How much grief as President do you take?

I am not on a board, but if I were and I saw grievance being hashed out among various groups, I would try to get at the heart of the problem and then get those groups to discuss it openly.

For example, there is a strife in my small community. Based on my observation, I think the root problem is there is a faction of people who do not want restrictions enforced and a faction that does, and then a large majority that does not get involved. In that situation, if I were on the board, I would discuss and get the board to vote on making that a public agenda point of the next annual meeting. If the board went along with that, I would put on the agenda "does membership want restrictions enforced or does it want them ignored" forcing those two faction, and more importantly the majority not involved to determine as a group how they want the community run in regards to restrictions and then adopt policy on that outcome.

I suspect something similar is eating at most communities, but perhaps yours has a different root problem. Whatever it is, I would think steering that debate into a public discussion would be therapeutic for the association and more productive than selective, passive-aggressive snipping by those factions outside of meetings.

this is so true of our HOA. Small groups of people trying to control the resitrctions. Vast majority doesnt' give a crap.

First, define grief. People don't have to agree with what you do, but should be able to express themselves in an adult manner - perhaps the problem is YOU don't like people saying they disagree. By now you should have grown a backbone for that. As I said in another conversation, people are messy and you will get all kinds in any neighborhood, HOA or otherwise. You can't always control what they think, say or do, so focus on how you'll respond. Sometimes people say what they say just to get on your nerves and just HATE it when you don't respond in kind (and it's fun to watch them fume!)

Then, there's a matter of "majoring in the minors," and that may be what you're doing. If so, you should stop it - if 50% of the community were yelling about you, that would be an issue, but 5 people out of 500? Why obsess about that - you'll never get 100% approval of anything, so if the vast majority like what you're doing, let these people scream and shout. If they want you gone, they still have to convince a majority, and I would hope people would take a long look at what you're trying to do and weigh that against what the attorney did when she was president vs. what's going on now. If they want constant chaos, they'll vote for her, but if not, they'll vote for you.

Regarding legal recourse, it's one thing if these people are publishing complete lies about you (saying they don't like you isn't the same thing). Has your life turned upside down since all this started? By that, are people coming up to you screaming about something they heard these people said and they've come thisclose to slapping you into next week or tried to do it? That's when the legal recourse comes into play, so talk to your private attorney about your options. In short, if there's a personal threat to you, your family or your property, or the untrue staff is affecting your professional life or ability to have quiet enjoyment of your home, that's when you may take other action.

Finally, make up your mind as to whether you want to stay on the board or not. As I recall from another conversation, you stepped down as president, but if you're still unhappy, you can choose to run again or not to. It's about YOU deciding when enough's enough, not us because we don't live in your community. More importantly, it's about your peace of mind. As a board member you do the best you can with what you have, but sooner or later everything ends. I know you don't want to feel you've been run off the board, but you're not a punching bag. If these folks keep saying they can do a better job, let them. There is such a thing as being careful what you wish for - you may get it, so if you'd rather step down, do it and don't look back. If you like, feel free to give these people several pieces of your mind about the last two or three years, acknowledge everything didn't go exactly as you hoped, but you did the damned thing and the community IS better for it.
No, they won't like what you say, but once you leave the board, what else can they do - they got what they wanted, didn't they?

Consider urself lucky. 1% not liking you is a very low number. Even if you were the best HOA President ever known, there will be some that do not like you.

I was taught a long time ago... They can not eat you...

Stand your ground. Realize it is not you but the situation. Breath. Take a break. Respond later if necessary with the facts. If someone can not take a breather and a fact check then the problem is not you. Do not take it personally.

Also I find those with the attitude of hating the job or being in management type position should not be there. You either accept the position and all it's duties or you respect the one that does.

Keep in mind that this has almost nothing to do with what you're doing. It's because of your position. If you resigned tomorrow, he would almost certainly ignore you completely and go after another board member. It's how these people behave, and hard as it may be to do, you can't take it personally.

True story: when I ran for the board years ago, there were a few people who were part of the group supporting me. Once I was elected, I became the enemy - and once I was no longer on the board, they were perfectly friendly again. If you're not prepared for that, you'll be thinking "what the heck just happened?"

Our association's attorneys refer to those folks as "vocational dissidents" because their goal is to create conflict and controversy. The trouble makers may also target the community manager, although this seems to be less common. Some of the training sessions that the attorneys provide for board members include guidelines for dealing with vocational dissidents and not allowing them to derail the board's work. Controlling how you respond to them can go a long way in making the conflict less interesting to them.

I’ve been president for six years and I’m not running again . There are two big mouths who trash everything I do; if I tell you that the sun will rise in the morning they will literally argue against it at the monthly meetings. We had an annual meeting and one board member who had been appointed to fill a vacancy was not elected because one resident got absentee proxy ballots from several of homeowners. Now this ex-board member who was not elected, has gone door-to-door in our neighborhood, trashing me. I worked my ass off for this neighborhood and understand not everybody will be happy, but the kindergarten behavior of some homeowners is more than I want to deal with.

It's how I feel this year. I'd write more but for privacy I will not be.

I will say that I hope we never go through this again.