Maintaining a healthy community culture

February 15, 2023

Maintaining a healthy community culture

“I have worked with homeowners associations of all kinds, managed, un managed, condos, villas, single homes, apartments and all have one thing in common that in the long term determines if their community culture is healthy.

Some HOA problems are simple, while some are horrendous and almost criminal: problems with vendors, tyrannical boards that hold sway over homeowners through intimidation, harassment and sometimes abuse; Constitutional and civil rights taken away on a daily basis, and no recourse but an expensive attorney battle that the poor and the elderly cannot afford; association attorneys who charge unconscionable fees for just writing simple letters, and standard documents; and a judicial system that favors attorneys, rather than the homeowners because they can contribute to their re-election contributions.”

In my years of working with homeowner associations those words resonated with an undeniable truth: That residents live in a associations that are not healthy.

Any sense of community, any understanding of association issues, any proactive communication programs that heal such frustration are probably missing from those community associations.

For those communities turning that perception around is not going to be easy, but if associations are to become healthy, then it is going to take a leadership effort that is focused on communication.

Not every homeowner holds such contemptuous opinions of their association, their board of directors or their business partners, but such opinions exist and cause numerous problems for everyone involved.

The common denominator of such opinions is usually a vacuum of information, education and communication options provided in the management of the association.

However, that does not mean blame be placed on the manager. Managers are the representatives of the management company (or employees of the association) and there are many, many management companies that do not place the importance upon proactive communication that it deserves, especially in this era of information-sharing and internet proclivity when it can be so easily embraced.

If the management company does not stress communication then the manager will not, and the board members, who ultimately make the management decisions of the association, must either figure it out for themselves, or operate in a communication vacuum – which produces homeowners with opinions similar to the one stated in the Letter to the Editor.

It is no coincidence that those managers and management companies that provide, support, and encourage the use of communication tools find themselves managing healthy associations and strong communities. When homeowners and residents understand the issues and decisions that surround board decisions, the fact is that they are more likely to support and participate in those decisions. Communication is the tool that provides that understanding. Communication creates transparency and transparency creates understanding.

Without an effective pro-active communication program in place, the only real correspondence received by association homeowners can be divided into three categories:

1. Requests for money (i.e., monthly statements, past due notices, special assessment notices)

2. Letters of non-compliance

3. Legally mandated notices

It’s no wonder that homeowners have such negative perceptions about their association, their board of directors and their management company if the only correspondences received from them are mostly financial or punitive in nature. Left to those perceptions, homeowners are less likely to support or participate in any association-related matters and are more likely to aggressively look for issues to reinforce that perception. It is human nature to want to be right and if you think back on the perceptions you have had about people you’ve known but initially did not think very highly of, or businesses that

you have had bad experiences with, didn’t you look for further examples of their bad behavior or lousy service to back up your negative feelings about them? We all do it to one extent or another. Without any communicative experiences to the contrary, negative perceptions continue to grow and become harder and harder to change. A lack of communication ultimately leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of discontent and negativity.

For community associations, those feelings can result in an unwillingness to get involved in association issues, rebellion against association authority and lack of support for board decisions and management directives. In addition, association committees sit without volunteers, community rules are habitually ignored and owners often begin any one-onone communication between board or management with a combative demeanor. Is it any wonder no one wants to serve on the board of directors or that community association managers suffer from higher than normal rates of professional burnout?

Change the way people think about something through communication and eventually the thing itself changes. Change the way people think about their community association through communication and eventually the association becomes something much more than just a collector of assessments and punisher of the wrongdoer. It becomes a collection of families working together to create a better community. A community that is safe, supportive and protects the investment they made in it. For community association leadership, that association becomes easier to manage.

If owners perceive their board of directors to be self-serving tyrants who could care less about the common good of the community, then how does one go about changing that perception? By doing nothing? Hardly. If the root of the problem truly lies in a lack of communication then the solution is to embrace effective two-way communication between owners, board and management.

Today’s technology provides the community association with many very effective communication tools: newsletters, email, web sites.

However, are they used effectively? Often they are not.

Even though the effective use of websites and newsletters can solve a majority of association management ills, many sites are infrequently updated and newsletters seldom sent out. Why?

The most common reasons are money and time.

Who has time to publish a newsletter?

Certainly, not the Association Manager. Chances are they have a portfolio with an average of 5 and 12 associations to manage and all their time is spent trying to keep their heads above water.

Board Members? Not likely. They are already devoting enough free time to performing their board duties, in addition to any committees that they may chair or be members of.

Volunteers? Hardly. The challenge with community volunteers is that although they may be gung-ho about their task at the outset, after a few months they realize that it is taking more time than they anticipated, it is a relatively thankless job, and having to meet deadlines creates more stress than they need.

Community websites are a great way to disseminate information and provide various tools for increasing communication, but who has time to keep them updated and relevant? The same argument about a lack of time for newsletters can be used for websites. However, the problem (time) is also the solution. If you want to create more time to communicate, you have to start communicating! By moving from traditional websites to Web Apps you will have access to tools that will promote communications.

One of the greatest misconceptions about association leaders/managers/staff devoting time to providing effective communication tools (newsletters/websites) to community members is that it is time that needs to be spent doing more immediate tasks. Often those tasks are “putting out fires” that come up on a daily basis: phone calls from owners to complain about tree trimming, loud noise, dog poop, late fees applied to their account, etc. The time dealing with those issues on a daily basis runs into the time needed to do more proactive tasks: writing newsletter articles, preparing board packets, soliciting service bids, conducting property inspections, coordinating vendors. The result is not enough time in the day TO JUST DO THE JOB. Where is the extra time going to come from to put together a newsletter or update a website?

If nothing else, please remember this: Increasing time spent in communication-related tasks will create more time in your day to devote to proactive duties and reduce the amount of time you spend performing reactive tasks (putting out fires). A simple rule of thumb is this: reactive behavior usually results in CONSEQUENCES, while proactive behavior results in REWARDS.

If owners are informed about upcoming maintenance projects, such as tree trimming, then concerns can be dealt with prior to the beginning of the project and owners will not call to complain after trimming has begun. When community rules and policies are explained and reinforced in newsletters and available on websites, more owners will comply with them. Those that don’t will be reported to management because other owners understand the association’s violation reporting procedures that were also explained and reinforced.

Again, the result is a reduction in complaint calls to management because there are more informed residents. Less time spent being reactive (consequences) means more time that can be spent being proactive (rewards). But why create a distinction between proactive and reactive time when there is just not enough of time of any nature on any given day for the manager? Because the time being spent doing reactive tasks could have been reduced if there were more time spent on

proactive tasks…specifically communication-related tasks.

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