Your Community Association’s Story

4 responses to “Your Community Association’s Story”

1. It is so true. Human nature is to focus on the negative few, but the many have their story to tell as well. There is so much more positive than negative anywhere you look – let’s focus on that! Thank you for shining a light on this subject and inspiring me to focus on the abundance of positives.
2. These days, I think most people are negative by default. This is very unfortunate, as it did not used to be the case. We are an angry people who face uncertainty in our future, and this anger and fear is stoked by those whom we elect to represent our interests. I have chosen to surround myself with positive, spiritual and uplifting people, so this means avoiding or shunning some, even people who used to be considered friends. I have discovered as I age that negativity, including arguing, are painful to my soul, and I do not need that as I enter “the golden years.” Life is hard enough without being dragged down by nay-sayers. I have always been just the opposite–tell me something can’t be done, then stand back and watch me do it! But if you get in my way, I might run you over! I look upon it as accepting a dare. The realm of CICs is replete with opportunities and occasions for negativity, and seems to bring out the worst in people. I would prefer it to be different. As a manager, I have found this fact difficult to navigate around, as most people approach the manager with an automatically-negative tendency. Our industry is replete with people who look at the HOA realm as “us versus them,” which, of course, it is not! I like to tell people, “There is no ‘them’. There’s only ‘us’! We are all supposed to be on the same team.” And it is so true that every association has a story, full of sub-plots, and even a personality, complete with its own needs, wishes, issues, etc. Now here in the HOA in which I live, the association was begotten of negativity, imbued into every facet of the community by the developer, who was one of the most-negative, antagonistic, and mean people I’ve ever met. He belittled the owners, and even threatened people and their companion animals. For this reason, it feels to the sensitive and spiritual among us that every piece of cement, siding, wood and drywall is imbedded with negativity, and we seem to be mired in it, no matter how hard some of us try to escape it. We’ve had hateful, negative, controlling, argumentative and spiteful people on the board, with whom I was unable to work. At the current time, we have a great board, but cannot seem to overcome the misdeeds of the past, no matter how-hard we try. Our community needs a clearing! Unfortunately, instead, we are approaching our annual and budget-ratification meetings, at which we will be subject to the shrill criticism of those who do not have the best interests of the association at heart. I have become convinced that these obstacles are all in place to help me learn my life’s lesson, which is to overcome ego and elevate the soul. Up until this time, I had always wondered what lesson it was that my soul was sent here to learn. Now, at last, I know.
3. Awarded CAI’s “HOA of the Year” today !!! One way we measure success is length of monthly Board meetings and the number of homeowners who show up….our average meeting lasts an hour or less and we rarely have anyone there but Board members and Staff which we interpret as “a job being well done”.
4. I was completely proud of what our board was doing until recently, when I see one of our board members doing exactly what we worked so hard to control with our new improved covenants and bylaws. A sculpture was placed on the front of common property without board approval and which is really against our covenants. Now do I bring this up at the next meeting or do I just quit the board. I do not want to make enemies with this board, but I do not agree with how this was done. We would not have let a resident do this, but we did let a board member do it. My negativity has taken over and I do not want to be a part of this board any longer as I do not agree with board members getting special treatment.