HOA Newsletters - Some Changes

I hope boards continue to make the newsletter a priority for communications. This truly is an essential group effort.

The newsletters are one of those chores that board members may choose to avoid. The newsletters have changed at BLMH as time has passed and boards have come and gone. I'm sure there will be changes in the future. Preparing newsletter articles has been among the more unpopular board tasks. As a consequence the newsletter is what it is. Some of this could be technology issues. There is no requirement for a board member to use email, or have a personal computer. There is no requirement to have a telephone either.

If asked I will tell anyone who listens that low owner involvement is unhealthy for a HOA. That's my opinion. However, purchasing and living in a HOA is voluntary. The only people who have a duty beyond paying fees and keeping the rules are the board. That's a fact. HOA boards in Illinois did not write the Illinois Condominium Act. The legislature did. "It is what it is."

As a consequence, preparing the newsletter and other forms of communications is a board responsibility. Owners may choose not to read it. They are under absolutely no obligation to do so. However, if they don't they have no excuse for complaining about "I didn't know" or "How could this happen?" Similarly, if owners choose not to attend HOA meetings, they should have no complaints about being unawares of what's going on. It is unfortunate that owners cannot be held to higher standards, but the legislature assured that when the made the Illinois Condominium Act.

I am inclined to scoff at any owner who complains about "a lack of transparency." I can only do so because of what is published in the newsletters and the various mailings. In fact, the newsletter is mailed to all offsite owners. Some board members don't get it and based on their positions about communications I am certain they never will.

We are making progress. The newsletters are now prepared and published by two board members. However, there have been other changes. Some may be more apparent in the coming months.

Anyone in our HOA should have noticed that the newsletters are usually published at the end of the publishing period. They usually contain factual articles about what occurred during that time period. We do six per year, so for example the January-February newsletter may not be published until late in February. That "six times per year" approach will probably be the minimum number of newsletters per year unless the board decides otherwise.

I have had the opinion that there are two "must" articles each month. One is by management and the other by the president. That takes up the front page. Two interior pages are reserved for the other articles on finance, landscaping, maintenance, projects & architecture, rules and welcoming. That's three articles per page. However, with the changes on the board this may no longer be the desire of the board.

In a good issue there are three or four board members as authors. With the split of Architecture & Projects from Maintenance there are now two board members actively involved in these areas and that also splits the load for these articles. Recent newsletters have had regular articles by the President. Architecture & Project, Maintenance and Treasurer. Added to that is whatever other board members feel is prudent and necessary for owners to know.

An owner might assume that no article means there is nothing important or going on by a director. That's a reasonable assumption, but it might be an inaccurate one.

For years, getting this done has been like "pulling teeth." In fact, I can state that I have spent substantial time from 2011 to 2015 hounding board members to write articles. In fact, I spent less time for the other tasks of  writing my own articles and composing, editing and sending the complete newsletter to the printer. At times it bordered on the comedic. I recall one board member argued repeatedly that "They (the owners) already know that" when we discussed the need for an article on a specific subject. Of course, we get one or more new owners every month. That same individual would also argue "It's in the rules" or "It's in the bylaws." Sure it is. That same individual would also complain "No one reads the rules or the bylaws." Okay, so where do these types of circular arguments lead one? I guess it is all about "I don't want to write an article."

The newsletter was one of the reasons I found myself spending from 450 to 700 hours "working" for this HOA. But of course, I'm not a paid employee. I'm a volunteer. I've concluded that this is what owners and some board members expected and demanded of me. But there are limits to the amount of time that can be spent in a year. That is precisely why some things didn't get done. It would be foolish to assume that more will be accomplished in 2016 with fewer on the board. It won't happen unless everyone "bellies up." Considering the history of this HOA, that is not going to happen.

At times the newsletter contained articles by as few as two or three board members. In the past, this was not obvious. One mistake I made early on was to function as a ghost writer. I thought that might "jump start" some articles. I took photos and put them in the newsletter and asked board members to "please write something." In fact, that approach never got us to the next level and so I no longer do that unless specifically asked to do so and with a really good reason. Why? Because I shouldn't  make statements for another board member. We were each elected or appointed and we each need to state what we are doing and what we will do on the board in our own words.  Making these statements is a part of being accountable and should be among the duties of a board member, shouldn't it? That's also why I suspended editing what is provided by a board member, unless I am specifically asked to do so. In the past I tweaked grammar, spelling and even addressed what I thought were factual errors. I then returned the articles to the author with my request that my changes be reviewed. Some of these things also made a difficult task more difficult and would delay the printing. Prior to printing I had an educated professional read the articles to see if they were comprehensible and made sense. But no longer.

Of course, with two preparing the newsletter we now have two sets of eyes to look for glaring issues. I think this will work fine.

These changes are only possible because the newsletter duties for some months now have been taken on by another board member. Partnership is a wonderful thing. It worked for developing the delinquency spreadsheet and it is working here. Because I take hundreds of photos of the association each month, I continue to provide the masthead photo, which is cropped and resized to keep file sizes reasonable.  I write articles and I help. My commitment to the newsletter remains unchanged, but I'm no longer the main event. We work together well and I do what I am asked to do, including editing and review.  Similarly, my articles are reviewed and we discuss them.

I will continue to pursue board members when I think their articles are critical. For example, with a hundred scars on the property, landscaping has a lot to do in the next few years. A lot of money will be spent. Owners need to know what the board is really up to in this area. But in fact, what area is not important? Landscaping, Maintenance, Architecture, Projects, Finance, Rules, and Welcoming are all important aspects of the HOA. If that were not so, why have a board position for them?

Some board members provide articles as Microsoft Word documents, some are hand written and others are text embedded in an email. It all must be formatted and fitted into the available space. That also increases the time required to do this. One never knows who will write in any given month, nor do we know the length of the article that they will provide. .

In the past, I took the position that whatever a board member wrote was what they thought was important. I was of the opinion that it was best to use what they provided verbatim. So articles were seldom if ever edited for length. I wrote articles which were formatted for the remaining available space. These are intended to be factual and educational. How does this HOA work? What are we doing? What are the priorities? What are our plans? What are the issues we face? and so on. It has been my opinion that the shareholders need to really know what is going on. In that, there has been some real disagreement among various boards and board members. I know we are all busy and I do understand that in any given month there may be no interest in preparing an article. But all it takes is about 150 words per month. How difficult can that be?

We certainly have sufficient material and ample subject matter for newsletters in an HOA as large as this one. Each HOA meeting provides additional information. All I have to do is go through my meeting notes, or owner questions during the HOA meeting or whatever else has occurred in the previous 45-60 days. I pick the most important or what I think might answer the burning questions posed by owners during HOA meetings, or explain something that has occurred.

As more board members wrote articles or lengthier ones, I trimmed mine to fit what was left. Sometimes I added more photos and at other times there were none. With the 2015 change and someone else doing most of the work of assembling and distributing the newsletter, I now provide several articles each month, in MS Word documents. These can be selected as relevant, copied and pasted into the newsletter and the others discarded or saved for a future newsletter, space permitting. They may also be edited. Some editing is always required to fit all of the other articles into the available space.

At one time I provided articles to the communications director which were of a specific word length. That is a good approach if everyone complies. But I also decided that I wanted board members to have sufficient freedom to state their piece in their own words. Of course, there are real space limitations. When the day comes and six board members write 1000 word articles, it will be a real problem. It could happen. When it does authors should expect to be asked to reduce their articles to a specific word length.

Why go through this newsletter effort? Owners should be optimistic because they are provided with facts and position statements in the newsletter. No one likes unpleasant surprises. Owners should not be blindsided by board decisions that are not published and repeated to all owners. Of course, sensitive or lengthy material can and should be mailed. A lot has been published in newsletters, but there are also glaring omissions, One thing to keep in mind is the newsletters are all published on the internet. There are some things that should be only for the shareholders who own a unit and "have skin in the game" or for residents.  The newsletters are not intended to be entertainment, or part of a social club.

I find it easy to determine what is of concern to owners. I simply listen to them. Then I respond with an article or articles. Some board members have dismissed owners and owner concerns. I get it. Writing newsletter articles requires:

1. Doing research, developing plans, making decisions and then publishing them. 
2. Making a committed statements to owners.
3. Treating owners as the shareholders they are.
4. Doing work; writing accurate and factual articles is not a simple task.
5. Being held accountable for our actions. Yes, owners may some day come to the meetings and say "You said this in the newsletter; why didn't it happen?" 
6. Taking the time to do so.