The ancient adage "A picture is worth a thousand words," has guided successful communicators for thousands of years. Scan a report from today's business and education leaders, and your attention is immediately drawn to the photos, charts, and graphs that convey at a glance the content of the words or figures that fill the rest of the page. Attend a professional seminar and the presentation is deftly illustrated with colorful flip charts and projections.

If you look at your community association's, or firm's communications, you may find what's known in the publishing business as an excess of greyness - that is, words or statistics which lack the relief of graphic treatment. If your association is like most, the financial statements consists of two or three pages filled margin to margin with columns of numbers. These statistics may bring joy to the hearts of accountants, but they confuse the average reader. If the homeowner succeeds in following the figures he must then decipher such code words as accruals, reserves, and actuals. Not to mention interpreting the difference between the capital expense figures and latest assessment for replacement reserves. The frustrated reader cries out, "Where's my money?" It should come as no surprise to find him at the next meeting loudly complaining about the lack of communications between the board and the homeowners. It may be the same with your association's newsletter. The name of the association is printed at the top of the front page, but without a distinctive logo. Columns of words fill one page after another. if photographs, graphics, and artwork are considered an unnecessary frill or expense, it may well be that homeowners ignore the paper - and, again, complain about the lack of communications. What about association meetings? After all, the board and members meet face to face. But what are the homeowners experiencing? More numbers. More words. it may take a determined homeowner not to tune the speakers out.

While visuals may not solve all the communication problems within a community association, consider the potential advantages. For starters, a wraparound format can add a fourth page to a financial report without much added expense. On the extra page, the non-accountant reader is given the answer to his question about where his money is going. A colorful pie graph clearly indicates that most of his maintenance fee pays for utilities and staff salaries. The large wedge for repairs leads him to make a note to ask the Board at the next meeting why so many items seem to be breaking down. And he discovers, perhaps to his surprise, that the legal fees that he thought were taking most of his share of the common expenses are so small in comparison to the other slices that they barely show on the pie. An equally effective variation of the pie graph is a rendering of a dollar bill, shown cut in pieces to represent the percentages that go to the different areas of common expense.

If maintenance is going up, a line graph showing last year's expenses running below this year's quickly gets the message across. Homeowners who attend budget hearings are interested in comparing the proposed budget with the previous year's. A bar graph can be drawn on a flip chart to summarize the primary areas of change, or to point out areas where there is to be no change. Or the graph can be drawn or photocopied onto a transparency, for use with an overhead projector, or photographed as part of a slide presentation. These graphs and charts, of course, don't have to be hand drawn. if the financial statements are prepared with computer software that includes graphics, then the reports can be instantly and accurately converted to pictures. The printouts can be distributed as part of the statement or prepared for display at an informational meeting. Photos, original artwork, and graphics can make the difference between an overly long memo and an interesting newsletter. While there are some homeowners who will read any form of communication from the association, the influence of simple but creative packaging should not be underestimated.

An attractive logo catches the eye. Imaginative drawings break the columns into easily absorbed segments. Humor, as in a cartoon in which the board or manager pokes fun at itself, can defuse an issue that words might just aggravate. One photo of happy homeowners enjoying the facilities of the association can do more for maintaining or raising property values than all the rhetoric that could fit into that space. This is not to say that words don't also create images. However, in a culture dominated by the media, visual images have impact far beyond the parameters of the space they occupy.

If nothing else, the homeowner leafing through the paper to see if he's in any of the photos, or to chuckle over condo-comics, may come across information useful to him as an association member. Of course, visuals don't have to be limited to the financial reports. Suppose, for example, that a board wishes to make an interior design change in the clubhouse. A good speaker may inspire clear pictures in the minds of the audience, but research psychologists have found that these mental pictures may not all be the same. It makes sense to display the floor plans, as they exist and after the proposed changes. Full color renderings should be part of the contract with the design firm. Floor plans and renderings can be photographed for a slide presentation, while the original drawings are placed in strategic locations or in the area to be changed.

In addition to a slide show, the board of an association that planned major redecoration set up easels all around a common room and displayed an artist's conception of the completed projected from a number of angles. As if in an art gallery, homeowners with design experience walked small groups through the display. By the time the membership voted on the proposed assessment, there was no question in anyone's mind as to what the redesigned lobby and common rooms would look like. The use of visual aids is hardly a novel approach to communications. What is surprising is how rarely this proven business and educational tool is transferred by professionals out of the boardrooms and schools where they work to the community associations where they live. Next time your Association demands more information, why not try a picture instead of a thousand words?