Along with the holidays, the annual meeting season is here! Many HOAs face change during this time of year as board positions become vacant and new people fill those roles. It’s always a good idea to help new board members with their transition by offering advice on how to improve your board’s communication.

As a board member, we know you want the very best for your community. We also understand that board members are often very passionate about reaching out to their community to both enact change, and strengthen social connections.

Below are five tips you can use to improve your Board’s communication in letters, reports, and minutes sent out to the community:

  • Be specific. It is tempting to add extra information for context, but homeowners only need the information that directly effects their lives. If they want more information, they’ll reach out.
  • Be brief. Homeowners are more likely to finish reading correspondence that’s kept short. Watch out for any redundancies in your writing: it’s tempting to rephrase or repeat key sentences for emphasis, but if your email is efficient enough, rehashing is rarely necessary.
  • Make it personal, but Communicating your excitement about an event, or a sympathizing with their point of view during a policy change are effective ways to personalize your correspondence. However, keep it professional: cut down on multiple exclamation marks and question marks, and resist the urge to capitalize every other word for emphasis. A good rule of thumb: if your correspondence reads more like a text than a letter, it’s not professional enough to send out.
  • Check grammar. Everyone understands that typos occasionally occur even in the best writing; however, taking 15 minutes to check spelling, punctuation (periods, commas, semicolons, colons, etc.,), and capitalization enhances the perception of professionalism.
  • Have someone else read it before sending it. Remember, it never hurts to have a second pair of eyes see something. Specific questions you can ask: does the information logically follow?  Did I stick to the point? Are you left with any questions?  Do you see any grammatical mistakes?

Improving communication between board members and homeowners can alleviate confusion and prevent misunderstandings from arising. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to get everyone on board with every event and every policy change. However, following the tips above enables board members to both improve the effectiveness of their leadership and increase the overall success of your HOA.

Fore more information or for additional questions regarding HOA management contact Spectrum Association Management today. Spectrum is one of the top HOA community management companies in Texas and Arizona.