Random Thoughts by MommaSquid

Friday, August 29, 2008

Community Activist

Hubby and I bought our house in May 2007, and I have been attending monthly HOA board meetings since November 2007. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of a home owners association (HOA), our subdivision has, in addition to local and state laws, an additional layer of bureaucracy. The HOA is in charge of landscaping common areas and other useful things; however, they can dictate the color of the homes in the community, they can restrict parking on public streets, they can restrict the type of trees you plant, and dozens of other irritating controls. Unfortunately, if you want a newer home in my town, the only affordable way to do it is to buy in an HOA controlled subdivision.

I remember the good old days when you could buy a house and paint it any color you wanted. You were free to leave your Christmas lights up all year round and leave your trash cans out after they were emptied, and all your neighbors could do was give you dirty looks and bitch behind your back. Nowadays, a person can be fined for any of these actions and if you don’t pay the fine, your home can be foreclosed on. Yikes!

But I knew what I was getting into before I bought this place. I also decided to take a proactive approach to any problems I might have with the board by attending meetings and volunteering on a committee. This way, I know the people in charge and can smooth over any small issues before they become big problems.

There are 1400 homes in my community and there have never been more than 10 people in attendance at a monthly board meeting, and that figure includes the 5 board members! But as long as the annual meeting has 10% attendance (by mail or in person…gee, which one do you think people do?) the board is free to vote how they want to vote without interference. I have disagreed with some of their decisions, as have the few others in attendance, but with such a small number of community members around to complain, the board continues as they always have. The one new member who was elected in May has only attended one out of the three meetings held since he took his seat. The woman who lost to him has not attended a meeting since getting the boot.

I am on the Social Committee, which exists because I suggested a community event. The two other women on the committee were talked into participating by their board-member neighbors. We held a community party in the park in May, and it was a pretty nice event (if I do say so myself!). We had at least 300 attendees, but only two people volunteered to help our committee of three run the event. Since the party, I have been trying to schedule a wrap-up meeting to discuss what we did right and what we can improve upon for next year, but so far no one has been available to meet with me. Nuts!

So I have decided to take community apathy into my own hands and write a newsletter! The community has a quarterly newsletter written by the board and their advisor, but I don’t think it does enough to keep people informed. My newsletter will focus on one parcel of our ten parcel subdivision-—this parcel encompasses the 115 homes that are on the three streets immediately adjacent to mine. I will attempt to keep my neighbors informed about what goes on “behind the scenes” and encourage them to participate in our community. With property values plunging (due to the local housing bubble finally bursting) and the number of bankruptcies skyrocketing, something needs to be done to get people to care a little more about their neighbors and their community. So I will publish a printed newsletter, and I will also post it online. I have set up an email account to (hopefully) accept reader input and content suggestions. I spent a whopping $3 at the copy shop today to prepare the first wave of my newsletter. Now I just have to deliver them.

I don’t know if my venture will be a success but even if it fails, I can hold my head up high and say I tried. That’s more than 1399 other homeowners can say.

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