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June 18, 2007
The news just stays the same
From the fact that I haven't updated this blog in a while, it shows that I actually received my passport in time to make my trip. It arrived at the local FedEx office 4 hours before I was due to get on the plane. I was standing there waiting for it. Thanks to my local Congressman's office for pushing it out in time (barely).
I was able to check in on the news a couple of times, but nothing much had changed. Boards were still making good decisions and bad decisions; owners were still loving or hating their association; or each other; management companies were being bought and sold; hired or fired; and attorney's were still avoiding explaining gray areas in documents to their clients. The bad news seemed to outweigh the good, with foreclosures on the rise, and housing having a tough time in many areas of the country.
I want to comment on one area that popped up in today's news, about an owner that started up a web site to comment on the association he lived in. Now I don't have a problem with anyone starting up a web site to talk about their association, oe even to rant about it - that's free speech. I do have a problem with him using the assocaition name and logo on the site, and that's the association's fault. Associations should tradmark their name and logo. Its not expensive or very much trouble, and at least the owners will know which is the official web site and which one isn't. It wasn't too long ago that an owner trademarked the name and logo of a large association, claiming he was going to use them on T-shirts and ball caps to sell, and sent a note off to the association to stop using their name and logo since he had tradmarked them. This will probably be in the courts for a while. The point is to get yours registered before an angry owner gets there first. For more information about trademarks see the Wiki article
Just before I left I decided that I wanted to expand the news reporting of community association stories and so I changed servers and began using a new program. There are now 19 news feeds covering every part of the country as well as legal, industry, and international feeds now available. If you're interested in picking up these feeds, either as an RSS file for your own reading, or to place on your web site, contact us and we'll set you up with the codes. The news feeds can be very helpful as things that happen in part of the country tend to migrate to the rest rather quickly. Better to know what's coming and prepare, rather than react after the fact.
Posted by joewest at June 18, 2007 7:13 PM