DEVELOPERS AT NEIGHBORHUDDLE.COM VOLUNTEER TIME TO HELP BUILD WEST-COAST CHARITY WEBSITE DEVOTED TO SUSTAINABILTY AND CARBON FOOTPRINT REDUCTION.

A non profit organization based in Los Angeles, CA has reached out to NeighborHuddle.com, a carbon neutral business and one of the fastest growing networks of condo and homeowners associations on the Internet, to help build the digital infrastructure for their charity platform.

Both organizations are committed to the active participation of community consciousness and global problem solving, so the joint project seems highly relevant. The California-based charity called The Banana Project was founded by Stacy Hanstad, a former NCAA collegiate basketball player, turned marathon runner, turned triathlete, turned philanthropist. Her basic mission for this project is to raise awareness and funding for an Orphanage in Guatemala, by taking a zero emissions bike trip from California to Central America. Stacy says, “I chose to reach out to NeighborHuddle.com because they are extremely dedicated and passionate about offering Internet tools for community participation and collaboration with a green philosophy.”

Read the rest of this entry »

On a lighter note…

For everybody living large in a condo, NeighborHuddle created an informal group on the social network Facebook called “NeighborHuddle - Kickin’ it condo style!”  Show your love for your condo and join now… http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15931743229

In an effort to expand the professional network of condo board members, community leaders and those that do business with condo associations, NeighborHuddle has introduced the Condo Association Network group on LinkedIn.  By joining this group, users will gain access to a network full of professionals with valuable skills and opportunities within the condo association landscape.

Join here, http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/109844/0F1CD04C04E5

The May 20th Red Eye, an edition of the Chicago Tribune, highlighted NeighborHuddle as the organization to join for condo owners and associations.  NeighborHuddle’s ability to post community news to residents and share advice such as contractor reviews between communities were highlighted.

Gone are the days of the “information-only” community website. By now, I’d be willing to bet there are tens of thousands of them sitting at the bottom of the Internet abyss just waiting to be updated and not seeing a visitor in years. They seemed like a good idea, but ultimately failed for not keeping up with the times.

Today’s community residents want more than just information from a website. They want to interact with their community and get value out of the time they spend online. At NeighborHuddle, we are constantly working to keep our services on the cutting edge of community websites. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be introducing three new features for our customers: contractor ratings/reviews, complete service request tracking from start to finish and text message reminders for assessment payments.

Read the rest of this entry »

You asked and we listened. All NeighborHuddle communities can now create online polls and moderate their own forum without any intervention from the NeighborHuddle staff. If you’d like any more information on these features, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

On January 19, 2008 NeighborHuddle attended the Community Association Institute (CAI) Illinois chapter’s annual trade show and conference in Rosemont, Illinois. This was an opportunity to see what’s new in the association living industry, attend round table discussions and network with over 150 vendors related to every aspect of community living. Community websites continued to be a hot topic among the attendees and we were excited to spread the word about our unique solution.

I’ve heard that a Christmas tree takes up as much space as a washing machine in the waste stream. I’m proud to report that NeighborHuddle and treecycle.org helped recycle over 200 washing machines, I mean Christmas trees, from the alleys of Chicago this year. On a beautiful 60 degree Sunday in January, Chris Hohenstein with the Chicago Conservation Core and I navigated a donated U-Haul truck through the residential alleys of the Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods. The good news was that we collected as many trees as we did. The bad news is that we could have worked around the clock and never run out of trees.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recycle for the holidays! NeighborHuddle is pleased to announce a partnership with www.trecycle.org to help recycle as many of the 300,000+ Christmas trees purchased in Chicago this holiday season as possible! Through this partnership, NeighborHuddle will be scheduling tree pickups at all NeighborHuddle communities and dropping them off at one of Chicago’s 23 designated locations where they will be turned into mulch. To learn more about the program, please visit www.trecycle.org. Happy holidays!

After several years on my association’s board and many conversations with board members from other associations, I’ve learned a couple things about community leadership. First, a large number of board members have very little board experience. Second, there are not a lot of informal resources to connect board members across communities. NeighborHuddle’s unique architecture allows your community to connect with others in your area to reduce the impact of these factors on your association.

Read the rest of this entry »