HOAs

Board Member, HOAs

Transforming HOA Meetings with Organized Agendas

Board meetings can sometimes be a cause of stress for HOA members. It might be that your meetings seem disorderly, too much time is allocated to minor issues, or it just feels like nothing gets accomplished, resulting in lost time. If these scenarios sound familiar, it might be time to revisit your HOA board meeting agenda. Recognizing this problem underscores the necessity of well-structured HOA board meeting agendas. These agendas act as a guide, directing discussions, prioritizing tasks, and fostering transparency within the community. In this piece, we\’ll explore the significance of well-structured agendas, emphasizing their role in accelerating decision-making, empowering board members, and ultimately elevating the satisfaction level within the HOA.

Why is an agenda important for HOA board meetings?

Having a framework to follow when preparing for your board meetings is beneficial. In fact, it has the potential to alleviate many of the issues you are experiencing with board meetings, such as spending too much time on a particular topic or discussions that go out of hand. Let\’s explore how an organized agenda can benefit your meetings.

1. Preparation

One of the main reasons why HOA board members should always have an organized agenda is to make preparation easier. With a well-structured agenda, board members can research important information they need during the meeting and developing their viewpoints ahead of time. This preparation allows members to contribute meaningfully to the conversations, ask well-informed questions, and provide practical solutions. Furthermore, thorough preparation develops a feeling of ownership and accountability among board members, who arrive at the meeting ready to fully participate.

2. Focus and Direction

According to studies, 39% of time in meetings are spent on items that are not on the agenda, leading to wasted time. An agenda acts as a compass, giving focus and direction to HOA board meetings. Agendas helps to keep meetings on track by specifying topics you need to discuss and establishing a timeline. Furthermore, the agenda allows board members to keep control of the meeting by gently bringing topics back on course if they deviate.

3. Efficiency

By providing a planned framework for discussion, the agenda ensures that meeting time is spent wisely and productively. Predetermined time restrictions for each agenda item keep conversations focused and on track, avoiding tangents and unnecessary delays. Board members can prioritize items based on their significance and relation to the HOA\’s goals, allowing for more effective use of time and resources.

4. Transparency

An agenda promotes transparency by distributing it to all members, including homeowners before the meeting. Everyone is aware of the issues that you need to discuss, eliminating surprises and allowing for proper preparation or attendance if preferred.

5. Accountability

Finally, the agenda promotes accountability among HOA members. The agenda establishes responsibility by clearly detailing the issues that need to be discussed and the decisions that need to be made. Furthermore, the agenda is a written record of discussions and decisions, keeping everyone accountable for their actions.

What makes a solid board meeting agenda?

It\’s useful to have a defined framework to refer to while restructuring and updating your regular board meeting agenda. In reality, it can efficiently solve many issues raised at board meetings. Aside from the basic data, such as the meeting time, date, and place, several essential items must be included in your HOA board meeting agenda.

These components include the following:

1. An Outline of the Agenda

Begin by identifying the critical topics for discussion at the meeting. Ensure that these themes align with your community board\’s goals and responsibilities. Next, rank these agenda items based on importance, allocating appropriate time blocks for each item to promote thorough consideration.

2. Communicate Expectations to Staff

Effectively communicate the meeting\’s objectives and expected outcomes to all members. This clarity promotes a focused mentality and ensures that members understand the importance of their contribution. Furthermore, it encourages members to participate.

3. Distribute the Agenda in Advance

Once the agenda has been created, it must be provided to all board members and residents before the meeting. This gives them time to review the issues, acquire necessary data, and prepare any presentations or reports required.

4. Set Clear Expectations

Define the expected level of involvement among staff members during the meeting. Inform them whether they will be expected to offer updates, engage in conversations, or give presentations on certain topics.

5. Follow Up After the Meeting

Finally, plan to follow up with the community after the board meeting. After the meeting, work with your community managers and other board members to create a list of the meeting action items, decisions made, and who is responsible for taking the next step on each task. Provide comments on individual contributions and acknowledge staff members\’ efforts to prepare for and actively participate in the meeting.

How to Communicate about Follow-up Tasks from the Board Meeting

Effective communication is the foundation of good governance. Following a successful board meeting, clear and effective communication on follow-up duties is critical. This communication not only enforces responsibility but also promotes community cohesiveness and growth. Below are some of the ways to communicate about follow-up from the board meeting:

1. Document Action Items

Assign a specific person to organize action items and decisions during the meeting to improve communication. Create a detailed list of action items, including precise tasks, timeframes, and responsible parties.

2. Send Out Meeting Minutes

Next, you can send out meeting minutes to members. Meeting minutes should be distributed as soon as possible following a board meeting to provide accountability within a HOA. To promote successful communication, minutes should be precise, short, and well-organized, emphasizing major issues, resolutions, and responsibilities.

3. Clarify Responsibilities

Clarifying roles is critical to ensuring proper follow-up after a board meeting. Begin by describing each individual’s allocated duties, including their responsibilities, expected outputs, and timeframes. Provide thorough instructions and resources as needed to assist in job completion. Communicate any dependencies or partnerships necessary to complete the job effectively.

4. Set Reminders

Setting reminders is essential for keeping everyone on track with follow-up duties following a board meeting. Use digital tools like calendars, task management applications, and email reminders to notify team members of forthcoming deadlines and work statuses. Customize reminders depending on their urgency and significance to guarantee that tasks are completed on time. This proactive strategy helps reduce missed deadlines while promoting team accountability and productivity.

5. Document Progress

Documenting progress on follow-up activities after a board meeting is critical for monitoring accomplishments and detecting possible issues. Maintain a centralized system or document that allows team members to update their task statuses routinely. Include information such as task completion, problems faced, and resolutions.

6. Review and Follow Up

After allocating responsibilities following the board meeting, organize frequent reviews to identify progress and handle any challenges that may arise. Hold follow-up meetings or check-ins to review task statuses, challenges, and necessary revisions. In addition, open discussion and criticism should be encouraged throughout these reviews to foster teamwork and successfully resolve any issues. Regular follow-up and progress reviews keep activities on track and promote a feeling of accountability and collaboration within the community.

How to Leverage a Task Management System for Board Meeting Action Items

Effectively handling action items that are created from a board meeting is essential to community operations. Using a task management system enables you to track action items and keep everyone informed of outcomes.

1. Centralized Task Management

One of the greatest benefits of having this system is the centralized task management. Task management software organizes and tracks all action items and tasks in one place. This removes the need for many spreadsheets or email threads, simplifying the follow-up process. With Pilera’s task management tool, you can streamline all your work into one accessible location. This includes any comments, files, and email replies connected to your tasks. To ensure a smooth board meeting, you can set up a custom category just for board meeting agenda items and then apply this filter on your dashboard for easy viewing. This will provide you with a comprehensive list of all tasks you wish to address during the board meeting.

2. Accountability

Task management software allows you to assign specific tasks to people or teams while clearly defining responsibility and ownership. This ensures that each action item has a designated responsible person who is held accountable for its completion. With Pilera’s task management feature, you can assign tasks to other fellow board members or to your community managers. When they are assigned a task, they will receive an email notification automatically keeping them informed.

3. Setting Deadlines and Prioritization

Pilera’s task management system lets you set deadlines for each work and rank them according to their urgency or relevance. This capability guarantees that the follow-up process runs smoothly and that crucial action items are addressed immediately. Setting deadlines and prioritizing activities inside the program creates an organized workflow that maximizes productivity and prevents critical tasks from falling.

4. Collaboration and Communication

If you\’re planning to communicate or collaborate online, a task management system is a perfect solution. The system includes collaboration and communication capabilities, including commenting, file sharing, and real-time updates. By centralizing communication, you can minimize miscommunication, speed up workflows, and promote a more coherent and coordinated approach to follow-up actions. Furthermore, real-time updates guarantee that you are always informed of the most recent developments and adjust work accordingly. Through Pilera, board members and managers can communicate directly on the task itself. The comments section enables board members and managers to share updates and notify each other through email.

5. Visibility and Transparency

Transparency and visibility are vital in community management. Task management software provides visibility into each task status, allowing board members and managers to track progress, identify bottlenecks, and guarantee follow-up activities completion. This openness encourages accountability within the team since everyone can see who is in charge of each work and follow its progress from start to finish. With comprehensive insight into task statuses, you can interact more efficiently, make informed decisions, and remain on track with project timeframes and objectives. Pilera’s task management system tracks every action taken on a task, including status updates, file attachment updates (when files were added and removed), comments, and email replies on a ticket.

Watch Video: Tasks, ACRs & Violations Management

Transforming HOA Meetings with Organized Agendas

An organized agenda is the cornerstone of efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness within homeowner associations. Think of it as the guiding light for productive discussions and informed decisions, pinpointing issues and setting priorities. It not only encourages planning and accountability among board members but also streamlines meetings, boosts community participation, nurtures trust, and ensures alignment with the HOA\’s mission and values.

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, operations, client support, engagement, and voting. Book a personalized demo to learn how Pilera can help improve efficiency and reduce costs.

HOAs

10 Sustainability Tips for Eco-Friendly HOA Communities

Safeguarding our environment and promoting sustainability is vital to a thriving community. As a board member or HOA manager, you have numerous opportunities to contribute to environmental protection and enhance your community’s progress. Moreover, adopting sustainable construction and management techniques may reduce your carbon impact, boost your community’s finances, and heighten its aesthetic appeal. In the lead-up to Earth Day, which falls on April 22nd, we’re offering suggestions that can positively impact both your community and our planet. These valuable insights will empower you to resist practices that harm the environment.

Table of Contents:

Why should HOA communities care about sustainability
Ways to promote sustainability in your communities
How to get communities excited about sustainability initiatives
How to leverage technology in your sustainability efforts

Why should HOA communities care about sustainability?

As communities grow more conscious of their environmental effect, Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs) play an increasingly important role in promoting environmentally friendly practices. Above all, a dedication to a sustainable environment adds to a greener neighborhood and has other environmental and community-wide advantages. Therefore, let’s discuss some of the reasons why we should care about sustainability in our community:

Environmental Conservation

One of the primary reasons for adopting sustainable practices in HOA sustainability is the promotion of Environmental Conservation. Imagine an environment where every community proactively tries to reduce waste, save energy, and preserve wildlife. This joint effort protects our planet for future generations and leads to a better and more sustainable way of life for all of us. Every step toward sustainability is essential, from small measures like recycling and lowering water use to significant projects like integrating renewable energy sources and supporting eco-friendly transportation. These efforts benefit the environment and enhance the quality of life in your community.

Cost Savings

Contrary to popular belief, sustainable practices are not necessarily expensive; they can be relatively cost-effective. Communities that employ water-efficient measures, for example, can save significantly on their water bills and minimize the usage of chemicals, leading to cheaper maintenance expenses. Furthermore, investing in sustainability can help avoid costly environmental cleanup work in the future, thereby saving the community money in the long run.

Health and Well-being

In sustainable communities, people\’s health and well-being are prioritized. These communities stress amenities such as access to green areas, clean air, and safe, walkable neighborhoods, all contributing considerably to a great quality of life. Therefore, sustainable communities not only thrive environmentally but also promote the well-being of their citizens, resulting in livable areas for future generations.

Overcome Disruptions

Sustainable communities are environmentally friendly and better equipped to deal with and overcome environmental difficulties and unforeseen disruptions. By being adaptable, communities can improve their ability to recover from disruptions and ensure the continuous supply of essential services.

Community Engagement

Caring about and promoting HOA sustainability initiatives can improve community engagement. Sustainability efforts are not only about conserving the environment. They are also effective ways to bring the community together. These projects allow homeowners to interact, connect, and achieve common goals.

Enhanced Property Values

Living in a sustainable community is a wise investment in your property\’s worth. With green amenities and sustainable infrastructure, these conscious neighborhoods are highly desirable locations to live, work, and invest. Therefore, prioritizing sustainability benefits the environment and makes good financial sense. It\’s a win-win situation for both your wallet and the environment.

Aesthetic Appeal

Some may be concerned that adopting sustainable practices may reduce the visual attractiveness of an HOA neighborhood. However, HOA sustainability may be just as visually appealing as traditional ways. Thoughtful design, inventive plant selection, and well-kept green spaces can improve the appearance of an HOA community while adhering to eco-friendly practices.

Ways to promote sustainability in your communities

Implementing sustainability efforts in your community doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort, and money, but it\’s worthwhile. Let\’s discuss some of the tips and ways to promote sustainability in your communities:

1) Encourage Community Cleanup Events

Despite our best efforts to keep our streets, parks, and beaches clean, garbage is common. But instead of shaking our heads in dismay, there are many ways to take action. Gather your community and plan a cleanup day at a local park, riverfront, roadway, or other location in need. Not only will you remove the eyesores, but you will also help the environment.

2) Plant a Community Garden

Community gardens encourage local food production and foster a strong community spirit. Planting and nurturing a communal garden allows neighbors to bond over their passion for gardening, exchange ideas, and enjoy the fruits of their labor together. It\’s an excellent way to build stronger community bonds while conserving the environment.

3) Set up a Composting Program

Composting is like magic for the environment. It converts food scraps, yard clippings, and other organic debris into nutrient-rich soil that plants adore. Establishing a communal composting program can engage everyone and make a meaningful difference. Furthermore, composting together will create a greener, more sustainable community that benefits everyone.

4) Promote Energy Efficiency Initiatives

One of the simplest methods to promote sustainability is to minimize energy use in your community. Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, shutting off lights when not in use, and adjusting thermostats to the correct temperature are all simple ways to reduce energy use. Encourage your community to adopt these strategies to minimize energy use and save money on electricity bills.

5) Promote Water Conservation

Water conservation is a critical part of environmental sustainability. Encourage your HOA community to save water by repairing leaks, installing low-flow faucets, and maintaining sprinkler systems. In addition, encourage your community to adapt to drought-resistant and native plants that demand less water.

6) Create a Recycling Program

Recycling is another crucial way to safeguard the environment. Encourage your HOA community to recycle paper, plastic, glass, and metal items. Recycling bins may be strategically placed across your town to encourage homeowners to recycle. It may also be beneficial to send out regular notifications to ensure that your people know optimal recycling procedures.

7) Host Educational Workshops and Seminars

The community can host educational talks to encourage conversations on sustainability and develop new ideas. Transform your HOA community into an eco-conscious center by providing engaging sustainability workshops and seminars. Discuss composting, recycling, energy conservation, and sustainable gardening techniques to inspire and educate homeowners. In addition, local professionals can be invited to offer their knowledge and practical ideas, making these gatherings fantastic learning opportunities.

8) Transition from Paper to Digital

Next, let\’s embrace the power of digital communication to decrease paper waste while keeping your HOA community informed and involved. Instead of depending entirely on paper announcements, use digital means such as email newsletters, text messaging, community websites, social media platforms, and automated phone calls to communicate information and changes to residents. Going digital reduces our environmental impact by conserving trees, streamlines communication, and makes it more accessible to everybody. It\’s a win-win situation that allows us to connect, preserve, and remain connected more sustainably.

9) Green Spaces and Wildlife Habitats

The HOA community should be at the forefront of providing green spaces and wildlife habitats. Plant native plants that thrive in your region to provide natural homes for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Consider putting up birdhouses and feeders to attract avian companions to your neighborhood. These green areas not only enhance the beauty of your surroundings but also help maintain the health and resilience of local animals.

10) Promote Alternative Transportation

The HOA community should proactively reduce our carbon footprint by supporting alternate transportation choices in our area. Encourage homeowners to use eco-friendly forms of transportation, such as walking, bicycling, carpooling, or public transit, wherever possible. Consider adding bike racks and establishing well-marked walking pathways throughout the community to promote these environmentally conscious choices. By making sustainable transportation accessible and easy for homeowners, you can encourage a healthier and more active lifestyle for everybody.

How to get communities excited about sustainability

Residents are at the core of your community\’s sustainability efforts. According to a survey, 46% of individuals are trying to implement sustainability efforts but agree that they can improve their efforts. Thus, it’s important to develop ways to engage residents in an exciting way to get your sustainability efforts off the ground running. Here are some of the ways HOAs should adapt to engage community members:

Host Fun Events

Fun Events are one of the easiest ways of bringing together community members. HOA members can organize a \”Green Fair\” that combines education and enjoyment. This \”Green Fair\” is more than educational; it celebrates sustainable living! It\’s an opportunity for your community to get together, learn, interact with local businesses, and, most importantly, have fun while helping the environment. Examples of fun events you can host as part of your “Green Fair” include:

Community garden day
Neighborhood tree planting
Zero waste picnic or cookout
Upcycling craft fairs

Create Incentive Programs

We all like gifts and rewards. Similarly, we can introduce incentive programs to promote HOA sustainability. These incentives acknowledge individual efforts and foster a sense of accomplishment and pleasure in making a difference. By providing real incentives, we may start a chain reaction of beneficial activities and increase our impact on creating a greener, more sustainable community.

69% of adults in the United States have a Facebook account, and 80% consume videos through YouTube, which makes these great platforms to promote your community’s sustainability initiatives and get homeowners involved. Share compelling information such as inspiring success stories from your community, practical ideas for sustainable living, and behind-the-scenes looks at current initiatives.

Educational Campaigns

Education campaigns have been the source of knowledge in many areas. Environmental sustainability is not an exception. Develop effective teaching programs that stress the importance of sustainability and the transforming potential of individual acts. To reach every community member, use various communication methods, such as newsletters, text messages, emails, fliers, social media, websites, and community signs.

Collaborate with Local Organizations

Partner with local organizations and nonprofit associations to promote environmental sustainability. And as they say, unity is strength, so it is when you come to protecting the environment\’s biodiversity. Collaborative events and initiatives may boost enthusiasm and give valuable resources and knowledge.

Keep the Practice Simple

Since most homeowners are busy, and you, as a community manager or board member, are, too, always go for simplicity. Provide tools and assistance to help people and families take small, concrete steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

How to leverage technology to promote your sustainability efforts

Renewable Energy Solutions

Installation of renewable energy solutions is one of the mighty ways technology can promote a sustainable environment. HOA communities might consider installing sustainable energy alternatives like solar panels or wind turbines. Technology can help analyze feasibility, optimize location, and monitor performance over time.

Water Conservation Technologies

Encourage your HOA community to save water by repairing leaks, installing low-flow faucets, and maintaining sprinkler systems. When it comes to landscaping, drought-resistant and native plants demand less water.

Community Engagement Platforms

These platforms may include the following:

Resident portals

Resident portals are digital platforms that provide a single location for community members to access information, and resources and request services. Residents may utilize these portals to stay up to speed on HOA news, participate in conversations, obtain vital documents, and communicate with their neighbors and community managers. With a discussion board, homeowners can communicate and plan sustainability initiatives and spark ideas for positive change.

Event management

Event management simplifies the process of planning, organizing, and advertising community events. HOAs may use event management software to efficiently arrange various events, including social gatherings, educational courses, maintenance tasks, and volunteer opportunities. Providing residents with a calendar of upcoming social activities and sustainability events can increase participation rates, turning apathy into engagement. Send residents automated reminders of events to keep them informed so they are less likely to miss them.

Pilera’s built-in event calendar helps you manage community events and email notifications all in one simple user interface. You can create custom events for different types of events such as social gatherings or board meetings, set up recurring events, and send email notifications by user type.

Text & email communications

Text and email conversations are crucial for keeping members informed and engaged. HOAs can utilize text messaging and email systems to send out essential notifications, event invites, newsletters, reminders, and emergency alerts. These communication channels allow for rapid and direct connection with people, which boosts engagement and participation in community efforts.

With Pilera’s dynamic communication platform, you can keep in touch with residents how they want – through phone, email, text, or postal mailing.

Online payments

Online payment platforms let members make safe and straightforward electronic payments for HOA fees, assessments, and other costs. Furthermore, online payments cut paper consumption and help environmental sustainability by eliminating the need to print billing statements.

With Pilera, residents can conveniently make online payments at the convenience of their own homes. Pilera can accommodate any payment providers you have.

Websites

Websites act as digital showrooms for HOA communities, including information on amenities, rules and regulations, news and updates, community activities, and resources. A well-designed website increases openness, promotes communication, and is a useful resource for both current and future homeowners. Promoting your sustainability initiatives on your community website not only gets your current homeowners excited but can attract new homeowners to the community.

Pilera’s community websites are an easy way to showcase your community without requiring technical experience. Through our website, you can create public and private pages, post documents and surveys, create photo galleries, and add free-form content to showcase your community’s sustainability efforts.

Summary

There you have it! All you need to know is to promote a sustainable environment in your community. As a board member or community manager at an HOA community, you have several opportunities to promote sustainable activities. Simple efforts such as reducing energy use, recycling, conserving water, starting a community garden, and composting may have a huge environmental impact. While Earth Day is a wonderful event, adopting these practices into your everyday routine helps you to continue to assist the environment and keep your community’s commitment to sustainability.

About Pilera

Condos, HOAs

Navigating the Transition: A Guide to Welcoming New HOA Board Members

Homeowners’ association (HOA) boards often experience turnover, whether due to term limits, voluntary departures, or members moving away. Consequently, welcoming new members becomes a common occurrence. Joining a board, even for those familiar with its workings, can be daunting because of steep learning curves, decision-making demands, and high resident expectations. Board members can take some proactive steps to ensure that new board members in the HOA feel comfortable in their roles. In this blog article, you will learn strategies for welcoming new board members into the fold and how to leverage technology for a smooth transition.

Table of Contents:

Roles, Accountability & Transparency

When a new board member comes on board, it’s essential to give them a clear picture of their roles and responsibilities. Ensuring clarity on who is responsible for what can facilitate a seamless transition, improve teamwork, and minimize potential conflicts.

Board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the community\’s best interests. This involves making decisions that enhance the community\’s welfare and preserve property values. Additionally, board members must strive to improve the overall experience of the community they oversee. Their responsibilities include:

Governing the community – Ensuring that the community operates within the governing documents\’ guidelines and local, state, and federal laws. When a new board member is elected, they must learn about the CC&Rs and regulations.
Financial management – Oversee the HOA\’s finances, including budgeting, collecting assessments and monthly dues, and managing reserves.
Rules and regulations – Enforce community rules and regulations outlined in the governing documents, identify violations, and ensure resident compliance.
Maintenance, repairs & long-term planning – Oversee maintenance and repairs in common areas and amenities.
Communication with homeowners – Board members must communicate with residents regarding HOA matters, policies, meetings, and updates.
Hiring – Board members may hire and oversee management companies, vendors, and other service providers to manage the community. Board members must prioritize transparency and avoid conflicts of interest when selecting vendors. Additionally, they should ensure that vendors have up-to-date certificates of insurance (COI).
Decision-making – Board members make decisions regarding community matters, policies, projects, and expenses through regular board meetings and voting.

Create a welcome packet for board members

When welcoming a new board member into the fold, it’s essential to gather all necessary information about the community so you can help them get up to speed.

Consider creating a welcome packet with essential documents, such as CC&Rs, meeting schedules, contact information for board members, the latest meeting minutes, and community resources. The welcome packet should also include the HOA’s history, bylaws, ongoing projects, preferred vendors, standard operational procedures and issues, and upcoming initiatives.

Additionally, it can be helpful to assign a mentor from among experienced board members to provide new members with support, guidance, and firsthand insight into the responsibilities and expectations. These steps will help nurture growth and instill confidence in your new board members so they can successfully operate the community.

New Board Member Orientation

Introducing new Board Members marks an exciting moment for the community. New members can bring fresh perspectives and energy to push initiatives forward.

You can organize a new member orientation for existing and new members to connect and build the camaraderie needed for effective community leadership. During this meeting, be sure to highlight the roles and responsibilities of each member. Additionally, setting clear expectations on communication channels, meetings, and overall commitment is essential.

Technology Access and Training

While your community association may already have experience with technology, it’s essential to provide your new board members with the proper access and training to succeed in their roles.

Setting up a new board member in Pilera

You can give new board members proper access by changing their occupant type from an owner to a Board Member in Pilera.

Based on their responsibilities, you can designate the appropriate user roles. You can then layer on different roles in the User Admin section in Pilera, such as vendor admin, task admin, message admin, support contact, and more.

Video: How to Manage Board Member Information in Pilera

HOA Management Software Training for New Board Members

Once you grant new board members proper access, start training them on the following topics:

Resident Communications

Communicating with residents frequently is vital to keeping them formed, building trust, and instilling a sense of community. Train new board members on:

The types of communications sent out to the community and messaging
How to send routine and emergency messages
How to track the delivery of messages

Pilera\’s automated communication system simplifies the onboarding process for new board members, allowing them to adapt and start sending messages quickly. Board members can:

Review past messages in the message archive.
Use templates that managers or fellow board members created as a guide to draft their messages.
Send residents automated phone, text, email, or postal letters based on their communication preferences.
Use the Preview and Send option to review a list of all residents who will receive the message and the communication type they prefer. This feature helps board members ensure accuracy and gives them peace of mind before hitting the send button.

Maintenance, Architectural Change Requests, and Rule Violations

Ensuring the smooth operation of your community is essential for creating a safe and enjoyable environment for residents. That\’s why board members must be well-trained in managing various aspects such as maintenance, Architectural Change Requests (ACRs), and rule violations:

Report and track common area maintenance issues and communicate with preferred vendors.
Review Architectural Change Requests thoroughly to ensure they comply with community rules and communicate with residents on whether it was accepted or rejected.
Rule violations – How to identify and report different types of violations in the community based on its governing documents and tracking the violation through compliance.

With Pilera\’s ticketing system, new board members can easily access and review past issues and resolutions, aiding them in onboarding. Here\’s how our ticketing system can assist new board members:

Use the powerful dashboard filters to view current and past common area maintenance, rule violations, incident logs, RFPs, and support tickets. This overview allows board members to stay organized and informed.
Gain insights by accessing every conversation tied to a ticket. This transparency enables new board members to learn from past experiences and understand how to resolve different issues.

Tailoring new board member training to their specific roles and responsibilities is essential. Additionally, the level of involvement from your management company in your community\’s operations will influence the topics covered. If your management company takes a hands-on approach, they will likely handle most of the communications and operations. However, with the help of our community technology platform, new board members can gain insights into current processes, address issues, and find resolutions.

Board Meetings

When a new board member joins, training them on conducting effective board meetings is essential. During this training session, you can help new board members understand how to organize meetings, create clear agendas, manage time effectively, reduce conflict, and promote respectful communication.

At this time, you can also introduce new board members to technology your community uses to run board meetings, from resident communication tools to online meeting platforms. You can ensure a smooth transition by empowering new members with the knowledge and skills to schedule and conduct board meetings during onboarding.

Task Management & Collaboration

It’s crucial to help new board members become familiar with the community\’s ongoing tasks. That way, they can collaborate and contribute to projects. A task management system is an excellent tool to manage this process. It allows new board members to access relevant tasks, get familiar with ongoing projects, and quickly understand their responsibilities.

Start assigning tasks and deadlines through the task management tool to clarify what needs to be done and ensure accountability. With Pilera\’s task management system, board members and managers can collaborate effectively on ongoing tasks. They can track updates and receive real-time notifications, ensuring that everyone is well-informed. By regularly monitoring tasks, you can identify any potential roadblocks and make informed decisions to keep the project on track.

Encourage education for New Board Members

The community association industry is constantly evolving. Encouraging personal development and education can help new members (and even experienced ones) stay ahead. Check your local trade organization, such as the Community Association Institute (CAI) or Cooperator, on the different workshops, seminars, or online classes offered for existing and new board members. These events can provide insight into recent trends, industry best practices, legal requirements, and effective management strategies. Furthermore, these educational opportunities can help new board members understand the complexities of HOA management and solve the challenges the community is facing.

Other sources of educational content include:

Educational articles from trusted sources such as trade organizations, management companies, and technology providers.
Google Alerts that you can set up every week with relevant keywords such as community association, HOA, or Condominium will send you regular emails whenever new content that matches your alert criteria is published.

Summary: Setting your new board members up for success in your HOA

As you welcome new board members, it\’s important to recognize they may feel overwhelmed in their new roles. However, by providing new board members with proper support, onboarding, and the right technology, you can help them contribute and make a real impact.

At Pilera, we believe technology can simplify the transition and empower new board members to become effective leaders. Pilera’s HOA management software enables board members to stay informed and connected through their responsibilities, from resident communications to maintenance projects to operational issues.

It\’s important to remind new board members to approach the role with dedication, open-mindedness, and a commitment to serving the community\’s best interests. Community leadership can be challenging, but it\’s also incredibly rewarding. Together, you can build camaraderie, create a strong team dynamic, and ensure the success of your community.

About Pilera

Pilera helps make your job as a board member easier by gaining visibility into your operations and improving collaboration with other board members and managers. With Pilera, you can manage your tasks, oversee community projects and trends, streamline approvals, share documents, and more. To learn more about these features, contact [email protected] or book a demo.

Beyond Numbers: How Data Analytics Transforms HOA Community Relationships

As an HOA management company, enhancing the operations of the communities under your care and building strong community relationships is at the heart of what you do. But without measuring current efforts, it\’s hard to make changes that positively impact your internal processes and deliver the level of service your clients expect. That\’s where data analytics comes into play.

This article explores how data analytics empowers you to move beyond numbers, making informed decisions with a people-centric focus. From community engagement to maintenance trends, these insights transform how communities are managed, ensuring they thrive under your care.

How data can revolutionize your community management operations

Data analytics empowers you to make informed choices, streamline operations, and enhance community living experiences.

In this guide, we’ve broken down data analytics into two main categories: 1) For your company 2) For the communities you manage.

Use our table of contents below to navigate the topics you’re most interested in.

Your Company:

The Communities You Manage

Data Analytics for Your Company

1) Improve Client Services & Build Better Relationships

Knowing how satisfied your board members and residents are is key to delivering services that go beyond their expectations. A client survey can help you gain valuable insights into how your boards and residents perceive your company. Taking positive actions on their feedback will naturally lead to stronger loyalty and retention.

Consider creating separate surveys for board members and residents with questions that cater to their individual experiences.

Survey questions for board members:

How effectively does the management company communicate with the board regarding community matters and updates?
How responsive is the management company to requests and concerns the board raises?
How satisfied are you with the communication and handling of common area maintenance?
How satisfied are you with the management’s use of technology to manage community operations and resident communications?
How would you rate the professionalism and expertise the management company\’s staff demonstrated?
What made you choose our management company over other alternatives?

Survey questions for residents:

How likely are you to recommend our management services to another association?
How effectively does our management company communicate important community updates and announcements?
Are you satisfied with the maintenance and upkeep of common areas, landscaping, and amenities?
On a scale of 1 to 5, how well do you think the management company\’s services are contributing to maintaining or increasing property values?
How responsive is the management company to your requests and concerns?
How would you rate the availability of management company staff for addressing resident needs?
How satisfied are you with enforcing community policies regarding noise, parking, and other regulations by the management company?

Pilera enables management companies to create surveys and gain valuable feedback from board members and residents. Some ways that you can utilize Pilera\’s surveys include:

Create a survey at a community or company level.
Include custom questions in the form of ratings, drop-down questions, open-ended questions, and more to get the information you need.
Get a secure link to the survey to distribute to board members and residents through our powerful communication solution.
Track message delivery and email replies related to your survey communications.

2) Propel Business Growth

According to studies, 60-70% of all community associations are managed by property and HOA management companies. With 8,000 new associations forming each year, the demand for HOA management services is increasing, and competition is becoming fierce. To identify areas for growth, make sure your software provides actionable business analytics to retain existing clients and attract new business.

Pilera\’s Ticket Analytics Report can give you big-picture insights into your company’s operations. This report provides an aggregated view of all tickets your company is managing across your entire portfolio, including work orders, violations, incident logs, support, ACRs, RFPs, and more. This report allows you to identify which communities require the most attention from your team and even justify your pricing structure over time.

3) Easily Convey the Value You Provide to Boards

As a management company, one of your challenges is effectively conveying the value you provide to boards. It can be frustrating when you constantly receive questions from board members questioning the value of your services.

Data analytics tools can help you easily demonstrate the value you bring to the table without any doubts or guesswork. Imagine being able to present clear and compelling reports to the board, highlighting key insights.

Pilera’s Ticket Analytics Report enables you to communicate the value your company brings in a way boards will easily understand and appreciate. By showcasing how you proactively address community needs and resolve issues, you can create long-term relationships over time.

Within Pilera, managers can also generate a professional-looking PDF summarizing all the work they have completed for the community during a certain time frame. Board Members love this report!

4) Improve Team Productivity & Staffing Decisions

Limited staffing, high turnover rates, and lack of technology implementation can have a negative impact on your team\’s productivity. This can lead to employees feeling overwhelmed and compromised service quality for your clients.

However, by utilizing HOA software that automates your team\’s workflow and provides analytics on workload, your team can increase productivity, deliver exceptional client services, and feel rewarded for their efforts.

Through Pilera\’s Ticket Analytics Report, company executives can gain valuable insights into employee performance and workload management. This report provides a comprehensive breakdown of all ticket types and closed, open, and assigned tickets by employees. By analyzing these metrics, executives can make informed decisions about staffing needs. They can identify if employees are on track or overwhelmed with work and then allocate resources to improve the team’s efficiency. This data gives you a better idea of whether you need to hire additional community managers.

Data Analytics for the Communities You Manage

1) Analyze Your Communication Efforts

Communication is vital to the overall well-being and success of your communities. It’s the foundation of good community engagement, whether you are sharing maintenance schedules, notifying residents of emergencies, distributing newsletters, or inviting residents to community events. However, many communities struggle with understanding the impact of their communication efforts and whether they’re hitting the mark with residents.

Analyzing your communication efforts can help you identify shortcomings and successes in your strategy, ensuring residents are engaged and well-informed.

Here\’s how you can evaluate and improve your communication strategies with Pilera:

Delivery Analytics – Pilera provides detailed delivery analytics for each announcement you send to your community. This includes confirmation of email delivery or replies, text message delivery, and details on whether a resident answered a phone call or if it went to voicemail. These analytics help you understand if you\’re reaching residents effectively.
Communication Usage Report – This report gives insights into the number of communications sent per community. With this data, you can identify communities communicating effectively and those needing to increase their communication efforts to inform residents better.

2) Work Order Trends

Maintenance plays a vital role in ensuring the upkeep and safety of a community. Yet, community management teams often face challenges such as lost work orders, employee burnout, record-keeping, and evaluating vendor performance. Analyzing maintenance data within your HOA software tool can provide valuable insights to address these challenges and improve maintenance operations.

Pilera offers innovative solutions to enhance maintenance operations through data analytics:

Work Order Trends

In each community, you can use the work order dashboard and visual charts to analyze trends over time, including the ratio of open versus closed tickets, work order categories, status breakdowns, and assignment distribution. These insights help identify common maintenance issues and how work orders are progressing.

Workload

For each community, you can see a breakdown of work orders assigned to various staff members. This breakdown helps identify overwhelmed staff members and opportunities to redistribute tasks so everyone can perform at their best.

Backlog

Pilera sends a monthly automated report of stale work orders that have not been worked on in 30 days.

Vendor Performance

The work order dashboard in Pilera enables you to filter by a vendor company or specific vendor company staff member to see open/closed work order trends and monitor workload.

3) Identify Patterns in Security Incidents & Resident Disputes

Analyzing data on security incidents and resident disputes can help enhance safety measures and overall harmony.

With data analytics in your HOA management software, you can identify areas of concern and improve security measures, ensuring a safer living environment for residents.

It\’s also important to track resident complaints and disputes so you can identify recurring issues, implement preventative measures, and make the resolution process easier for your team.

Pilera\’s Incident Management feature (formerly Activity Logs) empowers managers to monitor incidents and resident interactions at the unit and occupant levels. Easily categorize various types of incidents and utilize the dashboard to filter through data. The dashboard enables you to pinpoint which incidents are most common and take a proactive approach to foster safer communities.

Similar to work order insights, managers can gain the following insights on incidents and resident interactions:

The trend of open and resolved incident tickets over time.
A breakdown of incidents and resident interactions by priority.
A breakdown of incidents by category, so you know which type of issues are most common.
A breakdown of incident logs assigned to managers lets you see who is overwhelmed and can redistribute tasks effectively.

4) Common Rule Violations

Ensuring that residents follow the rules in the community’s governing documents is important to preserving property values, enhancing public appeal, and fostering harmony. However, some community managers struggle to ensure compliance is met, especially if residents aren’t aware of the rules or are resistant to them.

By gathering data analytics on rule violations within your community, you can take proactive steps to improve compliance and educate residents about the importance of following the rules. Examples of analytics that you can gather in Pilera include:

See which categories of rule violations are most common in each community.
Repeat offenders of community rule violations
Breakdown of rule violations assigned to staff members
A breakdown of open versus resolved rule violations.

For instance, if the most common violations are displays outside homes (such as flags or decorations), you can implement proactive measures to educate and remind residents about the rules and why they\’re important. This can be achieved through automated communications, such as emails or texts, dedicated pages on the community website outlining the rules, or informative knowledge base articles on the topic. You can track the effectiveness of your efforts over time by seeing whether the display violations are still common or have been reduced.

5) Architectural Compliance and Design Trends

Boosting property value through home improvement projects is a common goal for residents. However, it\’s crucial to ensure that these projects align with your community\’s rules. By staying updated on the architectural changes that your communities are requesting the most, you can provide residents with valuable guidance. When managed effectively, ACRs have the power to enhance curb appeal and attract potential homeowners.

To improve the ACR approval process, managers can view data on:

The trend approved and rejected ACRs over time.
A breakdown of ACRs by category so you can understand the most popular types of home improvements and provide tips to residents on improving their property value.
The type of ACRs that are rejected the most enables you to provide guidance to residents on compliance and how to submit accurate ACRs.
A breakdown of ACR approvals by priority.
A breakdown of ACRs assigned to managers, board members, or committees.

6) RFP Management

Managing the Request for Proposal (RFP) process is important to ensure you get clear scopes for community projects, ultimately leading to selecting the vendor that best aligns with your needs.

However, managers often face challenges in determining which vendors to invite to submit bids for an RFP. Limited time and resources can also prevent thorough analysis of RFP proposals, potentially causing important details to be overlooked.

Pilera\’s RFP management tool empowers you to gather vital data to enhance your bid process:

Accepted/Rejected Vendors – In Pilera, you can filter the dashboard to view a list of all vendors who have been accepted or rejected for each category. This information allows you to consider inviting successful vendors from past RFPs to participate in future ones or reassess previously rejected vendors to determine if they merit another invitation.
Employee Workload – Pilera\’s intuitive dashboard and visual charts enable you to monitor the workload of employees responsible for evaluating RFPs within your company. If certain staff members are overwhelmed, you can efficiently redistribute RFPs to other team members. By balancing the workload, you ensure that your team has ample time to thoroughly review RFPs, thereby avoiding the risk of overlooking critical details in the proposals.
License Expiration Notifications – Reminders about when a vendor’s license expires can also aid in important decisions about which vendors to invite or consider for your RFP.

7) Resident Support

Exceptional customer service is the driving force behind successful HOA management businesses. It not only enhances board and resident satisfaction but also strengthens community connections. Today, residents also seek instant answers and rely on their management company to provide prompt and dependable support.

Support analytics can help give you insights into support request trends and staff workload, so you can allocate resources more effectively to resolve your residents’ requests.

Here are some ways Pilera helps you understand resident support efforts:

Trends – Learn about the most common issues residents report, so you can take proactive steps to prevent or help residents resolve them.
Open vs Closed – A breakdown of open versus closed support tickets over time.
Priority – A breakdown of support tickets by priority so you’ll know what needs to be addressed immediately.
Employee Workload – A breakdown of support tickets by managers so you can distribute workload effectively.

Transforming Data into Stronger Community Connections

Data analytics in HOA management is not just about crunching numbers. When interpreted well, you can use data to improve the operations of the communities under your care and contribute to better living experiences. Every aspect of community operations, from communications to maintenance to customer support, can give you insights to build stronger relationships, drive growth, and improve productivity.

About Pilera

Board Member, Condos, HOAs, Pilera Updates & News

Introducing new Pilera Votes – Electronic Voting Software!

Tired of delays in decision-making, low voter turnout, or concerns about fairness in your community’s voting process? The skepticism about the fairness of community voting and the cumbersome paper ballots have left many seeking a better way. We’re excited to introduce Pilera Votes, a more streamlined way to run secure and fair voting or elections in your community association! Say goodbye to delays and doubts about transparency and transition to a more secure, efficient, and trustworthy voting process.

In this blog post, you’ll learn how Pilera Votes can streamline your voting process to meet quorum, improve decision-making, and unite your community.

Easy to use and convenient

With Pilera votes, managing elections and voting has never been more accessible. Our user-friendly platform makes it a smooth and hassle-free experience for HOA administrators and residents. Pilera Votes is mobile-friendly so that residents can participate from anywhere. This helps to increase engagement in your community and improve voter turnout.

Secure and transparent

We understand that a secure and trustworthy voting process is your community\’s top priority when conducting elections. That’s why our software locks down votes, guaranteeing that only residents in your community can cast their votes. This enables you to earn the trust of your residents while safeguarding the integrity of your voting process.

Direct access

The voting form in Pilera is also easy for your residents to access. Residents can access the election form directly through the resident portal in Pilera or through a secure, shareable link. This eliminates the need for time-consuming paper ballots or manual processes that may take weeks.

Fair and equitable voting

Many condo associations need to track unit weights (also called allocation of ownership) to identify how much influence an owner has in the association for voting, distribution of common area maintenance, assessment fees, etc. In Pilera, you can add unit weights, and it will automatically populate it in the election form. Then, you can download an XLS of the voting results and calculate the votes using the unit weight. This helps to ensure a fair and equitable voting process.

Improve decision-making with instant results

Manual processes or paper ballots often cause weeks of delay in decision-making. With Pilera Votes, you no longer have to experience delays in your community’s decision-making process. With Pilera Votes, you can watch as the votes are counted instantly, helping you to verify how many votes you need to reach a quorum. Once the voting concludes, you can access the results in a table for easy browsing or graphs to identify voting trends.

Integrate voting with your daily community management workflow

Although many standalone voting platform options are available in the market, the benefit of Pilera is that you can easily integrate voting with your daily community management workflow. Pilera offers 4 products that transform your communities and help you retain occupants, build cooperation, and grow in value:

Pilera Connect – Send routine or emergency notifications to your community through phone, email, text, or postal mailing. Using Pilera Connect with Pilera Votes lets you spread the word and get 80%+ voter turnout.
Pilera Ops – A collaborative system that acts as a powerful shield on top of your accounting system. Easily streamline work orders, ACRs, violations, tasks, and RFPs.
Pilera Care – A support tool built for the community management industry that makes it easy for your employees and offshore team to resolve resident issues and deliver personalized service. Pilera Care with Pilera Votes enables you to support residents throughout the voting process. Residents can submit support questions and view FAQs about the voting process.
Pilera Engage – A self-service portal for residents to access the latest community information, make payments online, request services, and communicate with other residents.

How to get started with Pilera Votes:

Getting started with voting software is easy with Pilera Votes. Pilera Votes is an add-on to the Pilera family of products: Pilera Connect, Pilera Ops, Pilera Care, and Pilera Engage. Through our Ballot Builder, you will submit your requirements, such as the ballot question and voting dates. Our team will then build the perfect voting system for your community and will train your team.

Build Your Ballot

Download Brochure

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. Book a personalized demo to learn how Pilera can help improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Board Member, HOAs

HOA CC&R’s and Violations: How to Maintain a Balance Between Holiday Spirit & Compliance

Halloween’s nearing, and we’ll all revel in the spirit of the Holiday Season very soon. It’s that time of year that we all look forward to – ‘tis the time to be jolly, indulge in the best food, and put out elaborate decorations. While the idea of beautiful decorations sounds wonderful during the Holiday Season, homeowners are often on tenterhooks, hoping they haven\’t violated any HOA CC&Rs with their all-out decorations.

For HOA board members and managers, it’s a whole different ballgame. For them, it’s all about maintaining peace while ensuring people follow the rules. And that’s a challenging task. So, HOA board members and managers out there, if you’re looking to ensure residents comply with HOA CC&R guidelines this holiday season, here’s a guide to help you out.

Holiday Décor Challenges and How to Deal With Violations

Bright lights, noisy, or life-sized inflatables are just some reasons that can cause a nuisance in the neighborhood, requiring you to step up and intervene. Let’s have a look at some of the typical violations you’d come across during the holiday season and how you can address them:

Appropriateness of Decor

This is the first aspect you need to address. Even though a certain level of civic sense is expected of residents, there will always be some who’ll still go ahead and put up inappropriate decor. As an HOA board member or manager, it’s an important responsibility to regulate the decor that residents put up and ensure the decor is not offensive, derogatory, inappropriate, or disrespectful.

Larger Than Life Decor

To ensure there are no violations concerning decor size, it\’s best to list clear guidelines on the allowable size of decor well in advance. The allowable height of the decor, safety measures, aesthetics, and other aspects should be included in these HOA CC&R guidelines.

If some residents still wish to install decor that could pose safety risks (for example, decor that needs mounting), they can have their requests reviewed by the Architectural Review Committee. The committee can deny permission to install or assist residents in installing the decor safely.

Flashy Lights

What’s a celebration without the lights? But sometimes, lights are too bright and flashy, disturbing the overall aesthetic of the neighborhood. Some blaring lights may even become a cause of nuisance.

To counter this, HOAs can create guidelines on different aspects related to lights – from the color of the lights, permitted timings to operate the lights, the number of lights, and the type of lights.

Noisy Decor

These days, many of these fancy and noisy items are available in the market, and let’s be honest – many residents love to feature them at their doorsteps or front yards. As an HOA member, you need to have a separate set of HOA CC&R guidelines on the noisy decor to ensure no disturbance in the neighborhood.

These guidelines can mention the permissible ‘noisy’ decor items and the items that are big no-nos. Don’t hesitate to strictly disallow any decor that would disrupt the peace in the locality. You can, of course, be a bit flexible. For some of these decors, you can also establish fixed hours when residents can turn on the decor and when they are required to turn them off.

Safety Challenges

At times, elaborate holiday decor can also result in several safety hazards. That oversized Christmas tree a resident decided to place by their doorstep? Well, it looks stunning, but it also blocks the sidewalk! Imagine the inconvenience caused to every person walking past their door.

Apart from this, residents may also put up decor that is not outdoor-friendly. This may result in injuries to people or property damage as well. These are just some safety challenges that you, as an HOA board member or manager, must tackle during the Holiday Season.

As the HOA board member or manager, when you formulate rules about décor during the Holiday Season, you expect all the residents to comply. But unfortunately, that’s not what happens. Every year, you’ll still have a certain number of people who don’t pay heed to any rules and will end up violating the rules.

As part of the HOA, you know how difficult it is to deal with holiday decor challenges. But here’s the key – educating residents about the rules improves compliance in the first place, reducing disturbances or safety hazards. Here are some ways you can ensure compliance with the HOA CC&Rs:

How to Ensure Compliance

Make the Rules Simple and Easy to Understand

List the rules in simple, straightforward language to get the point across to all the residents. Rules need to be concise so that people can quickly browse through them. You can mention the rules in separate categories (like the ones mentioned above) to make it easy to understand. This helps ensure there’s no ambiguity or room for loopholes in the rules.

Issue the Rules as Early as You Can

The community guidelines need to be communicated to the residents well in advance. This would give them ample time to rethink their decor and incorporate necessary changes to comply with decor guidelines.

Re-evaluate Outdated Rules

HOAs must carefully review and evaluate their CC&Rs and ensure they are updated yearly. This would ensure that the CC&Rs are up to date and reflect today’s expectations. Also, a gap in communication can result in residents being unaware of any new guidelines put in place. This can hinder compliance. Once the community’s rules are updated, it’s vital to notify residents about the changes, why they were made, and how they impact them.

Culture Sensitive Rules

Communities are diverse and have different cultures and festive traditions. When creating or updating the HOA CC&R rules, you must keep this in mind so that the rules are fair to everyone. This would further encourage people to comply with the laws, as they know the rules were made keeping their culture in mind.

Ensure You Include FAQs

Even if the rules described in the CC&Rs are simple, residents may still have questions. You can create a separate FAQ section to address the most common questions. This would help residents have a much better understanding of what the HOA CC&R guidelines expect them to do (or not do!).

Safety and Compliance Checks

HOA Board members and managers can run safety and compliance checks to ensure residents follow the updated guidelines. These inspections can be carried out twice – once when people have just started to put up their decor and the next during the Holiday Season.

Bring “Fun” into Compliance

We’re all aware that everyone wants to throw caution to the wind during the festive season and go all out. In such a scenario, no one wants anyone to force them to follow a set of guidelines. So, instead of attempting to enforce the policies on them, try different ways this time – like sending out a newsletter encouraging them to ‘celebrate with care’ or announcing a holiday decor contest.

In your community’s CC&R document, make sure to include all allowable decor items so people will comply. It could be anything – the best lights, a crafty gingerbread house, or a prize for minimal decor. Incorporate other gentle, creative ways people would be more than happy to comply with the CC&R rules. This is also a great way to unite the community, create harmony, and keep residents engaged in the festivities.

Offer Assistance

To ensure the safety and security of the neighborhood, you can always assist residents to put up their decor safely. You can also help people take down the decor items promptly (after the holiday season).

How HOA Software Can Help You Manage Compliance

HOA software is designed to assist board members and managers enforce HOA CC&Rs confidently while increasing the public appeal of their communities. From informing and educating residents about community rules to automating the violation process, HOA software can help.

If you’re looking for a more efficient way to ensure compliance this holiday season, Pilera’s HOA software can help you simplify the process.

Automated Communication

With Pilera, you can send regular communication or reminders to the residents in your community, informing them of the rules. You can send out the messages via email, text, or postal mail – residents can choose how they want to hear from you.

Maintaining a steady flow of communication with your community via their preferred method of communication is a great way to ensure they remember and follow the established HOA CC&R guidelines.

Storage of Documents

All those HOA CC&R documents that you so painstakingly compiled? Well, Pilera provides a secure portal to store all of these documents. These documents are easily accessible to the residents in one place.

An informed and aware resident will likely comply with guidelines and issues. You can easily organize the documents in separate folders so the residents can easily find CC&Rs or any other newly uploaded documents. You can also notify residents when you upload a new document, and they can log into the portal to securely access the CC&Rs.

Knowledge Base

Pilera’s HOA software also enables boards and managers to post knowledge base articles on commonly asked CC&R questions. Residents can resolve their questions regarding HOA CC&Rs through the knowledge base feature without needing to call or email the management office.

Tracking Rule Violations

Despite all the effort you put in to ensure compliance with guidelines, violations will exist. Pilera makes it easy for HOAs to track violations and categorize and notify residents by email. This ensures quick communication with the violating resident and prompt response from their end, too.

Board members can keep track of all the violations that occur in a community over some time. Residents, too, can resolve violations directly in the portal. Pilera helps maintain a record of all this data, making it easier for board members and managers to identify problem areas and educate citizens better.

Conclusion: Maintain a Balance between Holiday Spirit and Compliance

This holiday season, strike a balance between spreading holiday cheer and upholding the rules. By keeping the rules clear and being fair, you can foster harmony in your community.

With the help of HOA software, you can streamline the compliance process – from educating residents to efficiently resolving violations. So, don\’t delay educating your residents about decor rules this holiday season. Discover how Pilera can make community management stress-free today!

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. To learn how Pilera can help to improve efficiency and reduce costs, book a personalized demo.

Work Smarter, Not Harder with HOA Management Software

Every day, HOA managers take on the responsibility of ensuring the smooth operations of their communities. With the constant stream of resident inquiries and the need to demonstrate your value to the board, it can be challenging to regain control of your day. This is the perfect opportunity to reassess your current processes and technology stack.

However, with the ever-improving technology landscape and so many software options available, it\’s easy to feel overwhelmed. How do you identify the right technology partner that will help you boost operational efficiency and improve client relations? In this article, we share a list of 7 important factors to consider to make searching for new software easier.

1) Diverse resident communication & engagement options

Communicating regularly with residents is vital because it reduces frustration, helps you operate more efficiently, and leads to overall community satisfaction. Residents of all ages and backgrounds have their own preferred methods of staying connected. For instance, older residents, who may not be tech-savvy, tend to favor postal mail or phone calls. On the other hand, millennials prefer text messages.

Does your current software or process ensure that everyone feels included? If not, it\’s important to consider adopting software that offers diverse communication options.

With HOA management software, you can cater to the unique preferences of your residents by offering text messages, email, phone calls, postal mail, websites, portals, and community-only discussion boards. Everyone can receive important updates and stay connected in the way that suits them best. By letting residents choose how they want to hear from you, you can increase participation and alleviate the workload for your team.

Here are some features your automated communication platform should include:

Phone, text, email, and postal mailing options
Distribution groups
Resident communication & language preference
Advanced scheduling
Templates
Message delivery analytics
Invalid contact reports & troubleshooting
Strong message delivery reputation

Pilera Communications

Pilera\’s all-in-one messaging tool covers every aspect of your communication lifecycle. You can cater to every demographic with phone, email, text, and postal mailing options.

Our dynamic distribution groups automatically update as residents join or leave the community, so you know you’re reaching the right people. Plus, you can track the delivery of your messages in real time and know who opened a text or email or picked up a phone call. Our team monitors delivery reputation, guaranteeing your messages reach every time.

2) Eliminate repetitive tasks

Is data entry, managing repairs, or fielding board member tasks taking up a lot of time? If so, it\’s important to consider HOA software that simplifies your workflow and helps you regain control of your day. That way, you can focus on what matters most, such as improving client relations. HOA software enables you to automate time-consuming tasks like communicating with an entire community, storing and sharing documents, managing maintenance, tracking resident requests, and managing resident data.

Here are some ways that HOA software can help you automate vital community tasks:

Maintenance – Residents can submit work orders, which you can assign to your team and monitor for completion. You can send automated notifications to vendors, staff, and residents, keeping everyone informed.
Document management – You can store and organize community documents such as CC&Rs, meeting minutes, financial statements, and newsletters. You can restrict access to documents to staff, board members, tenants, and owners to increase security and ensure no unauthorized access to confidential documents. Residents and board members can then login and view documents, thus reducing calls to the office.
Events – Manage community gatherings and meetings more efficiently with features such as recurring events and email notifications. Residents can log into the portal at their convenience and stay up to date about the latest community.
Architectural reviews – Residents can submit architectural change requests online and supply photos or documents. You can assign ACRs to committee members to approve digitally. Residents can track their requests online, reducing the need to contact the office for updates. When you have one place to streamline your ACR process, you can reduce paperwork, speed up the review process, ensure compliance with community guidelines, and improve resident satisfaction.
Online payments – Residents can make payments online, helping you create a predictable flow of operating income for the communities you manage.
Voting – Online voting or survey platforms eliminate the need for paper forms and manually compiling responses. With HOA software, you can conduct board elections and other voting activities securely online and view results instantly.

How Pilera can reduce administrative burden

Pilera’s HOA management platform takes the burden out of managing important community tasks such as document storage, maintenance, ACRs, events, voting, and more. In our recent client survey, 89% of managers say that time savings with Pilera freed them up to work on more strategic tasks for their communities. Having a single place to manage essential community tasks opens up an environment for managers, board members, residents, and vendors to all work together on their shared community goals.

3) Stability

Whether doing on-site visits, working in the office, or at a meeting, it\’s important to have reliable tools to work uninterrupted from anywhere. We recommend choosing software that is known for its stable and reliable performance. Before investing in software, research user feedback on review platforms like Capterra to understand what your peers like and don\’t like about a particular software vendor. Then, schedule a demo with your interested software providers to help you understand how they can solve your challenges and serve as a technology partner you can rely on.

Pilera has a 99.9% uptime, so you can count on uninterrupted access to the platform. Our platform is also built with other measures in place, such as fault protection for communications and a responsive design so you can work from anywhere.

4) HOA Management Software that grows with you

The industry is continuously evolving, and so should your software. Consider choosing an HOA software solution that updates its platform regularly, is responsive to market changes, and can adapt to your needs.

One of the common myths about finding new software solutions is that a software provider may offer more features than you need. This often results in you overpaying for features you don\’t need, potentially diminishing the value you provide to your clients. Choosing a software provider that can tailor its offerings based on what you need is important. That way, you can feel confident that you\’re getting value.

At Pilera, we are committed to providing our customers with the best tools to improve their workflow. Pilera regularly rolls out new features, enhancements, and bug fixes on a monthly basis. We continue to develop many new features backed by our client\’s feedback, such as discussion boards, bulk ticket creation and editing, and more. Our software is designed to cater to the unique requirements of management companies and associations of all sizes and processes. With our a-la-carte model, you have the freedom to choose the specific products that meet your needs. As your business grows, you can easily add more products to further streamline your operations.

5) Proven customer service, training, and onboarding:

The right technology partner should be there to assist you with questions when you need it, right from onboarding and throughout your journey. In the beginning, it’s essential to have comprehensive onboarding and training so you can start managing your communities more effectively. On-demand and responsive support helps you to get quick resolutions to your questions, so you can focus less on getting help and more on the tasks that matter. It’s important to ensure your chosen software solution offers many ways to get help when needed. These include self-help options such as videos and help articles. It’s also essential to have rapid email and phone support for detailed questions.

Pilera’s support team is highly regarded for providing exceptional service in a timely manner, at no additional cost. We also offer many ways to get help via phone, email, a self-help knowledge base, and videos. Our onboarding team guides you through the rollout process and provides extensive training to help you get started.

6) Visibility & security:

You’re working with a lot of community and resident data daily, so security should be a top priority. Choosing a software provider that is built with security in mind is vital. Look for a software solution that offers password-protected portals and different permissions levels. That way, the right people in your organization can access only what they need.

Pilera is built with industry-standard security from the ground up to keep your community’s data safe. Our cloud-based platform is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has been proven to work in the toughest situations. Our team is on call 24/7 to handle any security or stability issues.

7) Value for Money:

Maximizing the value of your software is essential to improve operations and grow your company. Digitalizing all your community processes, such as communications, document storage, resident data management, forms, and voting, can reduce paperwork, time, and money. Through task automation, you can allocate more time and resources towards other important aspects of community management, improving productivity, keeping your team happier and organized, and enhancing client satisfaction. View community management software as a positive long-term investment for your company rather than an expense.

Pilera\’s community management software helps you automate repetitive tasks and provides on-demand access to important community information. In our recent client satisfaction study, managers report getting one day back per week on average.

Resource: Community Management Software ROI

Conclusion:

Choosing the right HOA management software can help you boost efficiency, improve resident satisfaction, and create stronger client relations. Your chosen software should be easy to use, flexible to meet the needs of diverse communities, reliable, and secure. In a tech-driven world, where communication is critical, and residents expect quick and accurate updates, HOA software plays a vital role in the success of your communities. By considering the factors above, you can find a software provider that will cater to your specific needs, optimize your workflow, and achieve ROI – leading to happier residents and less stressed management teams.

Smarter HOA Management with Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. To learn how Pilera can help to improve efficiency and reduce costs, book a personalized demo. Discover how you can communicate with residents 30x faster and regain work efficiency by 25% with Pilera today!

8 Common Community Management Software Myths Debunked!

As a community manager, staying up-to-date with the latest technology is essential. That way, you can meet board and resident expectations as they evolve. If your team is currently losing time to outdated software or handling tasks in many applications, it is a sign that it is time to change your software. With efficient community management software, you can reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and improve your team\’s workflow.

When migrating to new community management software, it is natural for your team to feel concerned. Though you may face some challenges, such as learning a new system or how it will impact residents, the rewards of change far outweigh the risks.

In this article, we talk about eight common myths about changing community management software. Then, we will talk about how you can overcome these challenges.

1) Learning new software is too time-consuming.

As a community manager, you manage many communities and handle daily tasks. Learning new software can start to feel overwhelming. Some software platforms are challenging to use, demanding more time and effort from your team.

We recommend ensuring software providers can offer the following services:

Easy to use software to communicate, create tasks, respond to resident or board requests, and more.
Help set up your communities and answer any questions you have.
Flexible support options such as email, phone, videos, and help articles so you can get the help you need when needed.
Support should be part of your ongoing subscription, so you don\’t have to worry about paying extra.

Pilera’s property management software is one of the easiest-to-use platforms in the industry. We help you avoid the headaches that come with new software implementation. In addition, Pilera provides onboarding, training, and ongoing support at no extra charge.

2) We’re already using our email service provider. Why use a communication platform?

Effective communication with residents, board members, vendors, and staff is vital to your operations. Many managers use their company\’s primary email service provider to communicate with residents. Relying on your company\’s email provider for communication can feel overwhelming. Searching for emails takes too much time. It can also take hours to update your email list whenever a resident\’s contact information or preference changes. Communication software helps you cut down on manual tasks while keeping residents informed.

Your technology provider should offer the following capabilities to enhance your communications:

Phone, email, text, and postal mailing to cater to broader community demographics.
Distribution groups update when a resident\’s contact information changes or they join/leave the community.
Message delivery confirmation to know if a resident opened an email or received a text.
Reverse 911 functionality to send out emergency blasts by phone or text.
Language translation so you can ensure every message is received and understood.

With Pilera\’s automated communication platform, each community saves an average of $4,927 per year over traditional methods. You can reach an entire community or group of residents the way they want – through phone, email, text, and postal mailing. Translate emails and text into more than 100 languages, and send phone calls in Spanish. Pilera also tracks the delivery of each message you send and tracks email replies in a message inbox.

Download Whitepaper: Understanding return on investment for your community’s technology

3) An all-in-one solution is the best option.

There are many accounting software platforms in the community management industry. Accounting platforms specialize in account receivables, payables, budgeting, and forecasting features. Many accounting platforms also include basic management features. These may include work orders, ACRs, violations, and other features. Although an all-in-one system may sound attractive, most providers started with accounting and built the management piece later. That means you will likely miss out on the more advanced communications and operations features that management platforms focus on.

Even though using two separate systems means splitting your budget between the two, you can benefit by gaining a return on investment in the long run. By integrating your accounting software with a management platform, your team can enjoy the strengths of both systems. Through accounting software, your team can track the financial health of your communities. Management software helps you improve customer service, operations, and resident satisfaction.

Pilera has 2-way integration with some of the best accounting platforms in the market. Pilera enhances the accounting features you love with advanced communications, client support, operations, and resident engagement features. Through the integration, you can save time, reduce manual errors, and improve data accuracy.

4) Implementing new software will disrupt residents.

Another concern we often hear is that switching to new software will cause disruption for residents, and they will have to learn how to use new software. Is the change going to cause an influx of residents calling in? How will residents perceive this change?

Change can be daunting, especially for residents. But, an easy-to-use portal and seamless sign-up process can bring a sense of calm to the transition process.

Look for a provider with the following capabilities:

Access to community information anywhere and on any device.
Simple resident registration
Convenient online payment options
Features that get your residents coming back for more, such as discussion boards, documents, events, and a marketplace.
Residents can easily manage their data.
Self-help videos and instructions for residents to use the resident portal.

Pilera’s onboarding team has helped ease transitions from single associations to management companies of more than 50,000 units. PAS, a California management company, transitioned thousands of residents from their previous platform to Pilera.

\”Pilera\’s support has been exceptional. Having us migrate from one platfrom to the other without that support, we would not have looked as good as we did. It gives our company a finished polish.\”
Carlos Molina, CTO
Professional Association Services, Inc.

5) Already using spreadsheets to track community data

Many managers use spreadsheets to organize and track their tasks, including work orders, resident contact information, violations, and support issues. Yet, managing several spreadsheets over time can be overwhelming. Since spreadsheets don\’t readily facilitate manager collaboration, tasks can easily slip through the cracks.

You can organize your team\’s work under a single roof with community management software. Community management software helps you to manage community tasks and resident requests. Features such as comments, documents, and real-time updates help your team to work better together. You can respond to resident requests faster and even empower them to check the status of their tickets.

With Pilera’s community operations software, your team can work together on and manage work orders, architectural control requests, rule violations, and tasks. Our clients increased efficiency by 25% and saved $5,000 per staff member per year with our ticketing system. Features such as email reply tracking, audit logs, documents, and comments give your team visibility into each task.

6) Software has too many features that we don’t need.

Every HOA community has unique challenges to solve every day. When transitioning to new software, you may be concerned about software providers requiring you to use features you don\’t need.

Some software providers offer one or two pricing plans, often leaving communities overpaying or needing more value.

When evaluating software providers, see if they will offer solutions that fit your community\’s needs:

Customized software packages – Do software providers allow you to select which products/features you want?
Start slow as you go – If you don\’t need all the products a provider offers at the get-go but see potential down the line, do they allow you to choose what you want now and scale later? Your software platform should be customizable, allowing you to add new features as you grow.

Pilera works with thousands of HOAs, condos, co-ops, and apartment communities. Each has unique challenges and needs. Our a-la-carte pricing model enables our customers to choose the products that are right for them.

7) New software will change how we currently operate.

Another myth about transitioning to new software is it will change how you operate. Community management platforms should help you organize your existing processes. Software shouldn\’t change how you operate!

Here at Pilera, we recognize that each community operates differently. We designed our software to give you flexibility in creating, managing, and overseeing your tasks:

Enable different products and features based on your community\’s needs.
Distribution groups enable you to combine units and people to send a message to.
User roles help you control who has access to send messages, create tasks, manage documents, and more.
Categories enable you to organize the type of work orders, RFPs, support tickets, ACRs, violations, and tasks you manage to identify patterns or trends.
Ticket permissions give you control of whether residents can view work orders, ACRs, support, violations, and their associated comments.

8) Our current process/software is good enough.

Is your current HOA management process or software just functional, or is it helping you create more efficiency for your team?

Suppose you are spending too much time on manual data entry, constantly chasing your team members for task updates, struggling to identify community issues, lacking an overview of your team’s work, dealing with constant complaints from board members, or fielding too many calls from residents. In that case, it may be time to consider switching software.

By changing to community management software that automates tedious tasks, improves collaboration with board members, and creates self-sufficient communities, you can deliver a better resident experience and boost efficiency for your team.

Pilera has helped community management companies and associations regain efficiency by 25% and reach residents 30x faster. Additionally, each community saves over $4,900 over traditional communication methods such as company email service providers and postal mailing.

Conclusion

Changing software can be scary, but it can be worth it for better efficiency, growth, and client satisfaction. As you check which community management software is the right choice, consider the following criteria for a successful transition:

A software that is easy to learn and offers onboarding, training, and self-help options.
A communication platform that keeps you organized saves your community money and improves resident satisfaction by offering many ways to stay informed.
Leverage the strengths of both your accounting platform and management platform to monitor financial performance and deliver an excellent resident experience.
Ease the transition for residents to your new platform with a simple registration process and easy-to-use features.
Replace static spreadsheets with an online system that helps your team stay focused and improves collaboration.
Select a platform that lets you choose which products your communities need.
Software that enhances your processes without changing how you operate.
Software platforms that help you automate tedious tasks and empower you to improve the client experience.

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. To learn how Pilera can help to improve efficiency and reduce costs, book a personalized demo.

HOAs

5 Reasons Your Self-Managed Community Needs HOA Software

As a board member, self-managing a community on your own can be overwhelming. Juggling multiple tasks at once, such as preparing for board meetings, hiring vendors, managing compliance, and addressing resident concerns can be challenging for HOAs without ample resources or outside support. But what if you could offload these repetitive tasks and create more time to focus on helping your community thrive? That’s where HOA Software can benefit your team. In this blog post, we will explore 5 self-managed HOA software features that can empower you to run your operations more efficiently.

1) Reduce your workload with self-service resident engagement tools

HOAs often struggle with sharing important information about the community, such as upcoming events, rules, and meeting updates. Without a way to share critical information that keeps a community running smoothly, board members may start to feel overwhelmed. Ultimately, residents may feel dissatisfied with the lack of information.

A self-service resident portal can be an invaluable resource for HOAs looking to self-manage their community. Through a self-service portal, residents can manage their own data, submit requests, and connect with other residents. For example, residents can submit maintenance requests, view documents, or make payments without ever needing to contact the board. This can significantly reduce your workload as a board member while providing a satisfying resident experience.

Resident portal features

When choosing which HOA management platform is right for your community, look for one with a resident portal that is easy for your residents to use. The resident portal should include features such as:

Online Payments
Document Library
Discussion Board
Resident Directory
Event Calendar
Service Requests
Architectural Change Requests
Self-managed resident data

Through Pilera’s self-service portal, residents can get the latest community information and request services, which ultimately reduces the administrative burden for your team. Residents can also self-manage their own data such as occupants and communication preferences.

2) Keep residents informed in a timely manner

With so many communication options available, HOAs often feel overwhelmed with fragmented communication and reaching specific groups in a timely manner. Communicating with the right people at the right time is vital to running your HOA successfully. Effective communication helps to reduce operational issues and empowers you to foster positive relationships with the community. It’s important to keep residents informed about upcoming events, board meetings, emergencies, or important changes in the community. Boards need to be able to quickly respond to resident inquiries and complaints as well. A communication platform can make it easier for board members to disseminate important information and bring the community together.

Communication features

When choosing communication software that’s right for you, it’s vital to understand your community’s demographics and how they want to be communicated with. More HOAs are utilizing text messaging as a way to reach residents instantly. Whereas, elder demographics may still prefer to be communicated with through phone calls. Having multiple methods of communication increases your reach and ensures your message is heard. Here are some features your automated communication platform should include:

Phone, text, email, and postal mailing options
Distribution groups
Language translation
Resident communication & language preference
Advanced scheduling
Templates
Message delivery analytics
Invalid contact reports & troubleshooting
Strong message delivery reputation

Through Pilera’s automated communication tool, you can send phone, email, text, and postal mailing; send messages to dynamic distribution groups that update as residents leave or join the community; and track the lifecycle of a message in real time. Our team works behind the scenes to monitor delivery reputation, so your message is sent when and where it needs to be. With a 99.9% message delivery rate, your messages will be delivered even during a local outage.

3) Stay on top of Maintenance repairs

Keeping track of the high volume of service requests you receive from residents in a timely manner can often be daunting. Maintenance tracking software helps to create a streamlined process for residents to submit their requests online and for board members to notify vendors of work that needs to be done. With maintenance software, board members can eliminate paperwork, stay on top of repairs as they progress, and respond to residents in a timely manner.

Maintenance features

When choosing maintenance software, look for features that provide two-way communication with residents to save your team time. Look for other features such as:

Resident input work orders with photos & documents
Work order ticketing and vendor assignment
Automated email notifications to vendors and residents
Vendor email response tracking
Vendor database and license expiration reminders

Pilera provides an integrated work order and vendor management system that empowers board members to reduce resolution time, improve vendor and resident communication, and organize tasks.

4) Get competitive RFP bids for your community projects

HOAs regularly need to run a Request for Proposal (RFP) to get a minimum of 3 or more vendor bids for their community projects. The process can often be overwhelming, from the distribution of the RFP to evaluating vendor responses. An RFP management feature helps board members to create a consistent process that promotes fairness to all vendors and gets bid responses in a timely manner. With an RFP management system, board members can send RFPs to vendors, share documents, respond to any questions, and track vendor responses in one place.

RFP Management Features

When searching for the right RFP management tool, it’s important to look for a tool that keeps all of your RFP activities organized and helps you communicate better with vendors. Here are some key features to look for:

RFP creation and automation
Vendor database to track contact information
Document sharing
Vendor email response tracking
Vendor license expiration reminders

Pilera recently introduced its partnership with RFP Plus, a secure and collaborative platform to manage your RFP process. The platform centralizes all RFP activities, documents, vendors, and vendor responses related to your RFP in one place.

5) Organize and prioritize community tasks

HOA board members have many responsibilities, including administrative tasks, event planning, managing finances, preparing for board meetings, and more. It’s important for you to have a central place to organize all your community responsibilities. A task management system provides a central place for board members to create and assign tasks, set priorities, schedule due dates, collaborate, and provide regular updates to team members so nothing slips through the cracks. Having a central place for board members to work together on tasks improves accountability. It also gives everyone visibility into the status of current tasks.

Task management features:

When searching for a task management tool, look for a tool that gives visibility to your team on tasks that need to be completed. Your task management tool should also allow you to collaborate with other board members to ensure that everyone has the most up-to-date information.

Task creation and assignment
Status updates and collaboration
Document sharing
Automated notifications
Dashboard and filters
Board meeting/community reports

Through Pilera’s task management platform, you can create and assign tasks to each other, prioritize tasks, collaborate, and report on task status. Our task management feature also includes a comprehensive audit trail of the task, making it easier to transfer knowledge to new board members.

Conclusion

Operating a self-managed HOA is no easy feat, and it takes a lot of planning, organizing, collaborating, and dedication to make it successful. Today, there are many self-managed HOA software solutions that can take the administrative burden off of your daily grind as a board member and empower you to manage your community more efficiently.

In this blog post, you learned about 5 self-managed HOA software features that can make managing your community easier and more rewarding. Resident portals, communication tools, service request management, RFP process tracking, and many more tools can help keep your operations more focused and save time for your HOA.

Board Member, HOAs

How to Maintain Security and Productivity in HOA Management

Homeowners associations help create safer, wealthier, and more friendly communities for nearly a quarter of Americans. Running a successful HOA is challenging as management needs to balance maintaining property values and keeping residents content. Some HOAs are set in their ways, which may not be efficient or secure anymore.

Here, we look at two factors integral to any HOA’s prosperity – security and productivity. How have recent changes impacted these areas? What can HOAs do to thrive under new circumstances? Find out below.

What Security Challenges Do HOAs Face?

Homeowners\’ associations are prime targets for cyberattacks. HOA management is often behind the times. That’s why HOAs are unprepared for the increasingly sophisticated threats to lax cybersecurity. Strengthening this aspect of your HOA administration duties is vital to safeguarding residents\’ data and maintaining their trust.

Data breaches have the most severe consequences since HOAs store diverse personal data on their residents. Stealing it through phishing or malware attacks can yield names, addresses, and banking information, and more that cybercriminals can profit from. Such a breach can even directly impact neighborhood safety if you have a security code database.

How to Strengthen Your HOA’s Data Security?

It\’s the HOA management company\’s responsibility to maintain up-to-date data security practices. These are the first steps you should take.

1) Assess the data your HOA keeps

An HOA can hardly protect its data if the management and board members aren\’t aware of everything they\’re collecting. Brush up on the laws that mandate which data you must collect and then take stock of your records.

Some HOAs might not be fully compliant. Others may find they collect more data than they\’re legally obliged to. The less information you need to store, the lower the chance criminals will get their hands on valuable something if a breach occurs.

2) Know how secure your HOA software is

Assessing the data that HOA keeps is important. However, another major task is to be aware of the security of the software and systems you use to store and process that data. Many HOAs and management companies use community management software to manage every aspect of their community operations.

Therefore ensuring that any software you use has the necessary security protocols is the top priority. Since security protocols keep your data safe, they prevent cybersecurity issues. Here are how Pilera keeps client’s data secure:

Passwords are securely stored using SHA-512 encryption and salted with 512 bits for more security.
A site-wide lockout policy is implemented to defend against brute-force attacks.
HTTPS security is used, and certificates are automatically renewed to keep server-client communication secure.
The database is encrypted using an SSH certificate and IP blocking to prevent unauthorized access.

3) Implement a data access policy

A comprehensive security strategy needs to take inside threats into account. Creating a data access hierarchy will limit the people who have access to your HOA\’s sensitive data. It’s a good idea to check your HOA software to see what permissions are available to assign to each staff member.

Permission-based roles allow you to give your staff access only to the information they need and that is pertinent to their job function. For example, Pilera has a variety of permissions that managers can set for their staff and board members based on what they need to do, such as managing tasks, sending messages, updating the document library, etc.

4) Start using a VPN

HOAs constantly send sensitive documents to vendors and other third-party actors. If the network these documents travel through isn’t secure, someone could intercept and use them for nefarious purposes. A VPN prevents this through a separate secure connection that encrypts any data you send.

While surfing on the internet, your unprotected connection can jeopardize your security. And yes, even if you use a Mac instead of a PC. Compared to Windows, Mac OS has strong protections built into them. Yet, the answer to your can Macs get malware question is always a yes. Since Macs can bring viruses like PCs, you must protect your connection. Fortunately, you only need to activate a VPN browser extension nowadays.

5) Spread awareness

Most cyberattacks succeed due to deceit. It\’s much easier to prevent them if managers, boards, and residents understand how phishing and malware work. Researching these dangers and distributing a primer on how to avoid them will help form healthy security habits.

What keeps HOAs from being more productive?

Most residents find living in an HOA is a positive experience — those who express dissatisfaction with their HOA site\’s slowness in resolving issues as their chief complaint.

More than 200,000 HOAs in the US have diverse views on management, varying technological acceptance, and different levels of community engagement. While all these factors play a part, being slow to embrace technological change is the most pressing issue.

Greater reliance on technology would have happened sooner or later. However, the pandemic put into perspective how using modern means of management and communication can help technologically savvy HOAs weather crises with more confidence.

How to Boost Your HOA Management\’s Productivity

Streamlining repetitive, unnecessary, and tedious tasks is the key to a more productive HOA. Doing so cuts the administrative clutter, leaving management free to focus on solving disputes and bettering the community. Here are a few solutions you should implement or expand upon.

1) Automate what you can.

We might be well into the 21st century, but some HOAs still get by with handwritten notes or printouts on notice boards. Even something as simple as an email management program can ensure board members and residents get pertinent info in time.

2) Start using community management software.

HOAs share many responsibilities and workflow with conventional offices. There are documents to process, tasks to manage, and reports to fill. HOA and property management platforms provide comprehensive solutions for such responsibilities.

Especially with HOA management software, you can streamline tasks like work orders, resident support, architectural change requests, rule violations, and internal duties. This software empowers your team to organize all your community\’s activities and communications in a single place and improve the visibility of your operations.

3) Involve the community.

An HOA is nothing without the community it represents, and technology can help. You can empower your community by setting up a residential portal. Members can catch up on the latest news and discuss neighborhood matters there.

This way, residents can conveniently submit requests and pay online on their own time, reducing the board and manager\’s workload. This allows managers and board members to field fewer inbound calls, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks for the community.

Conclusion

Homeowners’ associations provide a valuable service to their community. To continue this service, they must adapt to the latest technology and security standards. Taking action now, instead of waiting, will guarantee that your community is qualified to manage developing demands from residents, technological advancements, and security risks.

Bio

Stacey Wonder is a freelance blogger from California. She usually writes on educational topics, career, self-development, and writing. When not busy with her projects, Stacey creates detective stories. She dreams to become a well-known writer one day.

HOAs

Board Member, HOAs

Why is an agenda important for HOA board meetings?

1. Preparation

2. Focus and Direction

3. Efficiency

4. Transparency

5. Accountability

What makes a solid board meeting agenda?

1. An Outline of the Agenda

2. Communicate Expectations to Staff

3. Distribute the Agenda in Advance

4. Set Clear Expectations

5. Follow Up After the Meeting

How to Communicate about Follow-up Tasks from the Board Meeting

1. Document Action Items

2. Send Out Meeting Minutes

3. Clarify Responsibilities

4. Set Reminders

5. Document Progress

6. Review and Follow Up

How to Leverage a Task Management System for Board Meeting Action Items

1. Centralized Task Management

2. Accountability

3. Setting Deadlines and Prioritization

4. Collaboration and Communication

5. Visibility and Transparency

Watch Video: Tasks, ACRs & Violations Management

Transforming HOA Meetings with Organized Agendas

About Pilera

Why should HOA communities care about sustainability?

Environmental Conservation

Cost Savings

Health and Well-being

Overcome Disruptions

Community Engagement

Enhanced Property Values

Aesthetic Appeal

Ways to promote sustainability in your communities

1) Encourage Community Cleanup Events

2) Plant a Community Garden

3) Set up a Composting Program

4) Promote Energy Efficiency Initiatives

5) Promote Water Conservation

6) Create a Recycling Program

7) Host Educational Workshops and Seminars

8) Transition from Paper to Digital

9) Green Spaces and Wildlife Habitats

10) Promote Alternative Transportation

How to get communities excited about sustainability

Host Fun Events

Create Incentive Programs

Utilize Social Media

Educational Campaigns

Collaborate with Local Organizations

Keep the Practice Simple

How to leverage technology to promote your sustainability efforts

Renewable Energy Solutions

Water Conservation Technologies

Community Engagement Platforms

Resident portals

Event management

Text & email communications

Online payments

Websites

Summary

About Pilera

Condos, HOAs

Roles, Accountability & Transparency

Create a welcome packet for board members

New Board Member Orientation

Technology Access and Training

Video: How to Manage Board Member Information in Pilera

HOA Management Software Training for New Board Members

Resident Communications

Maintenance, Architectural Change Requests, and Rule Violations

Board Meetings

Task Management & Collaboration

Encourage education for New Board Members

Summary: Setting your new board members up for success in your HOA