Your HOA/POA meetings have a typical structure of course - Call to Order, Quorum, Approve prior Meeting Minutes etc. When it comes to community discussion though, how do you know you are guiding the discussion toward topics that the majority actually care about.
Have you ever sat through a meeting where you hear random questions from the back, specific to one particular person, that makes everyone else's eyes roll?
Yep, we thought so.
π’ Introducing Topic Builder
With Topic Builder, as you create a meeting, you can choose to enable it and seek input from your members on what will be discussed in the community discussion portion of your meeting. Sometimes the items are so clear they are worth covering during the actual meeting itself with more dedicated time.
π So how does it work?
At the bottom of the Meeting Manager meeting setup you will see the Topic Builder option. Enable it for this meeting. You then have two choices (covered below)
1) Allow Anonymous Submissions? - This doesn't mean just anyone, because members are signed in to the portal in order to see the meeting. This just means a member can propose a topic or ask a question without sharing their name. We don't recommend it, as generally the questions are perhaps a but less constructive when the member can hide, but its up to you. This just means whatever the question, the poster will read "Anonymous."
2) Allow Downvotes? In order to best illustrate this concept you need to see what the screen looks like - see below.
π Here is what the published meting looks like
π If you click Topics, you will see the Topic Builder
π Next select "Join Topic Discussion"
βοΈ Your members can click the Thumbs Up (UpVote) or in this case the Thumbs Down (Downvote). The net result of the up and down "votes" determines the place that this item takes on the Topic Board. As you navigate your meeting, and reach the community discussion time, you can focus on the most important items based on this community input.
π Your members can also add new questions or topics to the board here, and after adding, other members can engage to promote them or move them down.
π FYI: The board automatically refreshes periodically while your screen is open so you see the latest order and engagement.