Communicating within your neighborhood

I'm curious about how other neighborhoods communicate and get important information out to their members.

We have a webpage and a message forum and therefore have decided at this time not to have a newsletter. The thinking is, most houses have access to the Internet connection, or it is easy for neighbors to get access via other means (at their office, the library and so forth).

However, there are time when paper is necessary. We have done our share of flyer drops which we have found to be ineffective since they usually look like junk and can easily fly away (technically you're not supposed to put that stuff in people's mailboxes).

I did find a way to do inexpensive Postal mailings through Postedigital with the US Post Office (http://tinyurl.com/d3ugb). I've done postcard mailings and bulk mail flyers with that service. We now have about 220 households in our subdivision and even with the postcard option and bulk mail, that cost can add up, so we must be choosy when we decide to go that route.

What works best for you for getting information out to your neighbors?

I agree with the fact a newsletter is necessary to reach people who don't have Internet access. However, how timely is your newsletter info by the time it hits people's mailboxes? Is the news still plenty fresh between your deadline for articles and distribution? That is the one problem I've heard about newsletters although I don't have any first hand experience since we don't do one.

By your previous post, I am assuming your newsletter is Postal mailed. Do you do bulk or first class? If bulk, do you have a bulk mailing permit? Any secrets you care to share about bringing down the costs of a Postal mailing?

We have 300 homes.

We also have a website with email contact, but not a forum. We mail our newsletters about 4 times per year via first class mail. They are always in an envelope with our logo ont he corner.

We time the mailings so that they include other important things (dues, annual election info, election results,etc)

The Board has ideas, gets idea submissions, other important info. I personally write, copy, stuff, label, send the newsletters. Once you get into a grrove it's not that hard.

We considered bulk mail. But there is a minimum you need to send, the cost of the permit stamp, the yearly fee. Unless you send many pieces every year it's not worth it.

Lisa

We have a quarterly newsletter and a web site complete with forums.
When we have information that we want everyone to see, we post it on the mailboxes. In our case, we have 164 town and patio homes divided into 10 courtyards.
The postings are on colored paper put in a sheet protector. It's a quich easy way to get a message out to everyone while they are at their mailbox.
Jim