January 2023

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SOCIAL MEDIA... from page 33.

where residents can communicate with the board, manage ment, and fellow residents in a two-way dialogue. The risk, of course, is that the forum turns into a complaint forum, or worse. In our experience, allowing a back-and-forth only works if someone, on behalf of the association, can moni tor and regulate the content, so it does not become unduly negative or inappropriate. Finally, one last word about blast email groups. Before the availability of TownSq and the like, managers would typically create email groups of the owners within a man aged community. In our experience, these should no lon ger be utilized, for several reasons, as follows: 1. Creating this alternative to the main platform, in our case TownSq, disincentivizes owners to register for the official association platform; 2. Maintaining accurate email addresses can be a nev er-ending challenge, as owners come and go or change emails; and 3. TownSq, or its comparable, creates a history accessible to all with access, rather than having to search an email group on an individual manager’s email server. So much has changed, but despite this new technology, the key to association communications continues to be to communicate timely, completely, and honestly. ◼

6. Restricted access portals, available only to the board or authorized committees, containing confidential informa tion, such as contracts, monthly financials, bids, etc. Since not everyone is comfortable with this technology, we offer quarterly training for both the boards and residents within our managed communities on how to effectively uti lize the platform and get the most out of it. Since we strive to make TownSq the go-to place for information, we need to educate owners on how to use it and make it easy and valuable. And the results are not always predictable. Our largest community is age-restricted, and also has the high est percentage of TownSq registration, at approximately 95%. When I asked the community manager how that is, she advised that she tells the residents, if you want to know where the snowplow is, you must be on TownSq. One not-so-easy question is whether these association communication platforms should also include a forum,

“One not-so-easy question is whether these association communication platforms should also include a forum...”

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