9/19/2008

E-mail retention policies made the news this week, as Sarah Palin and her gubanatorial staff came under fire for allegedly using personal e-mail accounts for official state business.

This week's tip is to make sure your entire HOA board understands how to handle e-mails that relate to homeowner association business.

For example, which e-mails to or from your fellow HOA board members must you preserve?

Answer: all of them. Or at least, all e-mails where you are communicating in your capacity as board members. If you're talking about getting together to watch football on Sunday, you're probably safe deleting the e-mail, just like you delete those bad chain-email jokes from your cousin.

But if you mention any kind of board business, your e-mails are official association communications and must be preserved. Not only that, but those e-mails are discoverable in court, should a lawsuit come up.

The legal issues pertaining to board e-mail don't end there, of course. For example, when does an e-mail conversation among board members become an official homeowners association board meeting? Under what circumstances might you be operating under a false sense of security, thinking that attorney-client privelege makes your e-mail confidential when really it doesn't?

We covered all of these legal compliance issues, plus some best practices in a recently posted article. Read the article now.

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President

Subscribe to our free "Tip of the Week" e-mail to get more great tips. We will never share your e-mail address with anyone. Unsubscribe at any time. Name: Email:

Related Articles

·  Living Up to Your Fiduciary Duty as an HOA Board Member ·  HOA Governance: When Does E-mail Chatter Become a Board Meeting?