I attended the Board meeting on September 10th after sitting out the one on August 27th in order to allow them space to get their feet under them. Recognizing that I’ve been vocal to the point of annoyance to some in the community, combined with the fact that I believe the new board needs a chance to not only get controls of the HOA functions, led me to believe it was a better idea to wait before participating again.
As it turns out, it appears that while you would think the other former Board members would arrive at the same conclusion, in fact, they have chosen to aggressively pursue one issue in particular – increasing the side of the Board to 9 Directors vs. 5 Directors.
What I saw at the Board meeting this week appeared to be a reasonable response: This should be a community decision made in November.
While it appeared to address the issue at the meeting, I learned at a meeting to turn over Secretarial materials the following day that, in fact, several members of this group are aggressively pressuring the Board to add 4 additional Directors prior to November.
Why? “Healing”
I’ve reached out to the person who advocated “healing” at the meeting on the 10th, but have yet to receive a response. While it’s an emotionally charged or even attractive word, it runs counter to the observable actions since the prior Board was removed. And, since this keyword “healing” is now being repeated by several owners in informal discussions around the neighborhood, it begs the question: How does increasing the size of the board or including those using the keyword “healing” actually deliver any emotional healing value to those who feel they were emotionally wounded?
Stay tuned. I plan to write about this subject a bit more in the future, but would like to have the group advocating healing speak for themselves and have yet to receive a response.
In the meantime, however, my first impression of the new board is that they bring to the table an impressive set of skills and experience, and appear to have not only the intentions, but a plan to deliver on what they proposed in their written platform. The most important thing I heard on the meeting on the 10th was this: That the Community has final say and control over our HOA, not the Board.
They have expressed plans to survey the community to find out exactly what is desired in terms of rules, policies, and previously mentioned, the size of the board that represents them. This is a significant improvement over the declaration by our last President at the 2018 Annual Owners Meeting where he declared we are “a Republic”, and that the only input welcomed was a vote for new Board members.
A good deal of the meeting dealt with the topic of how to approach amending the governing documents, and it was refreshing to see a meeting that allowed expression of diverse views without contention. I attribute this to have been significantly influenced by the new Board’s assertion that Robert’s Rules of Order shall be followed versus the prior Board’s explicit and deliberate discarding of such procedure. A breath of fresh air for someone who experienced both in person.
First impressions are often correct, and as someone who has gained a reputation for being critical to the point of not being capable of praise, it’s important to note that my opinions on this matter are not due to direction or coordination with the current Board. I can tell you that both at the meeting and privately, I’ve expressed opinions that differ with some members. The difference is that instead of pitting personalities against one another and forming voting blocs, and characterizing each other as the embodiment of right and wrong, the focus is on the evidence and facts supporting one position or another.
As a result, the dynamic changes from a bullying majority that never considers valid arguments from any other party (and sometimes then becomes somewhere from dismissive or abusive to those parties), to one where all parties recognize a collective learning journey, and the fact that honesty, humility, and the ability to compromise is a necessary component to delivering institutional consistency.
While the Board has yet to issue an official mission statement, or Purpose, as I have advocated, what I can glean from this meeting is that we have a board that now plans to follow the democratically expressed will of the community rather than dictating it to the community. This isn’t exactly what is meant by a purpose-driven organization, but it certainly is better soil for seeds of purpose to germinate and grow.
Overall, I am quite impressed with our new board, and am hopeful and optimistic about how this develops over time.