✨✨General Discussions

At our CCRC we have no way of easily, readily and broadly communicating out from one member to all members.

So, for example, if we have a question about anything local (doctor's, events, restaurants near and not-too-far) we have no way of putting out a question, as one can do on Facebook. Nor do we have a way to spontaneous ask if someone wants to go to the movies or take a walk or gather for an event. Sure we can ask our friends/neighbors in an email but that's it.

I have thought of starting a private "members only" Facebook group, but wonder if any other community has done this.

Please let me know. Comments welcome. Thank you!

I setup groups on Facebook and Nextdoor. Someone complained and was able to prevent me from posting to Nextdoor. I made the Facebook group inactive to avoid accusations of libel. There was nothing libelous but one can be sued anyway. Now I'm acting as Facilitator to setup a new residents group that complies with Virginia law. I will not accept any position in that group. Management doesn't want residents getting together to act.

Hi Enver,

I can understand a CCRC not wanting residents to "act." That is why I am creating rules of engagement one of which will

be "This is not the complaint department. Do not post complaints here." But I will heed what you have shared.

The residents of my CCRC have two online forums. One is all-purpose, the other for "opinion"--i.e. political, etc. discussion. They were both set up on the platform groups.google.com.

Hello Philippa,

Thank you for responding and sharing information.

I am unfamiliar with groups.google but I am tech oriented and can get onboard easily. Question: can one make this a private group? In other words, can the admin prevent people from joining? I want to open it to all residents - no questions asked - but I don't want management or outsiders. And I am setting up rules which include "this is not the complaint department."

I believe that "google groups" are run by member volunteers who monitor admission. I'm a member of one google group for which the moderators determine if the party interested in joining meets the membership criteria.

Also, NorCCRA (North Carolina CCRC Residents Assn) has 3 google groups: one for Res Assn Presidents to ask and share information; another for NorCCRA community reps who are not the RA President; and a 3rd special group to share environmental efforts to "go green." One has to contact the designated Communications person on NorCCRA's Executive Committee to "get in" to any of those 3.

As far as residents communicating with residents, after waiting and waiting for a Portal for years, two residents went ahead on their own and created an blog that anyone can access without any special sign-in code. Residents could post classified ads, warn about particular scams they heard about, provide special "thanks" and accolades to employees, seek those with special interests (a la "Anyone a chess player?"); make recommendations about local restaurants, tailors, car detailing; express wishes for the community's Master Plan, etc. People wanting to post something email a special blog email address with what they want to say, even including photos. Employees getting a nice compliment could have their families sign on and read it. A "box" categorizes the subject matter, and there's a "What's New" box that one can check to see what's been posted lately, without having to read through everything.

Another example: one couple did their own research and found a vendor to convert the bathtub in their cottage to a walk-in shower with a removable insert cut into the tub. They got it okayed by our Facilities Department, had it installed, then published their success on the blog, providing before/after photos.

These residents who created the blog knew that the Portal would be controlled by management. The blog is controlled by the residents who built it. A Portal was finally rolled out after the blog existed for 2 years. Did the Portal have a place for classified ads? No. Did it have a place for expressing a "job well done" by employees? No. Did it have a place to report scams or make recommendations for local services? No. The inventors of the blog wouldn't have minded "being put out of business" (that's just an expression -- it wasn't a business) by the Portal, but it continues on .... just not QUITE as active.

You're welcome to go to the blog and see how it works. Only first names and last initials are used, for security purposes. It works very well. www.tvablife.blog

Claire,

I am not familiar with the mechanics of operating a forum on Google Groups.

But it is hard for me to believe that a CCRC would be within its rights to exercise any control of any kind over the forum when that forum is operated entirely independently of the CCRC. If you got together physically with other residents in your own private living space, or in an outside coffee shop, say, (not using CCRC community facilities) could the CCRC have any control over that?

Another platform for forums is groups.io.

Claire,

It just occurred to me that unless you have ready access to the email addresses of all residents, you might face a problem in needing to get that from the CCRC management. But it's hard to believe you don't have a community directory with that info. Otherwise, you'd have to rely on word of mouth.

Claire,

I am at an Erickson Community with around 2,000, members in around 16 buildings. I set up an email Listserv System based on Google Groups. I found a Manager for each building to run thr Listserv for that building. I set up a Managers Listserv for the Managers. At first management and some residents didn't want it. Management was afraid because they didn't control it. Residents against it were afraid of receiving too many emails. Now everyone loves it. It creates community. It gets information out quickly about elevators down. It gets help almost instantly. It is a bit like the old telephone partyline. We have rules: no politics, no discussion of money, no discussion of religion, no discussion of sex, and follow George Washington's Rules of Civility. It isn't that complicated to set up and run. It can be used by anyone with a smartphone or tablet or laptop or desktop and an email address.

Claire,

At Medford Leas (a CCRC in Medford, New Jersey) our residents assn. can email all residents. This works well for residents who use email. Sometimes printed things are put in residents’ internal mailboxes. Not everyone has or wants a Facebook account. Our resident website has a private page that often contains good material. These are resident-run. Call me at 609/947-4887 if you want more details.

At Wake Robin at Shelburne, Vermont, the non-profit residents' association sponsors a members-only (no administration) daily listserv, Wake Robin Connects. Any resident may post, everyone gets one daily email containing all posts. The platform, Electric Embers, costs us $15/month and four residents take turns monitoring posts to ensure they follow our guidelines (civility, no politics, no personal criticism, etc.) Most residents subscribe and it's become the most reliable way to share information with the most people possible.

At Greenspring (also an Erickson Community), we have GRIX (Greenspring Resident Information Exchange), which is an email server operated by the Computer Club. Residents need to request access.

When a resident has a question or coment, they send an email to GRIX and the system forwards that message to residents who have subcribed. There is an option to recieve a daily composite message, rather than each individual message.

It's very useful for helping newer residents identify doctors or other service providers as well as promoting resident sponsored events and/or clubs.It's also used by many Resident Committee chairpersons to communicate about committee updates and announcements.

It's totally resident run, and management are not members, although they will sometimes communicate info by having a committee chair post a message.

As I read down these posts, the word "control" repeatedly emerges. Some describe what could be called "wheel and spoke" management. All functions of the community cycle through management, the center of the wheel. Those living on the outskirts of the spokes have no way to conveniently communicate with one another. I'm impressed that in some of the communities residents set up communication systems on their own.

Our facility is trying to help us connect to each with the Uniguest App. https://uniguest.com/community-apps/

Residents who use the app love it, but too few residents use it to make it effective. Uniguest has a search feature in which one can search for an identifier (bird watching, history, philosophy, hobbies, and everything else) to find others of like interest throughout the campus. It requires large numbers of residents to enter their interests in the app, and few have done so. We have the means but not the will. At least we are trying.

A discussion about this is in the book "Disrupting the Status Quo of Senior Living: A Mindshift" addresses a few ways that residents set up sharing sites.

I appreciate your detailed response, especially the perfect metaphor. I have a lot to think about regarding whether I want to jump into this. All these responses are very helpful. I believe that as the younger Boomers come into CCRC's, engagement with apps will become more common.

At Windcrest, we have an entirely resident run listserv (email groups), one for each of our 15 buildings. Each building has a listserv manager. Residents can opt out if they do not want to receive any messages. These listservs are very active and are the way residents can communicate with other residents in their building (as a group, not individually) or send a message to the entire community. There is one manager who oversees the entire listserv system, so if a resident wants to get a message out to all 2,000 residents s/he can send that one message to the uber-manager for distribution to the managers of each building who then sends the message to all residents in that building. If a resident wants to send a message to just residents in his/her building s/he can send the message to that building's listserv manager for distribution to residents in just that one building. This has been a very effective, efficient communication system for residents. Management has no input or control over our system.

Someone asked if our listserv was up and running during COVID. Was it helpful? Given how smoothly the system runs now, I would imagine that in a pandemic shutdown situation, our listservs would be immensely helpful.

Channie Peters

Wind Crest (Erickson community in Denver)

We had at least 2 buildings up and running during the pandemic at Wind Crest and they were working smoothly.