How Prevalent are HOA Social Parties?

Our HOA Board supports social gatherings, however the Board does not designate any dollars to any of the events. One example, are the Christmas street light decorations that we hang around each street light, are all volunteered contributions. Our chili feed contest was an all volunteered effort, and so on.

We have 4 or 5 a year. I think they are very beneficial. Many of our board members and other volunteers got started coming to a social event.

We held two adult only events a year and 8 movie nights during the summer, all held outside, and all funded by the HOA.

We had a huge attendance from the community and always well received. We've heard they haven't done anything since 2014.

The association I manage has several: a large one every quarter and smaller ones throughout the year. There are many positives - owners who feel invested in and connected to their community are, in my experience, more likely to take care of their lots and generally be good neighbors. It's easy to let your dog poop on a stranger's driveway, harder to do when that driveway is Bob, the nice guy you met at the BBQ.

The way to avoid cliques is to offer a variety of events. Don't make everything for little kids, have activities for teens, adults, people with pets...that way it's not the same families every time.

We have had a few. Movie nights, B-B-Ques, pool parties, National Night Out events. Our City offers Neighborhood Grants and encourages neighborhood activities to fulfill volunteer pledged hours.

We are not doing them anymore. The turnout just did not warrant the time and expense to offer them. We are not a very social community.

Here's something that works well for us. We didn't used to limit attendees to social functions to resident sonly. so some would bring friends. And THEY would just hang together. since the parties became so popular, the Social Committee decided to limit attendees to residents only for both space and cost reasons. A nice side effect is that there's more mingling among residents than previously.

The HOA in which we reside is an anomaly in terms of social events.

First, the events are not sponsored by the HOA, nor are they funded by the association, except certain events such as National Night Out may have an allocation.

We have lived here 11 years, they were initiated when the first owners moved into the association when it was developed in the late 90s. About 50% of the original owners still reside here, over 70% of us are Medicare/Social Security age. There are 105 homes, some of which are adjacent to a golf course. Average selling price has been in the mid-six figures, it is now moving toward the 800's for homes which range from 2700 to 4000 square feet.

The HOA involvement is the members of the Welcome Committee, which is an HOA activity, describe the social activities when meeting with new owners, as part of the introduction/orientation to the association and the area. The social activities are part of the 'leave behind' materials, and the 'Village Communicator' includes the schedule of events in her weekly or as needed e-mail messages.

So, we have:

-Dine Around the first Saturday evening of each month except July, October, and sometimes June. The Dine Around Committee (not an HOA committee) takes care of the admin, arranges for hosts. The host typically provides a main dish or heavier munchies, everyone else brings what they wish, with some coordination by the committee so 20 people do not bring cookies.

-Lunch Bunch once monthly when those ladies who wish to do so select a restaurant in the area and meet for lunch

-Bunco once monthly

-A bridge group

-A book group

-A committee, which is an HOA committee, which provides support when there is a death, serious medical care need, and the like.

Depending on the event, attendance is 30% to 60% of the homes in the Association, the participation is higher when we have National Night Out or one of the Dine Around events takes place in one of the two parks as a picnic. Due to the Texas heat in August, our city holds National Night Out in October.

Another good reason to have get togethers bo mater who organizes is for board members to meet non-directors. In many HOAs, it seems, owners really don't know who their board members are.

At our social even,ts we directors purposely do not all hang together, but wader & mingle out and get to know our neighbors. We try to welcome new residents too.