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We are a 200 family garden apartment complex sitting on almost 14 acres of land. One of our shareholders is requesting to have the Corporation's maintenance personnel do a door to door distribution, during regular working hours, at Corporate expense, of a newsletter put out by a non profit group. The shareholder in question is of course involved with this particular organization.
In the past we have been reluctant to allow the distribution for the following reasons:
*The co-op has no affiliation with this group.
*The newsletter contains advertising. It might appear that the board is endorsing those businesses or services.
*There is also concern that shareholders may perceive the board as being responsible for or endorsing the newsletter's content.
*Many of our shareholders are involved in different organizations. Where do we draw the line on this type of distribution? How do we grant one request and refuse another?
*These various groups do of course have the right to distribute any materials at their own expense or using volunteer labor.
Taking all the above into consideration, do you feel these distributions using Corporate personnel should be permitted and does your co-op/condo have a policy concerning this type of activity?
Thanks in advance for your input.
SaL is absolutely correct and your reasons for hesitating are also correct. You should not use corporate personnel to distribute any form of solicitation or communication that is not corporate business coming directly from the board or managing agent. We take it one step further with a policy in our house rules prohibiting solicitation of any kind in our common areas or door-to-door. Bottom line...you should not grant ANY of those requests, no exceptions.
We were confronted with the same problem.
And advised by our M/A company -- that if we allow one, we have to allow all. Therefore, we incerted in the house rules, that the Coop Board will not approve of, and the staff will not assist in the distribution of pamplants/advertisments/or announcments. Also, these materials cannot be left in the lobby.
We do have a Board in the Laundry room, on which S/H can post announcments etc....without restriction.
We have a prively published S/H Newsletter, which has noting to do with the Board and is sent out by Email.
We notified all Shareholders of this new House Rule, and this resolved the problem.
VP
We only distribute to shareholders on co-op letterhead that information which is pertinent to the operation of the building, e.g.: Board actions, financials, health, security, operational notices, water shut down, pool operations, health club membership, cable TV bulk rate changes and safety. Some letters are only sent after counsel reviews the contents. Note there may be a semantic challenge but bear with me.
All our letters are just that, letters to shareholders in the strictest sense. There is no chatty "news". There's no advertising. There's no real; estate news. There's no news of shops opening or closing in the neighborhood.
Bottom line, there are no "newsy" newsletters. There are no contributing articles by anyone. There are no letters to the board.
There is absolutely no distribution of election material. Incumbents and candidates must employ the USPS. Nothing may be posted anywhere, nothing may be distributed under any door.
But do note that all distribution of the shareholder information letters is via maintenance staff under the door to save postage.
Residents may not distribute anything under the door at any time. Residents may not place a letter even to one other resident under any door
The Board, per the by-laws, sends the annual meeting and election of board members notice via US mail. This is the only "notice" via USPS. The required 1099s for taxes and any interest expense (we have no underlying mortgage anymore) are also sent via USPS.
Local merchants are banned from in-house delivery if they distribute materials onto any resident's door or the mail room. If a merchant is banned, the resident must come down to the doorman to pick up food and other deliveries. Word gets around and we have nil distribution of flyers anywhere.
Very important consideration: by not making any exceptions of any type at any time, our actions are entirely defensible. There is no precedence of exceptions for anyone to seek an exception. This sure eliminates much rhetoric and debate.
http://www.condolawnetwork.com/twin_rivers_NJ_Supreme_Court_decision_reasonable_restriction_individual_rights_affirmed_condolawnetwork.html
And you can search the Internet for even more details.
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We have a similar situation and our policy is simple: Employees of the corporation must dedicate their "company time" to the building exclusively. No exceptions.
Our newsletter is delivered by email only or can be picked up at the community bulletin board.
I suggest you stay away from endorsing those newsletter that advertise other businesses. I would even go as far as making sure that the shareholders understand that the corporation and the board of directors DO NOT ENDORSE any company advertised on the newsletter or the community bulletin board.
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