I did a search on this board...

I am really surprise to read responses to "compliants" by owners from participants on this board. A majority of the responses were to ignore the owner "there is always one" that complains, it was stated in a response. Well, I take offense to this. I am a complainer because my board does nothing! They ignore problems.

1.They allowed a fire to start from a renter because they wouldn't stop them from throwing cigs over a fence into dry weeds. I tried to warned them.

2.They allow the landscape to look like crap. All the plants are dying or dead.

3. They look the other way when rules they post in the CCR are broken or ignored by renters or other owners.

4. There are a number of complaints I have and I let them know it. I pay $400.00 a month to these idiots. AND YES, I ran for the board and lost by 2 votes to a group that has been the board for 8 yrs.

It is just sad to hear the lack if respect for owners who actually care about where they live and do have issues with the board .Instead of ignoring the complainer what don't you look into the matter!!!

My board doesn't even acknowledge the info sent to them. However, one positive note is that after continuing to complain my suggestions do wind up in the newsletter once in awhile. Like please do not leave you carts in the elevator, do not leave your trash or dog poop in the foyer, don't leave lit cigs on your wooden balcony railing....so on and so forth.

If it doesn't happen to the board, your a complainer. Thank you Robert for your common sense and helpful responses when I do come to this board for help.

It's less your board's fault than it is the fault of all the members of the organization. But I'll get into that in a minute.

Couple of comments.

If you lost this time, then try again, only next time plan a more aggressive communication campaign and meet face-to-face with as many residents (members) as you possibly can.

Don't go to them complaining about how bad the board is and how much you've tried to "enlighten" them.

Go to your fellow members with a checklist of four or five very specific, very positive things you believe need to be addressed and let them know your solutions for those things as opposed to a litany of complaints about what this board is not doing.

People like to throw behind people they think are going to have a positive energy and someone who has a positive plan for solutions to problems.

Next, one of the things being a long-time board member endows many of us with is the ability to "read between the lines" if you will. There probably are all sorts of scenarios and circumstances we individually haven't run into yet, but at the same time, there's not a lot we haven't seen or heard in some form or another.

Yes, there are chronic complainers in some neighborhoods. I've addressed one of your recent posts about that and our formal policy on how we, as a board, talk about or to such a person.

And it is true. Many many HOAs have at least one and sometimes several people like that.

They see themselves as the arbiter of the covenants and are of the belief that if it weren't for them, the board would never enforce the covenants correctly.

And very often they would be dead wrong.

At least in our case, the one or two chronic complainers that we have invariably complain about items over which we, as an organization, have absolutely no jurisdiction. We have no covenant that addresses where one's grass clippings can or cannot fall during lawn maintenance. Does that stop Ms. Complainer A from sending us an email Every. Single. Time. her neighbor's grass clippings end up in the street? Even after we have politely informed her Every. Single. Time. that our covenants do not address such things and we cannot make the homeowner stop allowing them to fall on the sidewalk or on the driveway?

Then there is Ms. Complainer B who emails us to let us know that one of her neighbors sits at the stop sign while she waits for her daughter's school bus to show up. Does it matter that we've told her that she must report that sort of thing to the local police dispatch and not to the HOA? No. She will let us know each and every time it happens.

And the list from both goes on and on. Only on a very rare occasion does either have a legitimate covenant violation to report. And in many of those cases they will have been witnessing the violation for quite some time, stewing that we haven't done a thing about it. Nevermind that they are completely aware that we don't police the neighborhood and will not have seen the next-door neighbor park on the street overnight every night for the last month. How could we? Not only does no board member live on that street, but we don't have ESP, either. So by the time we get the report, Ms. Complainer A will preface the email with several paragraphs of how crappy it's been that we have let this go on for the past 4 weeks without doing a thing about it! Yeesh!!

But we have to acknowledge the receipt and disposition of each and every notification.

It becomes very tedious and it also increases the risk of "She Who Cries Wolf" syndrome. Meaning: sometimes a legitimate complaint may get overlooked in a long email missive about four or five petty or non-jurisdictional complaints. By "petty" I mean things that might be annoying, but don't violate any of our covenants.

Now, back to the responsibility of your neighbors to ensure their board is behaving properly.

My guess is that many of your neighbors also hear of your complaints and also hear that the board is doing nothing about them. Or at least "nothing" according to you. (they may be sending notices or such that you may not be aware of, they just simply aren't communicating with you).

But again, my guess is that you are already quite vocal about how poorly this board is performing.

Do you not think it odd, then, that enough of them don't either see it the same way you do or that they don't care enough about the board's behavior that they find the energy to vote them gone?

Members have a responsibility in the organization, too. So it seems to me that they are not doing their job either if they keep voting this board in year after year.

After all is said and done, I definitely feel your board was inappropriate in the way it handled your email complaint.

But you need to hold your own neighbors' feet to the fire, too. Bad boards often evolve that way by lack of proper support and input from all the association members.

OMG, you said" They see themselves as the arbiter of the covenants and are of the belief that if it weren't for them, the board would never enforce the covenants correctly.

And very often they would be dead wrong.

This is me! LOL

SueL,
It is true, this site can use some scrutiny. It is too bad we don't get more of it. When someone posts here questioning our opinions, right or wrong, or the criticism, right or wrong, those posts, are read and considered. And as you can see from Michele's post, she is trying to be constructive. All in all, this is a pretty good place to go and complain.

But, there is more to be gained by doing what you are doing. Read some of these posts, add you comments and let some time go by. Champion the posters you feel are being treated unfairly. I find that this site is a great working classroom, and it will also tick you off at times. Small potatoes.....though, compared to how much you learn.

Look at it this way, we get Board members bitching about Board members, BM bitching about owners, owners bitching about everything, BM bitching about PM, PM bitching about owners or Boards, etc, etc, etc. Now if that didn't happen, we could close up shop. So we all bitch about something, you having problems with your board is no big deal and it shouldn't be to your board. Your board, along with all boards are probably having complaints from the owners.

Just don't concentrate this all down to the present, it happened yesterday and it will happen tomorrow. Associations are not static, they churn all the time. That is one reason owners don't like to get involved, you can't solve everything. Nature of the beast. I am glad you will run again, and Michele has given good advice. But, if get get elected to the Board by default, and this happens all the time, you may not know your job, in fact you will not know your job. But if you go out and contact some support in the neighborhood, you will begin to see what your job is. Your job, and every other members job is to the association..........it will dawn on you, if you don't know it already, there has to be a better reason to put yourself out there, than trying to please the owners. Pleasing the owners is not going to fulfill your soul, nor is pleasing as many owners as you can. You need a higher calling.............that is the association.

Peter,
As a non-board member I find your defense to be controlled, reasonable, and constructive. I also hope folks reading this thread don't mistake a defense as the complete picture. If people would take the time to read some of the threads that deal with Board actions they will find the harshest remarks sometimes coming from Board members on this site. I suspect this kind of criticism, coming from a board member here is the desire to get at the truth, and Board action or not, sometimes you have to tell it like it is.