Recently, three former board
members removed Association property (a bag of papers to be recycled) from the
clubhouse. The bag was left in the men's
bathroom in the clubhouse for pick up, a process that has been in place for the
last few years. That property was intended for disposal and while no one else
had authority to remove it from the building besides the cleaning lady who
brings it to recycling, it did bring an ongoing security issue to light.
The group returned the bag to me
with a general list of the contents in the bag.
Once the bag was back in my possession, I was able to confirm there were
no Social Security numbers or bank account numbers in the bag. There were
some older contact update and other forms that had emails, signatures, addresses
and phone numbers on them. There was a duplicate copy of a receipt of an old bill, and a check
meant for deposit. There was also a duplicate copy
of an architectural request for one of the prior board members.
The check being in the bag “as
found” can not be addressed at this time since the bag was removed from the
clubhouse and a chain of custody had been broken. There is a dispute about how
the check came into the bag, and at this point the check's presence before or
after removal is irrelevant, and the check has been properly deposited.
In light of this incident the
board has adopted new policies regarding retention and disposal of records, a
revised shredding policy and the addition of a locking mailbox. We are also
looking at ways to make the clubhouse more secure, and are investigating the
cost of an alpha numeric keypad for the front door rather than handing out
keys.
Matt Wilkens, President TPOA