The Four Components of a Successful Homeowner's Association Newsletter

July 21, 2020

The Four Components of a Successful Homeowner's Association Newsletter

The Four Components of a Successful HOA Newsletter

The best newsletters have four major components to them that increase their perceived

value (how important the newsletter is). Those components are: informational;

educational; communicative; and, service-oriented.

Informational: The informational component consists of the articles that inform owners

about what is going on within the community and association. Board meeting notices and

highlights, notices of upcoming maintenance projects, updates on current maintenance

projects, president’s letters, committee reports, social event calendars, any kind of article

that has a “what” element to it: What is going on.

Educational: The educational component is made up of those articles that have a “why”

element: Why does the association do this? For example, articles explaining community

rules would be considered educational if they not only remind residents of a particular

rule or regulation but also explain why it is important that it be complied with. When you

tell residents to clean up after their dog “because we told you to” it isn’t going to go over

very well. But when you explain that not only does it help keep our community clean and

help protect the curb appeal of the community (which in turn helps protect property

values), but that dog feces is the number one transmitter of canine diseases and by

picking up after your dog you are doing your part to protect the health of the community

canine population, then it gets the message across in a positive manner.

Other examples of the educational component are articles explaining some of the various

issues that the association board of directors must make decisions upon either presently

or in the future. Topics such as reserve funds, reserve studies, budgeting, rules

enforcement, assessment collection policy, board meeting conduct and insurance are

excellent to use for educational articles. Telling the members ‘why’ the board has to do

what it does goes a long way in increasing understanding and support within the

association.

Communicative: The communicative component is the “who” sections of the newsletter:

Who do you contact. Often these sections simply list the management company

representatives such as the manager, assistant manager, customer service and accounting

contacts. Other important information include board members, committee chairs and

members and local civic contacts such as non-emergency numbers for police and fire

departments, utility company phone numbers, security service and cable television

information.

Surveys and requests for information from owners and residents are also parts of the

communicative component.

Service-Oriented: For many residents, the service-oriented component is the most

important element of the newsletter. These are the resident classified advertising, display

ads or information about local businesses and services that many newsletters should

include in order to provide another dimension of service to the members of the

community: the ability to sell their services and products to members of their own

community. Newsletters that we produce for community associations offer residents the

opportunity to submit a 30 word classified ad for publication in each issue free of charge.

A good measuring stick on how many people are actually reading the newsletter is by the

number of people who submit a free classified ad.

By providing elements other than strictly community association issues within an

association newsletter, the manager is able to expand the degree of interest that the

newsletter will have. More owners and residents will view the newsletter as a valuable

resource if the information included in it is relevant to their interests. The more valuable

the newsletter is perceived as being, the more impact it will have so that even though

there is other information in it besides just association-related issues, those association related

issues will carry more weight.

MyHOA Application Modules

MyHOA Technology Division is constantly innovating and developing applications that enable HOA board members to proactively communicate with residents through their web portal.

The Blog Module enables HOA board members/homeowners to post blogs related to community events or issues. Other homeowners/members can read, like and comment on the blogs to better gauge where the community stands on a particular issue or subject.