As a resident of a housing society, there are many discussions and often debates to be had. Whether you’re part of the managing committee or not, as a member of a gated community, you have the right to engage in conversations and the responsibility to voice your opinion.
Some common examples of society communication topics include:
- Organizing festival celebrations, Independence Day, Annual Day, and other events
- Shortlisting and finalizing vendors, plans, and timelines for installing new assets like composting units, CCTV, smart meters, and other such endeavors for the betterment of society.
- Emergency situations like a break-in, fire, health scares like Covid, or urgent safety parameters.
- Discussions regarding any misconduct or conflict with respect to society maintenance staff, maids, drivers, any other.
- Feedback on implementation of any new plan, event, system (e.g. new revenue generation activities, garage sale, yoga workshops, cleanliness drives, waste management initiatives).
The importance of group communication
All society matters should be handled with transparency and participation. It’s vital that everyone is kept apprised of updates, decisions, development while being encouraged to give their inputs in the spirit of collaboration.
Oftentimes, residents may have internal conflicts or a general grievance/inconvenience regarding a problem. Open and honest resolution can only be brought about through peaceful negotiation involving all parties.
Residents may have questions about a decision or may need clarity on certain procedures and policies of the society. Answering them duly with transparency is essential to build trust and cooperation.
Benefits of using MyGate society ERP for online group communication (with examples)
Create online polls
Let’s say the event planning committee is not sure which centrepiece to go with on the day of Diwali celebrations, more routine tasks like which paint to choose for the clubhouse or more serious matters like how much penalty for litterers. It’s difficult to personally contact every one and count votes.
You can run online polls to gather opinions and answers to yes or no questions on society ERP apps in a few steps and make decisions instantly.
Invite residents for meetings
Need to call a special meeting with regards to an upcoming decision or an urgent society-wide announcement? Just select the number of people who must attend the meeting, and send them digital invites listing the time, agenda, and date. The same can be applied to committee meetings, however, the minutes of each meeting should be in accordance with the state co-operative housing society bye-laws.
Start forum discussions
There’s no better way to resolve a situation or have a civilized conversation over a topic than on a supervised group chat. Residents can not only engage in group conversations like a regular IM chat app but also comment on other participants’ ideas. Even feedback on a particular activity or executive decision can be openly discussed on the forum.
MyGate ERP – Creating Polls
1. Login to dashboard.mygate.com
2. Click on the Communication icon present on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Click on the Opinion Polls option
4. Click on Create New Poll
5. Enter the required details and click on Create
Here’s how you can View Results
1. Login to dashboard.mygate.com
2. Click on the Communication icon present on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Click on Opinion Polls option
4. Click on View icon against a Poll
Here’s how you can Create Meetings
1. Login to dashboard.mygate.in
2. Click on the Communication icon present on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Click on Meetings option
4. Click on Create
5. Enter the required details
6. Click on Submit
Here’s how you can Publish MOM
1. Login to dashboard.mygate.com
2. Click on the Communication icon present on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Click on Meetings option
4. Click on Past Meetings
5. Click on View against the meeting you want to publish the minutes for
6. Enter minutes of the meeting and other details and click on Post
The same MOM can be also Printed or Added to Society Documents for future reference via ‘Upload’
Here’s how you can Create a Discussion
1. Login to dashboard.mygate.com
2. Click on the Communication icon present on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Click on Discussion Forum option
4. Click on Create Discussion
5. Enter the required details and click on Create
Annual society elections
Apart from the regular meetings, the society election is a massive endeavour for societies and needs to be conducted in a fair and efficient way. They are to be held on August 14 of every year at the time of the AGM, but most societies don’t strictly adhere to this date. In the wake of the Covid pandemic, even the government had allowed online election for housing societies. However, the elections are to be held in a secret ballot as per the mandate at the completion of five years of the sitting committee.
Each society must appoint a Returning Officer to ensure unbiased voting. To ease this process, the admin/login access to the election votes can be given only to the designated RO who’s in charge of the secret voting process and can access results. However, ensure that you appoint a fair and trustworthy individual who has everyone’s confidence. Because of end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication, society management apps are completely secure to carry out election voting procedures.
Each state has housing society bye-laws that list the guidelines, timelines and protocols to conduct society election. For instance, Maharashtra allows a housing society with less than 250 members to conduct a month-long election procedure to cover voting lists, nomination, withdrawal and balloting/post balloting disputes and rejections. There’s a deposit fee involved and each contestant needs to be seconded by two members. To know the detailed laws of elections in Karnataka, follow The Karnataka Cooperative Societies Act here.
MC/RWA has to ensure that all required election rules, regulations, notices for nominations, last dates, and other pertinent details are followed according to the state bye-laws and relayed to the residents on time (for which society ERP can offer the feature of using a virtual notice board).
Upcoming Features
- Surveys
- Election Polls