Newsletters are usually four pages in size, and there is the occasional insert.

Creating the Newsletter - Collaborative Tools
If one chooses there are collaborative, online tools available. One of these is Google Docs.

These could be used to create documents, spreadsheets, and so on. Of course, putting these things on the web does raise security and ownership issues.

The real problem to creating a newsletter is board willingness, skills and the internet availability of board members. In our association, simply getting board members to use email reliably has been very difficult. Asking them to use online, collaborative software is simply beyond some. In fact, it is not a requirement that board members have a cellphone, internet access or a PC.

It is a reality that some people may have no computer skills beyond word processing and some board members may not be willing to pay the monthly fee for personal internet access.

Once we have a team with the necessary tools and skills, what remains is actually putting together the newsletter. For that the duties will fall to the most skillful and the most willing. Not all board members appreciate this and some may feel technologically threatened or challenged. Some may see it as a waste of time.

It is not the role of board members to train other board members in the use of technology or to provide technology to other board members. Nevertheless I have furnished a laptop and even a digital camera to other board members. I don't think that approach serves anyone well.

Creating the Newsletter - What to Write?
In an association with 336 owners it isn't very difficult to determine what to write. I think this would apply to all homeowners associations. Each month our board members are given a packet of about 100 pages in length. The information therein and the things discussed each meeting can be the basis for newsletter articles. Our newsletters are published every other month, so the board can draw upon 200 pages of information and the content and discussion of two, 2-hour meetings. In fact, the rear page is boilerplate general information, so what board members need to generate is three pages every other month. In the typical year that's a total of 18 pages of text and part of this is the Management's report. Yet, some board members insist there is nothing to write about. That's hogwash, of course. Here's a list of possibilities:

• Projects (Planned, in progress, upcoming and the impact on owners)
• Maintenance (Maintenance issues, work underway or planned, etc.)
• Work Orders (What's going on?)
• Rules Violations (How to avoid getting into trouble with the rules, most frequent violations, rule changes,  etc.)
• Finances (Spending, reserves, fees, etc.)
• Landscaping (Issues, projects, expenditures, etc.)
• Proposals (Work under consideration while avoiding cost and vendor details)
• Calendar based items (elections, meetings, census form due dates, etc.)
• Tips to owners and residents (Winter and summer living in the association).

Alternative Tools
Some years ago I did work with another board member and installed a "freeware" wordprocessor with claimed compatibility with word files. However, that is not my preferred approach. That individual didn't want to purchase a copy of MS-Word so I had little choice. As usual, that increased the time I had to spend. In my experience these programs may not be fully compatible with Word, either.

Today, one could use Google Docs, but that isn't my preferred choice, either.  I consider anything put on the web as out of my hands, ownership and control. So too for the association. Google Docs also required good internet access. That's something all board members may not have available. Today, many may use a smart phone to access email and for web browsing. PCs may have been replaced by a tablet computer. In such situations the preparation and transmission of complex documents may be impossible.

Using Email to Participate
For those board members who are willing to participate it is easy.  Board members can create their text using the email tool of their choice.

This is sent to the "editor" (me or the Maintenance Director). The text in the email is then copied and pasted into word and formatted as necessary. Spell checking can be done using the word tools. This is the approach I have found to be the easiest if board members don't have access to MS-Word.
However, it does take additional time for those who put the newsletter together.

The Worst Approach for creating Documents
The worst is hand written notes. Yes, those have been used in our association. That approach turns the board members who assemble the newsletter into personal secretaries. It can be time consuming.

I do have a great scanner with excellent OCR software so if I am given a typewritten page I can scan it, and then convert it into a Word document. Of course this is another time consuming step, but it is less time consuming for me than typing an entire document into Word. My Scanner is a $500 tool. Most don't have something like that available to them.

Resisting Newsletter Participation
Why resistance to a newsletter? As odd as it may seem, some may want to be on the board because of the power it bestows. Power to hire and fire contractors and management. Power to run an agenda, collect money from owners and then determine how to spend it. How many of us have ever actually developed and managed a $1 million annual budget?  Boards do get to pick and choose how that money is spent. Boards get to enforce rules on their fellow owners. All of this can be a power trip.

Some may want to be on the board because it provides an opportunity to do something. Hobbies can get boring after a while and one can only watch so much "Wheel of Fortune" in a day. If one is on the board then one can camp out at the management office, etc.  If management doesn't like it, well as one board member told me "I can fire management".

Newsetters can be revealing. If we are truly honest with owners in a newsletter, they may determine what our capabilities are as well as our failings. They may not like us, or what we have failed to do. It may be in the interest of an entrenched board to keep things close and avoid providing too much information to owners. That's not in the best interest of owners, however.

I suggest boards simply view their work as work, and being of service to others, as fiduciaries. Use the newsletter to communicate and to prepare future boards, too. Play power games elsewhere.

Whatever the purpose of the newsletter, if one wants to create a newsletter the tools and approaches I have used did work well. So has the message.

Impediments to Newsletter creation
One thing to be aware of that board members can't be made to write articles or to be in communications if they are unwilling. As a principal author, I found my time monopolized by some of this, and was forced to produce a majority of articles, some with no stated author. When only two or three board members write for a newsletter, it can be a very bad signal to owners.

Using my board experience of 8 years, I can tell you that other board members can make your life difficult if you want to put together a newsletter. Some may enjoy doing so. Some authors may attempt to make it difficult as in "Okay, I'll write your damn article, but I'll make you work for it."

I concluded long ago that it was easier to write the articles than chase people who had no interest. Or to deal with underminers. So I began writing most of the newletter articles. If there is no name on an association article, then it was probably written by me.

Here are some of the techniques that have been used to avoid writing and providing newletter articles:

• Don't use technology. Even though one can go to the neighborhood public library and use the computers there, and we are within walking distance of a community college.
• Argue consistently against the newsletter, as in "No one reads it".
• Promise to write but fail to deliver.
• Write an article and submit it at the last possible moment, while demanding that no changes be made. In other words, "Make room for me and the hell with the other articles."
• Attack the editors and those who prepare the newletter if any attempt is made to fit their article into the available space: "How dare you make any changes."
• All of the above.

In my experience the newsletter has been one of the more difficult chores I've had, for a variety of reasons:

• Technical issues were never a problem, but low technical skills of board members are an impediment.
• Some board members do have limited access to such things as high speed internet, or won't use it. They may not have the tools to produce the articles. 
• Chasing board members to write is a problem. At some point people will become very angry and some may lash out at other board members. Such undermining behavior should be beyond board members, but this is the real world we live in. 
• Uncooperative board members, who prefer to be politicians and want to trade favors.
• Managing nasty or belligerent board members is always a problem.
• Calming other board members who have been verbally attacked.
• Dealing with the clique. 

The bottom line is one cannot force people to participate, even board members.

Future Newsletters
My last newsletter as a board member was published in August. The next will be determined by the new board. They may ask for assistance or they may not. They also have the option of paying management or others to do this task.  Management does have MS-Word originals of some of the newsletters I or the Maintenance Director created. Management could certainly assemble a newsletter for a board using those earlier Word documents, or could create a new one.

I'll be interested in seeing how that turns out. However, it will no longer be my responsibility.

Frankly, the newsletter has been a royal pain. It was regularly like herding cats while begging board members to do their duty or both. We have had board members who love to screw around with other board members, take their time and use it. Power mongering is what I call that.

Perhaps the above is what happens when an association has board members who would really prefer to be elsewhere but feel they are stuck on the board. Similar to  some of our owners in 2008 who failed to sell before the bottom dropped out in 2007, they may choose to make the rest of us miserable. For the power hungry, putting others through hoops can be a joy.

Newsletter Link
Here's a link to our association website and the newsletters. These span December 2008 to the present.

1. The newsletter of December 2008 was one of the first a new board produced. It followed the template of the earlier board. 
2. The Newsletter of November, 2010 contained my first article. 
3. The Newsletter of January 2011 contained a chart I prepared on spending for maintenance and operations. 
4. The May 2011 Newsletter was a new format, prepared by me with the departure of a number of board members. 
5. Since May 2011 I've been very involved in the preparation of the newsletters.

BLMH Newsletters:    http://www.blmh.org/newsletters

My Final year on the board, part IV- President's Newsletter Message

v    President’s Message – These are my final newsletter articles as a member of your board. 

We’ve accomplished a lot in 8 years. There were real opportunities and of course many challenges. 
You need to determine who will replace me, their agenda, the specific programs they will have or continue, how they’ll be accomplished, the fees necessary and the benefits to owners.  I’m including several reports, insights and guidance to owners and future boards in this newsletter.   I’ll be available for questions during the annual meeting on September 27 and I’ll make a presentation.

Election 2018. About 75% of our owners live on the property and all have a financial interest in the success of this association, but most are uninvolved. Our history indicates that a small group of owners can control the board and the association. The board you elect will be tasked with figuring out the long term finances, they will set your fees for 2019, will spend association money, and will make and enforce rules.  Not all boards have been well prepared for this. The Candidates’ Forms may not reveal the actions you can expect from a board.  Not everyone understands the requirements and reality of a “working board.” Boards do manage our managers, set priorities, make the significant decisions, provide oversight and interact with our contractors and experts! I suggest all owners attend the annual association meeting and listen to the candidates to determine where they are coming from. I expect that candidates will have an opportunity to address the owners prior to the final vote tally. The current board will make presentations.

Do you want your fees to remain stable? It must be decided Who will maintain the water mains.  There are some really significant things going on. For example, after 5 years of effort and discussions with the city of Wheaton there is a real possibility of turning over our water mains to the city, who would then maintain them. The city is waiting for a response from our association. Board member positions about this have ranged from “wonderful” to “ambivalent”. Nevertheless there has been substantial progress on this “impossible” project. A change in our approach to water main maintenance has facilitated this and we now have about 500 feet of new water main. The city will not take over infrastructure in disrepair. If your board fails to pursue this with adequate resources and vigor, then this will never happen. Over time failure to transfer to the city is a guarantee to cost each owner at least $4,500 via fees.  If this initiative fails then owner fees will need to be adjusted. You need to let the newly elected board know what priorities they should establish and follow. The last 8 years have proven that fees can be stable while maintaining and improving the association. Come to the annual meeting!

Many trees have died - Recent Architectural work on the property: You may have noticed a lot of work to build architectural walls, grading, drainage work, completion of common area decks, streams, etc.  In 2009 I asked that board how they would deal with our many ornamental trees which were approaching end of useful, healthy life. I was told “Trees live a long time”. At that time I asked myself “What will our association look like in 10-20 years with hundreds of trees dead, and removed?” I concluded that our boards needed to pursue a realistic, long term program. If not, we’d have a lot of dirt scars, weird grassy mounds on the property, mud, bare areas and so on. As Maintenance and Architecture Director I took it upon myself to enroll the board in a long term program to deal with this.  As president I continued to move this along with board support. In 2010 we began a program to address tangled trees, fix our streams, build walls, deal with dirt mounds, failing common area decks, even a stream for which maintenance had been delayed for 10 years, and so on. I also literally moved sod, stone and other landscaping completions to maintenance so they would be performed with some urgency.  This dealt with many of the property’s landscaping issues as they occurred.  The boards since 2010 have agreed that the streams are a major architectural aspect of our property. By 2015 a survey revealed 95 additional scars on the property; that survey facilitated the decision of the board to expend a large amount of funds on specific repairs by a landscaper.   In August our landscaping director stated to the board that certain pine species are dying out.  There obviously remains much to do.

For additional perspective see my other articles inside and the insert to this newsletter.          

Another Newsletter

Our HOA publishes six newsletters a year. There are a range of opinions about this. At one extreme is the board member who is of the opinion it is a total waste of time.

The newsletters have morphed several times. At one time articles were very short. Even so, that was the primary source of information for owners, unless you were one of the few who had special access or connections to the board. In fact, very few owners have attended monthly meeting for most of the 15 years I've been an owner here. Then in 2009 the newsletter became more of a social thing with lengthy articles about such mundane topics as the architecture in England, the "Owner of the Month" and so on. That was all befitting a social club organization.

By 2011 it shifted again and the newsletter became more business like. A pie chart was one of the things published which indicated where the money went. Of course, owners do get annual financials, but it can be difficult to grasp the magnitude of some of these expenses and to compare them.

However, some board members have been reluctant to participate in the newsletter. Some months we have two authors. The most recent newsletter had everyone participating, although reluctantly. First time in many months.  It is a time for elections and so putting one's name out to the voters is important.

What's been the problem? In recent years board members have made these comments about the newsletter to support their positions about it:

1. No one reads the newsletter, anyway.
2. If owners want to know what is going on, they should come to meetings.
3. It isn't part of the official duties. 

I suspect there are other factors at work here:

1. Writing for the newsletter is yet another task for a board member.
2. Board members are volunteers. They have other things to do with their time. 
3. Writing can be difficult if one doesn't have computer access at home or work.
4. Expressing oneself through writing can be difficult.
5. Communications skills are not a prerequisite for a board member and neither is access to technology. In fact, there is no requirement to have a telephone. 

My position has been consistent about the newsletter:

1. Owners are shareholders and are to be kept informed. 
2. There is no rule or regulation that stipulates that owners must attend meetings.
3. The responsibility for communications rests with the board. 
4. It should be considered part of one's fiduciary duties. 
5. At a minimum management and the president are to write for each newsletter.
6. We have a lot of new owners each year. How best to inform them about issues, problems, rules that are frequently violated, projects, etc.?
7. Owners are to be treated equally. That means the same communications to all. Attending social clubs is not a requirement for ownership.
8. There should not be any special, private pipelines to the board for a few.
9. Everything can be resolved in communications.  

I've done a few things to stimulate and extract articles from board members:

1. I've asked, asked, asked. I will continue to do so. 
2. I've told board members "Simply pick a topic from the monthly meeting." We have two 2-hour meeting for every newsletter and about 180 pages of documents. Lots to pick from. 
3. I've written articles for other board members.
4. I've converted longhand to typed articles. 
5. I've filled the blank spaces with "Insights" for residents and owners.
6. A "contributors" section has been added, naming the contributors.  
7. I did most of the work putting it together for about 4 years. Collecting articles, assembling them, getting it to the printers and with help including my spouse distributing it on the property.

Currently another board member is spearheading the newsletter and I only assist. In fact, I no longer deliver them. (There was a time when some of the board members walked the grounds to pick up trash; I think board time is better spent working on the newsletter).

I do wonder what the newsletter would be like if I weren't here. Possibly better and perhaps not. There is also the possibility that the stubborn among us would get the gospel and take this on. Some people like to be the boss but some can't lead. It's been made abundantly clear to me that board members are volunteers. We pick and choose the tasks and priorities and no one can make a volunteer do what they refuse to do.

What will the future bring? We'll know, soon enough.

Latest BLMH Newsletter

As a follow-up to my recent post about reserves and with an eye toward infrastructure spending, here is the most recent association newsletter.

Click for:BLMH May-June 2017 Newsletter

The critical question for owners is straightforward. Would your prefer to live in a HOA run as a social club, or one run as a business?

It's 4:00 am and time for another newsletter

It is that time for another HOA newsletter and so I have some articles to write. This blog post provides for some sidebar stuff. We got through the budgeting process this year with fewer bruises than in recent years. No one on the board was attacked from within. What a refreshing change since 2014. I did draw the red line in 2014 and 2015 and I'm no Obama. I meant it. That may have had some impact. A few years ago I considered wearing a "Don't tread on me" T-shirt. But instead I decided to play the game; as they say, give someone enough rope and they will hang themselves. I also follow the money and I am sufficiently smart to be able to do that.

Well, after the angst of the budgets of 2015 and 2016, we continue for 2017 with 1-1/2 percent annual fee increases. The "doom and gloom" projections didn't occur, much to the chagrin of one board member. In fact, we have a substantial budget surplus, according to the books as of December 31, 2016.

How substantial? We are about 8% under budget for $$$ spent for Operations & Maintenance and we are about 10% under budget for Maintenance hours expended.

In the past boards sometimes accomplished this by kicking the can down the road. In fact, some boards exceeded the maintenance hours budgeted so they rolled the deficit into the next year, reducing the maintenance hours available. I suppose they were hoping that the stars would align and they would miraculously come in under budget in the following year.  Of course, what they really did was hamstring the new board with a maintenance deficit.

That is not an acceptable approach and it has not been happening on my watch. How is that? Better management controls and information, that's how. In fact, we are pulling ahead with new streets, repaved/repaired streets, all new roofs, 80% new driveways, new garage floors as determined by surveys of condition, deck replacements and stream repairs underway, as well as substantial landscaping work and drainage work completed.  It wasn't easy and some board members have walked because the problems appeared to be overwhelming. What cowards!

So how was this accomplished? Better information. Better information means distinguishing between "information" and "data." Since 2010 that's been a challenge for me. Our monthly board packet is frequently 100 pages. We get 3-5 days to read it, absorb it and then use it to make decisions. "Data" can drown us in minutia and some board members have revelled in that. So I have tightened up the data, created or directed specialized reports, hired professionals and I make additional spread sheets, and present some to the entire board.

It is about empowering others. On the other hand we can control the information and disempower others, This is a choice to be made.

While some luck may be a part of running budgets that accomplish all of the tasks with end of year surpluses, it really is consequence of good decisions. Good decisions require good information. Then we can plan.  Not for one year or two, but for five or ten or more. In a culture with short term thinking that is not the norm. Politicians do what they must to be elected. Some blow smoke in our ears. Others blame everyone else. Some kick the can down the road and bury future HOA owners and boards with maintenance problems and fees.

It can take some time to change the course and I have likened this HOA to the Titanic. One can throw the wheel but the rudder cannot respond immediately, and for every degree of course change the vessel, our HMS BLMH will move forward. Timing is critical. Make a directional change too late and one will hit the iceberg. I timed my involvement based upon circumstance and opportunity. Too early and no one would notice; the naysayers would declare "what hazard? Too late and we'd hit the iceberg. So I waited.

I approached this HOA as a demonstration project, after watching the angst. I know what is possible, because I have sufficient mastery based on 50 years of difficult decision making, business management and large project management. Participating in really big projects with serious outcomes. How serious?  A single process unit is worth ten times more than this entire HOA. Duh! The current newsletter is part of the demonstration. Owners want transparency or so they say. However, they also want "good news." So for decades boards presented limited information in the newsletters which failed to reveal the true state of affairs. I did read the balance sheets each year and that painted a more thorough picture, although it did require "connecting the dots."

But the boards persisted with the newsletters and it got to the point of ridiculousness with one-fourth of the newsletter dedicated to an interview of the "resident of the month." What do I mean by "ridiculous"? Well, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then dazzle them with bullshit. So they did. I suspect it was a decision to avoid providing factual information. What a crock for a group elected to provide, among other things "improved transparency." But in 2008 they ran on "change" which was the buzzword of the year. They were elected, my, we are so gullible. For my efforts I got nails in my tires (I do have police reports to substantiate this).

But we now live in the aftermath of the "Hope and Change" Obama administration. Coincidentally the "warm and fuzzy" board of 2008 which published our "warm and fuzzy" newsletter also ran on "change." God, we really are gullible. Can we put "hope" in the bank? Will  it reduce our HOA fees? Can we use it to pay our bills? Did it reduce all of our health care premiums? Only with generous subsidies paid for by others. But in a HOA there is no largesse, and each owner must pay their monthly fees.

With the departure I am to believe that this heralds "The end of hope." Really?

I take the approach that the newsletter is not only to be informative, it is to be a training aid. I want to educate our owners and our future board members. Of course, that is not the most popular approach. Too bad.

We've had a few good years, but it isn't all roses. We've got some stream sections in "poor" condition. I provided a video report to the board in 2015. The diagram I presented to the board in the spring of 2015 which indicated about 90 scars on our property due to dead trees, etc. might have stimulated landscaping improvements, but we have removed even more and the work isn't complete. We have other street issues to address. There are some really long term infrastructure issues in a PUD. We can get creative, or we can punish owners. As perverse as that might sound, I do think some board members over the years have enjoyed and actually relished their roles in inflicting large fee increases on owners. One even admitted to me "You can slap paint on a pig but it is still a pig."

So why do they stay here? Because they can't leave. So they persist and spread bullshit. If I were to write a story, I'd call it "My life in hell and how I thrived in my HOA." Duh!

We do have one board member who is simply waiting for a disaster to occur so that individual can say "I told you so!" God, I really hate the "henny pennys." Of course there will be breakdowns. Of course there will be issues. This is a 40 year old HOA which kicked the can down the road and has an understaffed board. Should we expect anything but dead and diseased trees, or garage floors some of which require replacement? But why do some thrive on that crap? Why kick the can down the road for a decade or so and then complain about the lack of maintenance, or call the HOA a "pig."

I have concluded that in life, there will always be idiots and assholes to deal with. It gets ugly when they become the boss, or control HOAs. In our culture they make bad decisions, many of them, and then they complain and say "How could this happen" or "I told you so."

I say, "stupid is as stupid does." But I won't put any of this in the newsletter. I'll stick to the facts and let the owners figure it out for themselves.

Well, my newsletter articles are written, it's 4:39am where I am at and it is 40F outside. Time for bed.

Are HOA Newsletters Important?

A newsletter may be the only means of communications with complacent or uninvolved and consequently uninformed owners. Here's an example.

I am and continue to be very concerned by the overall owner malaise and lack of participation here at BLMH. Overall I would much prefer a higher participation rate by owners. I think we had about 20% attend the annual meeting and we did achieve a quorum. But I think voting percentages below 50% are too low and I am certainly distressed when fewer than 33% vote. I've provided my perspective in the newsletter. In fact, my primary interest in being the president of our association was that it gave me access to the "President's Message" which is the first item in our newsletter. Why? Because "In communications we can accomplish anything."

The causes are many and some are historical. This association made no demands upon owners for decades other than keeping the rules and paying monthly fees. In fact, paying monthly fees is one of the rules, so I guess I could say that the only requirement to be an owner here is to keep the rules. That is the minimum standard. A very long term board member once quipped to me when we were discussing the impact of budget increases on owners "I didn't think we catered to the lowest common denominator."

Yet, that is precisely what that board member and many earlier boards have done. It is not a surprise to me that we have long term owners (25 years or more) who live on the property and never in the last 15 years do they attend association meetings or even vote in the elections. They have decided they live in an apartment complex and benefit by the labors of the various boards. Of course. they have their complaints to fall back on as an excuse for not participating or attending. "Stupid is as stupid does."

I see the newsletter as a means of supporting all of our owners, be they active or not. I prefer an enlightened and informed ownership over the opposite.

Why are Newsletters Important?
I’ve been observing and attending HOA meetings regularly for about 10 years. For my first HOA meeting only I and my spouse were the owners in attendance. This was in February or March of 2002. We were excited to be new owners. When the president addressed us "What do YOU want?" the wind went out of our sails. Some things haven't changed here at BLMH.  Furthermore, boards have had an adversarial relationship with owners at times. So we have an association history to deal with. That includes entrenched, uninvolved owners and any former board members who have a personal position or legacy to protect.

I do appreciate the resistance of some board members to a newsletter. Newsletters are a lot of work. Board members prepare them and walk the entire property with their committee to distribute them. Via the newsletter board members reveal themselves to the owners, and that can be uncomfortable. One long time board member has had a lot of negative things to say about the newsletter and since 2008 there have been differences of opinion.

I see the need for a factual and far reaching newsletter this way:

1. There is the obligation of the board to communicate with all owners in a fair and balanced way. 
2. All owners should be given as much information as possible and the newsletter is our only method of communicating with all owners and our residents.
3. The newsletter can be an informative and educational tool for owners and for future boards. 
4. We should have a concern about the future of our associations and the ability of future boards to carry on many long term programs and plans. In fact, reserve studies do have a 30 years horizon. Our association expands this to include a 10-year rolling plan. How are future boards to be prepared to continue this? As a matter of fact, all future boards will come from the ranks of our owners. It is best for the association if all owners are prepared to assume these duties in the future, 
5. Owners vote each year for their board, It is my opinion that owners be well informed of the substantive issues in an association. A fact filled newsletter is one very important way of achieving this. 
6. One of the purposes of the newsletter is to engage owners in the operation of their association. 

I do have a real problem with some of the attitudes that have been expressed by board members from time to time over the years, including “If owners want to know what is going on they should come to HOA meetings.”

Yes, owners should attend meetings but there is no formal requirement that they do so. In fact, some previous boards and board members have actively discouraged owner attendance and participation. The most crass think they can do it better than anyone else. So today we have to deal with the 66% of our owners who were trained by those earlier boards, as well as the more recent 33% who may not be aware of the realities of association community living.

It really shouldn't be that difficult, and via our active programs and the current newsletters I intend to lay the foundation to prove that. I stated in our most recent newsletter "Moving from Reaction to Creation-  We are now entering a new chapter at our association because of the capital reserve program that is in place, the completion of the roofing project, the replacement of major portions of our water mains under Lakecliffe and the replacement of Lakecliffe and Salisbury. The past 10 years at our association has included breakdowns and reactions to many factors, including a maintenance backlog and the financial pressure created by both internal and external forces. There is a lot of work to do and for that, see the other reports in this and future newsletters. Even better, come to an association meeting.'

Owners Make Ciritical Decisions
Our owners vote for their board and decide who will be on the board. That includes themselves. Our association is again understaffed, But we have had two owners step forward and expressed a willingness to be on a committee. Each and every one of us makes a difference. As I stated in the November-December newsletter "Annual Meeting  Thanks to those owners who exercised their right to vote and thanks to those who attended the annual meeting. Thanks also to those who have expressed a willingness to be on a committee; you will be contacted about this.   Each board member gave a concise presentation about the State of the Association. My presentation focused on our 10- and 30-year plans and I presented a series of charts, documents and explanations for about 20 minutes. Each board member was subsequently given a DVD copy with audio added.  I prepared a version for YouTube."

Bottom Line
The obligation to communicate rests with the board as one of our fiduciary duties. Some of our recent newsletters provide more insights into the decision making processes here at our Association. There has been a deliberate evolution of the newsletter since the Fall of 2010. I have pointed out to the board on several occasions that our ownership has shifted dramatically since 2009. Since then about one-third of our units have been sold. I interpret this several ways, including the fact that some of these owners are not really aware of the meaning of community living and they don't carry the baggage of 25 years of living here at BLMH, nor is it likely they are fully aware of our rules and regulations. The newsletter is an obvious way of informing them.

It is fortunate that many of our rules and regulations are common sense items. But one might be surprised by some of the complaints that surface. I use the problems that surface with new owners to support my position that continuous education and reinforcement is a necessity. The Newsletter is the obvious tool. I am hopeful that more owners will participate in our HOA, but I have observed some resistance by board members since I purchased here in 2001 (closing early 2002).

It may be that the board is at times its own worst enemy. However, I do appreciate that some board members may be averse to more meetings and more work. I do know that I am.

Our Newsletter:
For the November-December issue of our newsletter, click on the following:

BLMH November-December Newsletter, less our Winter Tips Insert