Online General Assembly inserted in closed social networks (Summary of an observation study)

Online General Assembly inserted in closed social networks (Summary of an observation study)

The healthy usufruct of a condominim patrimony depends on the creation of a cordial atmosphere among all owners, administration and service providers, which presupposes relational processes that minimize the conflitcs of interest of these  “stakeholders”

The observation of problems, summarized in this document, is based on a real case of more than 7 years which led to the conclusion that conflicts were almost always generated by the limitations that the main form of decision, the General Assembly, allows, facilitating an environment very difficult to drive for quality decisions.

 

Another source of conflict is generated by the power interests that the different forms and styles of action its Administration allows.

 

Examples of problems with traditional General Assembly:

 

  • Are scheduled for a certain date and time that is often not compatible with the availability of some condominium owners;

  • Some condominium owners shy away from Assemblies because they feel that most of their time is lost in useless discussions;

  • Some condominium owners are withdrawing from the Assemblies because they feel that some of the issues under discussion are not sufficiently substantiated or documented and therefore prefer not to give their opinion;

  • Some condominium owners prefer not to attend Assemblies, because in previous Assemblies a conflictuous environment has been generated that they prefer to avoid;

  • Some condominium owners do not participate because they believe there is already a pre-prepared majority that has taken over the decision process and that there are no conditions to alternate proposals.

 

Examples of issues related to the power of Manage:

 

  • Choose the service providers to hire;

  • Determine the needs of external services and their urgency;

  • Manage the treasury;

  • Influencing decision-making, including the General Meetings;

  • Provide in fact situations;

 

Framework for a Solution
 

The solution consists of processes to facilitate the robustness of information, the simplicity of means of communication and practical functionalities for the democratization of the decision process.

 

Observing these processes ensures the minimization of verified problems. A Online General Assembly inserted in a closed Social Network meets these requirements and allows the following objectives:

  • Definition, registration, certification and maintenance of all system users and their qualification;

  • Definition, access control and usage restrictions by user qualification;

  • Management and provision of information content;

  • Management and availability of commenting tools;

  • Management and availability of dialogue tools and direct electronic communication between users;

  • Management and availability of informative emphasis tools;

  • Management and availability of functionalities related to the specific characteristics of the specific social network;

  • Collection of usage statistics that allow verification for content and use improvement processes;

  • Historical record to allow the checking of management activities and individual accountability of the system.

 

In the case of condominiums, the users are in addition to the condominium owners, the respective administrators, and some condominium owners may belong to a Monitoring Committee that assigns them some regulatory powers.

 

The incorporation of the Online General Assembly into a closed social network integrates the certification of its active participants and processes such as individual vote weight, auditability records and offers the following qualitative consequences:

  • Elimination of problems related to the absence of quorum;

  • More rationalism of the decision process derived from the increase of time for reflection and verification to the documentation of the subjects treated;

  • Less likelihood of conflict due to the absence of reactions and poor interpretations, natural in a face-to-face meeting;

  • Lower probability of manipulation of decisions pressured by fatigue due to the deliberate lengthening of the discussions;

  • Possibility of accompaniment in the first person, regardless of distance and location;

  • Facilitation of the process of registration and execution of the meeting minutes derived to the automation of tools made available.

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