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: