BUILDING CO-OP WEBSITES

Vodopia, who is with with Metro Management Development, was dismayed by her initial search. Most of the website developers she talked with were expensive, and the co-op websites that were on the Internet seemed dated almost as soon as they were put online.

After looking at "build your own website" options at Google, Go Daddy, Yahoo and Homestead, Vodopia settled on Homestead as the best option. The software package was straightforward, the cost was reasonable — $330 for maintaining the site for each two-year period — and uploading the documents was easy. Facts in hand, Vodopia pitched the board president, Carol Sorensen. If the board members gave the property manager their blessing, she would be happy to take responsibility for all matters concerning the website.

Pleased and relieved, Sorensen gave Vodopia the green light and the pieces began to fall into place. That was two years ago. Today, Hyde Park Gardens has a tidy, timely presence on the web.  Anyone can learn just about anything one needs to know about the co-op:

• house rules
• shareholder responsibilities
• floor plans
• service notices
• sublet policy
• alteration agreements, and
• move in/move out regulations.

Its most popular component may be the monthly newsletter. which Sorensen and Vodopia jointly update. The board members considered and ultimately rejected several other options, however, such as

• being able to contact board members by e-mail
• putting up the co-op's financials, and
• using the website to allow residents to pay their maintenance online.

Primarily, the website "is a means of communicating with the shareholders," Sorensen says, but it also contains "what people would need to see if they were looking to buy." While, "We would love to be interactive," Sorensen says, the board had to place some limits. "For years, the board members wanted a website. Our only hesitation was, if the co-op doesn't keep up with them, then they are out of date [quickly]." As time goes on, it may be expanded, she says.

152 West 58th Street

The board members of 152 West 58th Street in Manhattan feel that less information is more, at least online. Since 2003, when the co-op's website first went up, the idea was to give residents a place to go if they had questions about the building but not give out too much information that the board could become liable for, explains board president Carl Tait.

"There's no financial information — we discussed this at some length. There are floor plans, but no dimensions. We have a lawyer on the board, and he said you really don't want to be in a position of claiming a room is at a certain size unless you measure it yourself."

Tait, who designed the website, acknowledges that it has a very "nuts and bolts" aspect, but that the board simply initially wanted a web presence and he was happy to comply. With his Verizon service, he had 10 megabytes of server space to use, so he bought the building's domain name at Go Daddy, and went from there.

The website includes a history of the building, some past notable residents (including Sherman Billingsley, the owner of the legendary Stork Club), the proprietary lease, bylaws and house rules, hours of the laundry room, and refinancing information. In the future, he hopes to put up the alteration and decorating agreements, as well as the purchase application. No annual meeting minutes will go up on the website, though any shareholder who wants a copy can get one from the management company, Matthew Adam Management.

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