Open Letter to the Board re Email Management

The following email has been sent to the members of the HOA's board of directors:

Good afternoon, members of the Board,

I am writing to recommend that the HOA establish its own email server and email management system. This would give the HOA control over the emails and establish a permanent record.

I believe there is already a summithomeowners.com domain. This record shows the ownership: https://www.whois.com/whois/summithomeowners.com  Who on the board or in the office is the contact with that domain owner and has the record of ownership and passwords? (I don't need the answer, but you should know it.) It would be neither difficult nor expensive to set up email boxes for Officers, Directors, and Committees, and office personnel. I'm surprised that CAMS hasn't recommended this. Or has it?

If the officers, directors, and the office used this domain (ex., President@summithomeowners.com), then the HOA's record of communications would be on-going. Policies would have to be created, so that business emails are not deleted (such as Vernell's email referring to me as a squatter). UserIDs should be titles, not individual names. The email goes with the office, not with the individual.

Two Treasurers died in a 13-month period, and all their years of communications by email died with them. A Director left the board in November 2022, and his emails went with him. No doubt many other emails have been lost over the years.

Should the HOA change management companies, all the communications between the HOA and CAMS will be lost.

I recommend that the board establish a committee of knowledgeable people to research the benefits and cost of such a system and report their findings to the Board in public session.

Creation of such a committee and its scope should be done by Motion, Second and Vote.

Sincerely,

Gus Philpott

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