At the January 2025 board meeting, the issue of door-to-door canvassing was raised. One of the candidates in the upcoming month's board elections was doing it. Others have done it in the past, soliciting voting proxies or signatures on petitions. The Rules & Regulations were consulted. Here's what they say:

Solicitors and canvassers are not permitted on the premises. Homeowners/occupants themselves are asked not to solicit or canvass door to door, irrespective of the reason or purpose. Fund raising and contribution requests can be accomplished by posting appropriate literature on the bulletin board located in the mail room.

Some argued that this amounted to a prohibition. Others said that since the activity was not strictly forbidden, it was okay to do and the board should not take any action.

Here's my opinion.

Door-to-door canvassing is not strictly prohibited. But neither is it okay. The Rules explicitly ask us owners and residents NOT to do it. That doesn't mean nothing. It might even be that the authors of the document felt it would be impossible to enforce a rule like this, and so they expressed their disapproval in the strongest language they could legally manage.

So this is what I think we should do.

Residents (renters or owners)

If someone comes knocking on your door:

• If they aren't owners but outside solicitors, inform them they aren't allowed in the building and tell them to leave.
• If they're owners, inform them that the Rules ask them not to do what they're doing.
• Do NOT give them what they're asking you for. (Otherwise, you'll be incentivizing their uncivil behavior.)
• Inform the office staff.

The Board

When you hear about residents or owners going door-to-door:

• Inform them that the Rules ask them not to do what they're doing.
• Ask them not to do what they're doing.

Basically, I'm not asking the board to do anything more than what the Rules currently do. Simply govern in accordance with exactly what the Rules say, not to mention the common sense spirit of community.

If more people started going door-to-door in pursuit of their own agendas, life here would quickly become a constant bother. If only one person is doing it, then it's not so bad. But think about what this one person is doing. They've decided they are the one who will be get in under the radar, that they will be the one to take advantage of laxity and inattention.

Why should the one person least respectful of the rule be the one to benefit from it?

Don't be that person. Don't enable that person.