Help & User Guide

The escalation path

The complaint lifecycle

1. Your message is emailed directly to the committee secretary and logged in the admin portal.
2. It appears with a “New” status. Committee members can see all incoming messages.
3. A member picks it up, changes the status to “Open”, and may add internal notes while they work on a response.
4. They reply to you via email (from the secretary address). The message is then closed.

Nominating yourself

You can only nominate yourself — not somebody else. You'll need to provide your name, email, address, which position(s) you're standing for, and optionally why you want to serve.

What happens next: Your nomination goes into a queue. Committee admins review all nominations before they appear on the ballot. This is to filter out joke entries — not to gatekeep who can stand. Once approved, you appear as a candidate for residents to vote on.

Positions: Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and Committee Member. You can nominate yourself for multiple positions at once.

How voting works

1. Enter your details — Name, email, and select your address from the dropdown.
2. Verify your email — A 6-digit code is sent to your email (valid for 24 hours). This prevents impersonation. Check spam if it doesn't arrive.
3. Cast your vote — The ballot shows only positions you haven't voted for yet. Choose your candidates and submit.
4. Get confirmation — You'll receive a confirmation email listing who you voted for. If you haven't voted for all positions, it includes a link to come back and finish.

Rules & safeguards

• One vote per household — checked by both email and address. If someone in your house has already voted for Chairperson, nobody else in your household can vote for that position.
• You can't vote for yourself — your own name is greyed out on the ballot. However, someone else in your household can vote for you.
• Vote in stages — You don't have to vote for every position at once. Come back later and pick up where you left off. Positions you've already voted for are shown greyed out with your choice.
• Vote limits — 1 choice each for Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer. Up to 10 choices for Committee Members.

Getting started

1. An admin will create your account and give you a temporary password.
2. Go to the login page (link in the website footer → “Committee members area”).
3. Sign in with your email and temporary password.
4. You'll be prompted to set a new password (minimum 8 characters). This only happens on first login.
5. Once logged in, click “My Bio” on the dashboard to update your profile that appears on the About page.

For account issues, email jen_payne@yahoo.com

Role-based access

There are two roles. The sidebar only shows sections you have access to.

• Admin — Full access. Can manage voting periods, approve nominations, view results, manage committee member profiles, portal user accounts, the residents list, and future plans.
• Member — Can manage day-to-day content: complaints, messages, documents, events, gallery, common issues, key terms, and useful links.

Handling complaints

This is one of the most important admin tasks. When a new complaint arrives:

1. It appears in Complaints with a “New” status badge.
2. Click on it to see the full details: who submitted it, their address, the FirstPort reference, and what they wrote.
3. Change the status to “Open” and assign it to yourself or another committee member.
4. Use the internal comments to log progress notes (residents can't see these — they're for the committee only).
5. When you raise it with FirstPort, record the date discussed with management and the outcome.
6. Close it as “Closed (Resolved)” or “Closed (No Response)” once done. You can archive old complaints to keep the list clean.

Use the status filter and “Show archived” toggle to manage your view.

Handling messages

Messages from the contact form follow the same workflow as complaints: New → Open → Closed. You can add internal comments, filter by status, and archive old messages. Reply to the resident directly via email from the secretary address.

Managing elections (Admin only)

1. Create a voting period with a title and start/end dates. Only one period can be active at a time — activating a new one deactivates the old.
2. As nominations come in, they appear with a “Pending” badge. Review each one and click the green tick to approve or the red cross to reject. Only approved nominees appear on the public ballot.
3. Vote results update in real time. Results are shown per position with bar charts. The leading candidate is highlighted. Results are anonymous — you see vote counts but not who voted for whom.