Writing to the resident who reported it
Answer the resident who filed a report by email, read their replies on the report or its card, and the updates Pleno sends them on the work.
What it is
Every report a resident files can have one conversation with that resident: their messages, the council's, and the updates Pleno sends them on the work, in one thread. It's in the report's Conversation tab, and on every card the report is linked to.
The resident never needs to sign in for it. They get each message by email, at the email they sign in to Pleno with, and answer by replying. Their reply comes back to the report, and the council members in the conversation get it by email. A council member's email about it opens the report's Conversation tab, in the right building for members of several.
Only the resident and the council are ever in it. No contractor is, and nothing in it is ever sent to a contractor. The resident never sees a contractor, a quote, a vote, or anyone else's report through it.
How a conversation starts
- When the resident files their report. The "Report received" email they get carries their own reply address, so answering it writes to the council. (That email goes when Confirmation when a report is submitted is on, in Settings → Notifications.)
- When you write to them. Open the report, go to Conversation, and write. It goes from your strata's Pleno address, signed with your name.
- With the first update on the work (see below).
The council members in it are the ones who get new-report emails (the roles set for it in Settings → Notifications). When no role is set, it's the property manager, president and vice-president. A property manager, president or vice-president who isn't in it joins it when they write. After an AGM, if nobody in it is on council any more, the council members who get new-report emails then join it the next time anything is written or arrives, so a resident's reply always reaches someone.
Writing and replying
- In Pleno: the report's Conversation tab, or the resident's thread in the Conversation tab of a card the report is linked to. The thread is tagged Resident with the report's number.
- By email: reply to the email Pleno sent you about the resident's message. Your reply goes to the resident, and to the other council members who watch the conversation.
In Pleno, the council's first message to the resident is for the property manager, president or vice-president, as starting any conversation is, even though the "Report received" email started it. Until then, other council members in it see the resident's messages but no reply box in Pleno. After that first message, any council member in the conversation can reply in Pleno. A council member in the conversation can always answer the resident by replying to Pleno's email about their message: that rule is for writing in Pleno only.
Updates on the work
When something happens to the work on a resident's report, Pleno posts an update in their conversation and emails it to them, once each:
| Update | When it's sent |
|---|---|
| In planning | The report is linked to a card in Planning, or a linked card moves to Planning |
| Contractor booked | A contractor on a linked card is marked Selected |
| Council approved the work | A council vote on a linked card is approved, or a project vote that covers it (a rejected vote sends nothing) |
| Visit planned | A visit is planned on a linked card (with its date) |
| Work done | A linked card moves to Done |
Each update says what happened in one or two plain sentences, and that they can reply. It never names the contractor, a price, a vote or anyone on council: residents don't see those. It's signed by the strata council and sent from your strata's Pleno address, marked as an automatic email so an out-of-office reply doesn't answer it. Council members aren't emailed for updates; they see them in the conversation, marked as updates.
Updates are automatic, like the council's own notifications: they don't count towards your strata's outside email limits, so a month of updates never pauses your quote requests.
A resident who filed several reports about the same card gets one update for the card, not one per report.
Settings → Notifications → Resident emails turns each kind on or off: Report picked up for planning, Progress on the work (contractor booked, council approved, visit planned) and Linked maintenance card marked done.
Who can do it
- Council members read every resident conversation on their strata's reports and cards.
- The property manager, president and vice-president start one, write the council's first message in it from Pleno, and write in any of them; after that first message, council members in a conversation reply in it from Pleno. Council members in it can reply by email at any time.
- A support session sees who wrote and when, never the messages.
- Residents read their conversation by email only, not in Pleno.
Limits and things to know
- A report entered by the council has no resident to write to. Nor does one whose resident has left the strata: their conversation stays, but nothing more is sent to them, their emailed replies wait unapproved and can only be rejected, and the Conversation tab says why above the thread.
- When a resident changes the email they sign in with, the conversation follows: the next message goes to the new address, and their reply from it is theirs, even through an older email's reply address. Mail from the address they used before can only be rejected.
- Files a resident sends by email (photos, documents) are added to their report, as if they'd uploaded them: they're in the report's Documents tab and linked from the message. The same checks apply as to any emailed file: accepted types only, 50 MB per email, and the same file twice is kept once. The resident sees them on their report like their other files. They're never sent to a contractor unless a council member shares one, as with any file on the report. A file that came with a message is kept with it for two years.
- Someone else replying with the resident's reply address (from another address) is held, and can only be rejected: only the resident and the council are ever in the conversation.
- A card moving back to Planning, a second visit, or a second vote doesn't send the same update again.
- A report with correspondence in its conversation can't be deleted for two years, like any card's correspondence.
- The installed app doesn't show conversations yet: use Pleno in a browser.