Research Desk Beta
Got a specific question about community rules or state law? The Research Desk reads the governing documents and state law and shows you where the answer comes from.
- Ask: Describe your specific situation.
- Analyze: The tool searches through Jamacha Greens' governing documents and state statutes to find where they intersect.
- Review: Get a custom answer complete with exact quotes and direct links to every source it used.
Guidelines for asking
Scope
The Research Desk is for understanding how the rules that bind us apply to specific situations. It reads only the association's governing documents and California law. It has no access to board members' names, newsletters, meeting minutes, or any particular election, so if you ask what happened at a meeting, whether a meeting was canceled, or who did what and when, it will not know.
Good question: "I got a violation notice for putting a camera up over my garage. How can I avoid a fine and get it back up?"
Not answerable: "Who reported my camera to the board, and when?"
Complexity
The Research Desk is for specific questions that are hard to answer without it. Most questions about living here are already answered on this site, so try the search bar first if you have not already.
Good question: "A tree branch fell and broke my fence. The management company is not returning my calls. Who is responsible for repairing this, and what can I do about it?"
Better answered by search: "Who is our management company?"
Detail
The Research Desk works best when you give it everything you know. If your question does not have enough detail, it will ask you up to two rounds of clarifying questions. Those come back quickly, but each one is a round trip before the research itself starts, so it is best to include the details up front: dates, what you sent and to whom, and what you have already heard back.
Good question: "Our annual board election is in two weeks and I still haven't received a ballot. I emailed the manager ten days ago and never heard back. I'm a voting member in good standing. How do I get my ballot?"
Needs details: "Where's my ballot?"
Privacy
Leave out your neighbors' names. Your unit number is fine to include; it is removed from the copy kept on this site, and the full answer goes only to your email.
If you attach a notice, it is read on your own device and the file is never sent. Unit numbers are removed from the copy kept on this site; names, account numbers and email addresses are not, so delete anything in the box you would rather not send.
The Research Desk needs JavaScript. Turn it on in your browser to continue.
Sign in to use the desk
Signing in takes an eight-digit code by email — no password, ever. The first time, the desk asks which unit is yours.
One more thing: which unit?
Your last question could not be completed on our side. Your pass was returned.
What do you want to know?
You're out of passes
You've used today's two sessions
Two research sessions can run per member per day, whatever your pass balance — it keeps the desk answering everyone.
Your sessions
Every question you have asked, newest first. Delivered answers are kept here with unit numbers removed until you delete them; the full copy of each is in the email we sent.
| Question | Status | Date |
|---|
No sessions yet.
How it works
You describe your situation. The desk does the searching, the reading and the checking, and shows you where the answer came from.
- You
Describe your situation
Dates, amounts, what you sent and what came back. If you have a notice, attach a photo or PDF of it: your browser turns it into text and the file itself is never sent. The guidelines for asking say what the desk can and cannot answer.
- The desk
Restates your question, and asks back if it must
It puts what you wrote as a neutral research question. If a fact it does not know would change the answer, you get an email with up to three questions and why each one matters. "I don't know" is a real answer, and answering never uses a pass.
- The desk
Reads, then writes
Three things, read together:
- Your situation
- Our five governing documents
- California law, fetched that day
It picks the sections that decide your question, fetches each statute from the Legislature's own site and logs the date, and drafts an answer that cites only what it has read.
- The desk
Attacks its own draft
A second reader's only job is to break it: a defined term read as plain English, an exception that swallows the rule, a statute amended since. Every finding that would flip the answer has to be answered, or nothing is delivered. Then the machine checks every citation and every quote against its source.
- You
Read the answer
Every source linked and dated, every quote word for word, and each fact that would change the answer covered under "What would change this". Usually within the hour, by email; it stays on this page too.
The full process
Your part
Your situation is the one thing only you can supply, and it is the step that matters most. Describe it in as much detail as you can: dates, amounts, what you sent and to whom, and what you have heard back. If you received a notice from the board or the management company, attach a clear photo or PDF of it. Your browser converts the file to text and the file itself is never sent, so check the text against the notice before you submit and fix anything it misread. The guidelines for asking say more about what the desk can and cannot answer.
Refining the question
When you submit, the desk reads your question and restates it as a neutral research question, noting any fact it does not know that would change the answer. If it needs more, you get an email with up to three questions and why each one matters. Reply to the email or answer on the page. "I don't know" is a real answer: the research covers each possibility instead of guessing. This can go up to two rounds, a question with the details already in it skips it entirely, and refining never uses a pass.
Research
Once the question is settled, the desk decides what to read: which sections of California law, and which passages of our documents. Each statute is fetched from the Legislature's site at that moment and logged with the date it was read. A draft answer is then written that may cite only what the desk has read. If the draft needs a section it was not given, that section is fetched too; nothing is quoted from memory.
Checking
The draft then goes to a second reader whose only job is to attack it: a defined term read as plain English, an exception that swallows the rule, a section that mentions the subject instead of the one that decides it, a statute amended since the sentence about it was written. The revision has to answer every finding that would flip the answer, or the run stops and nothing is delivered. Last come the machine checks: every statute cited must be one the desk actually read, every quote must match its source word for word, and every passage from our documents must come from the five governing documents themselves, never from this site's own articles about them.
The answer
Every source the desk read is listed at the end of the answer with a link and the date it was read, and every quote is taken word for word from the source named beside it. Where a fact you did not know would change the answer, each possibility is covered under "What would change this". The full answer goes to your email and stays on this page with unit numbers removed. Most answers arrive within the hour, sometimes longer when the queue is busy; you can close the tab, and the desk emails you when it is ready. It is research, not legal advice: sourced, not certain.
Each delivered answer uses one research pass. You start with two, and one more arrives on the first of each month until you are holding five. Passes do not expire.
The Research Desk is in beta testing. You may run into bugs. Questions, answers and what they cost are stored and read by us to fix what is broken and improve the site, and for nothing else: we learn from what the documents say, and your situation stays yours. More on the privacy page.