Ask Habitat: How Can My Board Best Communicate with Residents?

HABITAT ANSWERS: There's an old saying, "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing." One shareholder can hear half a conversation between board members, and the next thing you know, there are ad hoc meetings in the lobby and everyone thinks the building is being torn down.

There are right ways to communicate with shareholders and unit-owners, and there are wrong ways. A good board believes in delivering information — but there should be limits. No one's personal financial information or other such personally identifying data should be disseminated to residents, nor should details of legal decisions — although it's perfectly appropriate to let residents know if the co-op or condo is facing a lawsuit, for example, or that the board is addressing a contractor dispute. "Is addressing" acknowledges what a resident needs to know while divulging no legal details.

Web Sight

A building website is one way of keeping communication open and on track. Other ways include e-mail and paper notices. For those residents who don't use e-mail, the board can send out notices with the monthly maintenance bill, alerting all shareholders to any forthcoming project or pressing issue.

And if shareholders are clamoring for a formal newsletter, the board should put out an open call for shareholders to work on it. One board member could meet with the shareholder committee once a month and fill them in on what's going on in the building, and the committee would be responsible for putting together and disseminating the newsletter.

Not having a newsletter doesn't mean, however, that shareholders don't know what's going on in the building. They can reach the board or the management company at the building's e-mail address, and those shareholders who have provided the board with their e-mails generally are kept up-to-date on all the public projects in the building.

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