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We have a SC of 5 and I’m the only one who doesn’t have (or want) WhatsApp. I’m being ‘encouraged’ to install it to enable faster decision-making with fewer emails.
Both of these concern me – I can see it’d be easy to make quick decisions requiring a simple Yes/No response using WhatsApp but what about more complex decisions, those requiring more thought and consideration? And I don’t know if you can keep strata records and download the decisions made in WhatsApp for future reference and for transparency.
As for ‘fewer emails’, my understanding is that once WhatsApp gets going, there can be floods of messages. I came across one research paper which looked at the use of WhatsApp in education and wasn’t reassured about its use (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=
EJ1253088). I also know that while there can be encryption and security issues with applications such as these, this if of lesser concern to me as the message content would not be personal. Frankly, while I do have and use a smartphone, it isn’t an essential part of my life (you can guess which generation I belong to), nor do I want it to be. To date, I’ve explained to the other SC members that I don’t want to carry my phone around with me in order to be ‘on tap’ to respond instantly and that if there’s anything urgent, they have my phone number. I really prefer the use of emails where there’s opportunity for thought and opinion and, importantly, a transparent email trail. Or am I just being difficult?
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I would not like to use the WhatsApp either, for the reasons you provide as well as the nuisance of the phone pinging constantly with notifications which involves getting it out from wherever you are, just to check if it is an important notification or some marketing junk. I have had to change the settings on my iphone to stop notifications from most apps for this reason.
However, getting responses from fellow SC members via emails is also a bother where I live as some members are tardy at checking emails or don’t bother to reply. Are you or any others one of these people? Tackle the ‘fewer emails is good’ member and ask them what their problem is since typing may as well be on a keyboard as on a phone.
Jimmy’s friend Tonja, at Strata Answers has set up a strata committee page on her website which may be worth investigating as to whether it would be successful in your complex and your SC could migrate over to it if you can convince the other members to give it a go.
I think it depends, in my complex WhatsApp is entirely optional and only used to get a feel for what some other owner’s think is reasonable or unreasonable (insert whatever issue/repair etc).
It’s a balance of being intrusive into your personal time and staying connected to fellow owners. Those of us that do use WhatsApp, are fully aware that we’re only engaging a subset of owners and therefore no major decisions or dicussions take place in WhatsApp.
Anything that needs a paper trail record or can’t be condensed into a one line question goes into an email and can esclate up to an EGM if needed. So maybe the solution here is to discuss with other owners and set expectations early.