The best condominium corporations inform and unite their owners with regular in-house newsletters. These newsletters don't need to be fancy to communicate effectively between the Board of Directors and the owners to explain Board decisions, alert owners to pending projects, and invite participation on the Board and in volunteer clean-up projects.
Simply put, condominium newsletters create a sense of belonging. Some go so far as to recognize owners' birthdays and welcome newcomers by name, while others stick to the business of the corporation. Either way, a condominium apartment building or townhouse development is well served if its Board puts out a regular newsletter to communicate with all of the owners.
Writing, of course, is not a committee function. It's best if one person has authority to write newsletters, perhaps running them past the Board Chair before these are printed and posted in the mail room, slid under doors, and e-mailed to off-site owners. Newsletters should also be posted to the condo corporation's own web site, which if it doesn't yet have, it should create. That web site should also post all the condominium documents that owners need for sale. For Boards that can't face the task of providing that service, my own web site offers to host all condominium documents at no charge.
While fancy layouts and photos in a newsletter are great, most condo owners are perfectly happy with a single-sheet typed newsletter that lets them know what's going on with the administration of their homes, with the finances, and with any issues such as enforcement of Bylaws on a disruptive owner or tenant or an owner.
Here's a list of topics a newsletter should cover:
*Scheduled maintenance, such as parking lot and garage spring sweeping and window cleaning.
*Planned future major projects that will be disruptive, such as an elevator upgrade.
*The corporation's cash situation, both in the operating fund and reserve fund.
*Early notice of changes to the monthly condo contributions and very early (one year's notice?) of a planned special assessment.
*A summary (without names or suite numbers) of any arrears and actions taken to collect them.
*Advance notice of the annual meeting of owners and of any social event.
*Calls for volunteers to serve on the Board and to help with clean-up projects.
*Reminders of Bylaw rules, such as those prohibiting storage on balconies and in parking stalls.
*Reminders to carry adequate insurance, to close laundry water shut-offs between washes, and to close windows and doors in winter to avoid frozen pipes.
*Reminders of the management company's phone number and the assigned Property Manager's name.
Whether regularly scheduled or published whenever there's some news fit to print, a newsletter is an important in-house communication tool for every condominium corporation.
Calgary Condominium Directory
