Written communications 
“Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.”
—Sholem Asch

Leaflets
Leaflets are an ideal way to communicate with the owners. They are cheap, as low as six cents a copy, easy to design and very effective.

Get an agreement with the board, if necessary, on when and how you can leaflet the building. If they say you cannot leave leaflets in the unit doors or hand out leaflets on the common elements, then you may have to leaflet out on the sidewalk to the drivers when they drive onto the property.



This can be an inefficient and inconvenient way of getting the leaflets into the residents' hands but it is perfectly legal and it makes a huge impact.

Always put contact information; telephone number, e-mail address and web address if you have one, on the bottom of every leaflet.

One owner told me that he went to the nearby bus stop every morning during rush hour and leafleted the residents while they waited for their bus. That is an excellent idea.

Leaflet drops

In China, companies place sticky decals on condo steel doors. Much harder to remove.     Photo: CondoMadness

In the older condos, you can go door-to-door to talk with the owners and hand out your leaflets. If people are home great. If they are not, slip the leaflets through the side or the bottom of the door.

Don't leave the leaflets in the hallway by the doors or stuck in the door handles. A board member, one of their supporters or security may go floor to floor removing all the leaflets they find.

Will the directors or their agents remove leaflets?
If an owner leaflets the residential units discussing items that are of concern to the owners, the activist may get a cease and desist letter from management or the corporation lawyer. The letter will say that dropping literature at the unit doors, and/or canvassing the residents is considered soliciting and is a violation of the corporation's rules or by-laws.

(Yet, I am not aware of any case law where a judge has agreed with this opinion.)

What's more, once the leaflet has been dropped at a resident's door, who owns the leaflet? Gerry Hyman, a condo law columnist for the Toronto Star wrote on this in his column of 09 September 2017.

Owners in my building have placed leaflets on each unit’s door handle, advertising a condominium community website. One of the directors has been seen removing the leaflets. Can he do this?

The leaflets were obviously placed on the door handles for the benefit of the unit occupants. Removal of the leaflets should only be by the unit occupants or by the director if the board passed a resolution. The resolution would appear to be necessary even if the declaration or rules prohibited the attachment of anything to the door handles.

Bulk mailings
Canada Post will put a leaflet into every mailbox in the building at a reduced commercial rate. However, they will only accept orders to service the whole mail route so it is expensive. Still, if you have the money, give it some thought.

Postings
If you are not allowed to put up posters on the property it is very important
that you don't do it. It will upset the board and it will also upset at least some
of the owners.

However, if the board is making it very difficult for you to reach the owners, you may consider putting up posters on the telephone poles near the condo building, local community bulletin boards and especially in the nearby bus shelters.

If you do this, expect your leaflets to be torn down as soon as they are seen by a board member or a supporter. It can be a sort of game; you put them up and they take them down.

Since you listened to my earlier advice and kept the lines of communications open, you may be able to make a deal with the board on what rules both sides will follow when communicating with the owners.

E-mail
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people - as remarkable as the telephone.
—Steve Jobs

E-mail is great as it is a free two-way method of communicating with dozens or hundreds of people. It is fast and convenient.

Canada Post
The biggest obstacle is getting in touch with the absentee landlords who rent out their units.

The easiest way, is to obtain a list of all the owners, including their addresses from the property manager. Most of the time they will cooperate and give you a copy for a nominal charge.

However, they will not give you the owners' telephone or fax numbers. They could also play dirty and give you a dated list or delay honouring your request to increase your difficulties.

The best way to verify that the owner's list is accurate is to go to the city land office and check the names and addresses of all the registered unit owners from the municipal tax records. (This list can be also be extremely important if your group is going to verify the authenticity of the proxies.

It is expensive to do a mailing to all the absentee owners. Canada Post charges:
Domestic stamps
     85¢ (in volume)
United States
$1.20
International
$2.50

If you need to do a mailing for a hundred owners, it adds up. It becomes twice as expensive if you send a stamped pre-addressed envelop to make it easy for the owners to mail back an enclosed proxy.

(If you are requesting the owners to send you their proxy, a faxed one is valid.)

Buttons
Some print shops will make up a couple dozen buttons at an extremely inexpensive price. Very effective and they get people talking.

Business cards
They are cheap to make up and are very effective. They are a good way to hand out your contact information.





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