Community Spirit: How Boards Can Get Residents Involved in Building Activities

Holiday Parties

Not everyone is a social butterfly. Many people work long hours and often want to go home, crash and be left alone while eating takeout and zoning out in front of the television. How do you, as co-op or condo board president, get even the more introverted residents to engage with neighbors and building management and staff? The last thing you want to do is make it feel like it's a tedious chore. And holiday parties are an ideal way to get everyone to break the ice — especially if all they have to do is show up.

Another way to get building residents to engage with one another is by organizing food and clothing drives and encouraging them to come together — with minimal effort on their part — to help those in need. Set up boxes in the lobby and the basement so all residents have to do is deposit cans of food or gently used clothing without having to go very far.

Consider a Rooftop Garden

Some city-dwellers like to flex the old green thumb, but apartment living often means there's no backyard in which to do so. Transforming a rooftop into a garden has the potential to not only engage resident-would-be-gardeners — and give them an opportunity to socialize with other green thumbs — but also increase the property's value. Just be sure to bring in an engineer or architect to make sure it's safe.

Also make sure you check the roof's warranty to make sure having a garden up there doesn't void it. Finally, give all unit-owners and residents the opportunity to voice any concerns they may have with the project, particularly residents who live on the top floor and may be disturbed by foot traffic up the stairs and on the roof, as well as potentially loud gardeners. Forewarned is forearmed, so consider drafting a set of rooftop garden rules, before opening the garden to residents. Don't just post them on the door to the rooftop, either; post them near the mailboxes, post them on the website, send them to all residents via e-mail and include them in the next newsletter.

A sense of community is what co-op (and sometimes condo) living is about. But as the song goes, "It don't come easy." In an impersonal city, sometimes you have to work hard just to be a good neighbor.

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