The cloud-based property management system we use at Onyx Capital Management gets rave reviews for ease of use by board members and homeowners who login to pay monthly dues appreciate the many features it has to offer.
Of these features, as administrators, we have the option to offer social media for HOAs in the form of a community bulletin board system. One that allows all members to post and respond to messages and announcements in a closed environment. The interaction is also backed up by email/text messaging that members can opt in and out of.
In theory, a controlled bulletin board is an ideal to protect the integrity of the community and communications amongst neighbors, but we’re talking about HOAs; with all their glory comes all the nightmares often read about.
One flourishing community of ours thought the bulletin board system was better than using Facebook or another social media account. This community’s original Facebook group page was abandoned when the homeowner-creator of the group sold his unit without leaving a successor to administer the Facebook account.
There is a point to this blog, we swear!
The first month, the bulletin board worked as hoped. Board members would post topics and neighbors would chime in. Some would start their own posts about recipes and gardening. It was great, until there was an incident that stood to divide this quiet community. A war of words ensued, back and forth, for days. When it looked like the last word was had, another neighbor would voice his opinion and start the whole debate up again. It was unconducive and the board members voted to shut the system down instead of allowing the discord to continue. This decision was also divisive, as some felt it was censorship.
The fact is, when that bulletin board came online, it immediately became a new frontier for Homeowner Associations; a digital common area requiring its own set of rules, regulations, and fines. The flaw in that plan is that the software did not have a mechanism in place to “ban” unruly or members who have fallen into arrears, those who would normally lose access to common area privileges.
The community conflict we spoke of began when a board member used “the incident” to remind the community of certain rules, and to urge considerate neighborly behavior, without calling anyone out by name, but the details of the incident was rapidly spreading, causing the member in question to take to the bulletin board to defend himself. Foresight did not serve our board member in this story and an error was made against better judgement. Instead of solving a problem, a bigger problem was created.
To this day, we have not suggested this software add-on to other communities as it has the ability to be more trouble than it's worth. We're hoping that the app's creator will include some safeguards in future upgrades. Perhaps then, we will give it another go.
We would love to hear your experiences regarding open forums for your community. Does your community use Facebook groups or Nextdoor to assemble? What challenges and solutions, if any, have you discovered?
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