Creating a New HOA Forum - advice needed?

Hello all,

I took some advice here and was elected to the "advisory committee" which is the powerless term for our BOD. The official definition of the Advisory Committee Members is to be a "liaison" for the other homeowners. The developer of our community still holds majority vote and all of the power until he sells his last lot. Until that time we are bound by his wishes. Our CC&R's were open ended with the future creation of the Homeowner's Manual which can be modified at any time without the cooperation or approval of the homeowners. The Advisory is comprised of 7 members, 4 of which are on the payroll of the developer and the developer can mandate certain changes or veto any that are made.

I am creating a new neighborhood forum to allow for free communication between homeowners. Unfortunately I am not so sure of the reception I will receive from the powers that be. I brought the issue up over a year ago when I had created an eGroup and wanted to get a note in the newsletter, I had to jump through several hoops and then it was put off because of a change in management companies. After being elected to the AC I brought it up in one of the meetings as possible resolution the the volatile interactions that occurred during the meeting in which I was elected. The PM said he would like to create one in which members could link through his site. I said okay and dropped the issue but six months later there is still nothing and so I created my own.

How can I keep free communication available to and with the homeowners without alienating the rest of the AC? I feel that the developer's interest are being served bypassing what the homeowners want and clearly need (such as adequate drainage, etc.).

Does anyone have some suggestions for me?

Hi Marlo:

There is a service called SurveyMonkey that works really well. You would need to have the folks log on - preferably with some identifier, so that the survey doesn't get overloaded from people logging on multiple times, etc. That way, you could survey people about the issues that were volatile at the AC election meeting, without having them vent their spleen at a particular person (unless they would like to do it online...).

It would seem that it would be to the developer's advantage to provide adequate drainage and deal with homeowner problems that could relate back to the builder's responsibility/negligence, rather than wait for a lawsuit to force the issues.

Another option: consider suggesting to the builder (if he's getting close to build-out) that he could give architectural approval to whatever he chooses to build on the rest of the Lots, and turn the HOA over to the owners and avoid some of the aggravation that he seems to be drawing to himself...

Best of luck!

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA

Hi Marlo -

I know Bridge Tower! I'm just a couple miles away from you in Baldwin Park. Nice to see somebody else from the area on the HOAtalk site.

I recently redesigned our neighborhood website (http://www.baldwinparkhoa.net) and added user forums in the members-only area. It's only been 'live' for a couple days now and there haven't been any forum posts yet, so I can't really say how popular it will be. I've tried to get communications going in the past through a neighborhood email list, but that only had limited success. Unfortunately not everyone agrees about the usefulness of Internet communications.

I wouldn't worry too much about the comments from the PM. He probably just prefers that homeowners use the space that he provides on his website. You should probably be more interested in talking to the Board (even if it is still the developer) to work with them in developing a neighborhood website. I set ours up when the developer was still in control, and they were very cooperative when it came to making information available. You can of course go completely off on your own, but it would be much better if you had the 'blessing' of the Board.

Feel free to contact me through the 'Contact Us' page on the website (use the Website Feedback category).