Thursday, June 7, 2007
Charleston Park Homeowners
To all homeowners, In light of all of the negative events and personal attacks I felt it necessary to remove the original post from this blog. I will also be blocking all "anonymous" commenting. I had turned the anonymous option back on about a month ago because I felt that some were afraid to post as them selves but it was meant to be a positive move. Now it is obvious that peoples insecurity is controlling there good judgment. I would welcome any suggestions on how we all together can make this forum better. Lets use this oppourtunity to move foward in a sprit of community.......
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
Looks like trying to quell the anonymous attacks killed the blog altogether. I suppose that's an interesting commentary but I've been guilty of not reviewing or posting either.
Hey, why not start up a new tread on the knuckleheads who continue to park on the street - what were they thinking when they bought a car too large for their garage or a garage too small for their car?? I wish our HOA had the brass to do something about this. It seems that we have so many ridiculous covenants that we could squeeze in one that actually speaks to community safety. I've asked about this and the response is a 'our hands are tied' sort of mentality. Perhaps they are but if a fellow resident bitch about a piece of lawn art and affect change then why can't I bitch about a public safetly issue and affect a similar (though more impactful) change. Hmm, perhaps I need to use a similar tack...."hey I don't like your choice in 2 ton truck-shaped street art".
Oh well, I hold my other rants in the event I'm just wasting bandwidth here...
Anyone know when the next neighborhood work day is?? I typically don't hear about them until 1 or 2 days before the event... seems a little lead time would help.
Ok, I promise, thats all for today.
I'd love to add an entirely new topic here but it appears that either I'm not blog savy or that requires administrative access rights. In the meantime, my comments are hidden under a similar but less than perfect topic heading...
My ideal topic heading would be "Communicative Transparency" which may do more to share the sort of dork that I am than relate what I'm trying to.
Perhaps "Open Air" or just "Open Forum" are better headers. So if an administrator is out there... I'd welcome the help setting it up.
So what is the purpose for this new tread? Great question. It has been my experience that communications to the CPHOA mailbox are not shared to the community as a whole. I'll sometimes collect a response but there's no accountability for acting on my messages - or the messages of others. Here's another way of stating my point. Do you know how many questions are raised to our HOA leadership? I have no clue how many nor the topics addressed. I'll see some of my questions politely addressed though seldomly resolved. Am I alone in this or are there others?? Where's the accountability?? Alas, there appears to be none.
Now it's not like I'm constantly or crazily messaging our HOA but when I do it's for a good reason - or so I think.
My initial attempt at satisfaction was to CC the community on an email I sent to Paul about our upcoming Workday/Petition Picnic. However, as our contact list does not include email addresses that effort fell flat and my hopes of an organic groundswell of communication and discussion was dashed.
My second attempt is already weakened by my having to post it under an unrelated topic on an already poorly traffic-ed blog. Alas, accountabilty remains an evasive goal and I more and more resemble Don Quixote.
Well, if I'm in for a penny, I'm in for a pound. In a follow-up comment I will paste in the message I sent to Paul today. At least I will have attempted to publicly share my thoughts. This will be coming out in just a couple mins so you can hold your breath...
...and hey, if you're out there reading this don't feel about about letting me know.
DaveOzment@gmail.com
or a responsive post would be great.
As promised, here's my email from about 30 minutes ago today. In this message I reference an email I sent to Paul last year - April 2007. I'll post that email as another follow-up comment.
Again, my objective is open communication designed to spur collaborative discussion and issue resolution. Yes, the removal of this vacuum will create increased accountability amongst our HOA Leaders but it also places increased responsibility upon the constituency as well. I'm open to both and trust that many amongst us are as well.
Paul –
In reading my comments below it will become clear that I have a strong opinion on a couple of topics – perhaps too strong for the taste of some. However, I believe more importantly than having an opinion is having a voice or outlet for that opinion. As I believe that my previous communications have fallen short, I was hoping to copy our fellow residents on this email. However, we do not have an email list for the neighborhood at this time so I’m entrusting my opinions to our HOA leaders for appropriate consideration and re-communication. I will also post this message on the blog but I don’t believe it receives the traffic today that it once did.
I received our recent flyer concerning our work day and picnic. I have some concerns/questions I’d like to share:
This should come as no surprise – we must work on our lead time for these events. I’ll make every effort to participate but I can personally attest that a lack of lead time is contributing to the low turnouts. I’ve never once seen a poll or inquiry as to date availability or preferences. Rather, it appears that these decisions are being made in a vacuum. I find this disappointing because it not only shows a lack of planning but also because I’ve specifically asked about the timing and scheduling of work days – see my email dated April 5.
I’m significantly disappointed and concerned over our approach of passing along a petition at a picnic which could result in a restrictive rental policy. There has been valuable discussion on our blog about this very important topic and clearly it is a nuanced issue that deserves more weight and thoughtful discussion than a hotdog induced signing party. To ignore opinions collected via an HOA sponsored communication channel, as well as, to by-pass this discussion during our last HOA meeting in favor of a picnic petition is – in my humble opinion – grossly irresponsible and profoundly lacking of good judgment. Further, without a clearly defined process for matriculating a petitioned item into actual legislation you are effectively asking us to sign a blank check with regard to the actual language of the restriction in question. For while I may approve covenantal coverage on this topic, I may not agree with your language but in signing I will have given away my voice. I’d imagine even the strongest supporters of such a restriction would agree that this is a poor process. Below I’ve attached a link to this discussion in our blog for additional context as well as year-old solution proposals/ideas.
Link to the “Rent or Not to Rent…” portion of our community blog:
http://charlestonpark.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=11
Speaking of this petition, how does one go about bringing a topic of this magnitude to the attention of the masses? Not only to their attention, but to the point of actually passing around a petition?? Last year we were asked to provide comments and suggestions for a Design Review Committee discussion yet I don’t believe anything ever came from that request. I replied with eleven (11) suggestions but have not seen much movement on any of them much less a community sponsored picnic thrown in their honor. I’ve attached my original email response here as a reference.
**note, there is a distinct differentiation in my tone today verses the original email – colorful comments jest-fully made in April 2007 might be interpreted as rude taken only in today’s context.
Thanks Paul, I do appreciate your time and sincerely welcome our HOA leadership’s comments/responses. My hope/intent is to foster greater communication and collaboration… we’ll see how I fare.
Thanks,
Dave
Ok, one more as promised...
Here's some context - in April 2007 we received a letter outlining the creation of a new Design Review Committee and it solicited ideas for this team to consider, as well as volunteers to participate. I was told by Paul at our Memorial Day picnic that I was the only one to response. This was surprising to me - only 1 resident with ideas none of which were discussed or implemented. It was equally surprising to hear that the committee was launched seeing as no one responded to the letter but that's a discussion for the black helicoptor crowd at another time.
So here is a copy of that email. Please know that some of this was tongue-in-cheek because I was feeling playful at the time of its writing and I believed that everyone's opinions carried equal weight. Clearly I've seen that not to be the case since.
Again, if you're reading along, "THANKS!" and feel free to let me know - DaveOzment@gmail.com
Paul –
I appreciate your recent letter regarding the need to clarify or detail the design guidelines. Below are a few comments or suggestions I’d like to offer to the greater cause. I hope this helps and look forward to reviewing the final proposals.
We should have a clear interpretation on fences. The draft covenants distributed to the initial wave of buyers precluded fences and this was relaxed in subsequent versions as the builder realized there was a demand for them. I’m not categorically against fences, but I’d like to see a clearly worded policy regarding them in the next iteration.
We need a policy and enforcement procedure for dogs relieving themselves in the common areas or in yards other than their own. I’ve stood in my yard or watched from my window when dogs from more than one household have used my yard as their personal bathroom. This is in additional to the ‘treats’ I’ve found in my yard or in the common areas. I like dogs and I like my neighbors but I don’t like my neighbor’s dog’s feces scattered about.
We need a clear enforcement policy and escalation protocol for all covenant violations. Threatening letters should be deployed as merited rather than as a unilateral measure. This is doubly true in instances, say lawn maintenance for example, when we admit to not having a clear policy in the first place.
Aftermarket custom lighting that some neighbors enjoy should be deployed tastefully. Of course taste is subjective but the very nature of the Design Review Committee is to legislate a range of acceptable taste. And rightly so. I’d expect that any more than 2 or 3 or 4 lights added to our small and already well lit yards is beyond a reasonable definition of taste.
Same goes with the planting of additional flowers and greenery in the front beds. It’s kinda like cologne. Just because little is good doesn’t mean that more is better. I think some yards have been over planted.
Some neighbors use bark, some mulch, some use colored mulch, and others use the pine straw. This is fine. Some neighbors use some of each. This not so much.
Mowing a ‘stripe’ or pattern in the grass looks nice… mowing the same pattern each week creates ruts in the yard, can kill parts of the grass and generally looks bad
This was an issue with the previous HOA – I think neighbors SHOULD be allowed to hang flags in their yards or from their front porches during football season. I think this can be good for conversations and neighbor relations. On the flip side, flags should be tasteful (i.e. no auburn flags) and not left out indefinitely.
I am amazed by the number of neighbors that bought huge trucks AFTER moving into this neighborhood. We should be able to do something about the number of cars parked on the street as a matter of course. I think this is the single worst thing done to detract from the aesthetics of our community. Additionally, this is not a safe practice as we move into summer and expect to have more children playing out doors.
We should standardize how we communicate with the HOA. I get letters in mail, letters placed in my mailbox (isn’t this against the law?), signs at the entrance, and apparently a blog, who knew? We should choose 1 or 2 of these, tell everyone that these are the preferred methods, and stick with it. I’ll provide my preferred mailing and email addresses below to help with this effort. Also, let’s communicate events in advance as well. The Memorial Day cookout notice is an appropriate level of advance notice, the Saturday workday a couple weeks back wasn’t – at least for me and my schedule.
Can we share the responses you collect? Names can be omitted but it would be nice to see what the other neighbors are thinking. It might help control some issues. For example, if I’m doing something – like parking my truck in the street – and I see 10 neighbors comment on it then I may self police my behavior in the future.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Dave
Preferred Mailing Address:
3509 Baker Rd
Ste 403-223
Acworth, GA 30101
Preferred Email Address:
DaveOzment@gmail.com
Dave,
I have to agree with you on the parking problem. I can't believe that people are still parking on the street even after receiving the letter. Unless you're unloading groceries or the like we need to keep our vehicles in the garage, our parking pad or cul de sac. We really need to start enforcing this common-sense rule. Any suggestions?
Hey Harpers, thanks for commenting. I was afraid the blog traffic had dried up. ...And who really could blame that for happening since our HOA leadership has comically and hypocritcally disavowed the blog as an official tool for communicating.
I purposefully use the words commically and hypocritically as 1) it was our HOA leadership that directed me to the blog as a tool for sharing ideas impacting the community and 2) this same leadership claims that the community is on the path to "chaos" (yes, he used the word chaos) due to a lack of community interest while at the very same time ignoring comments and discussions posted to the blog. I wouldn't think you could have it both ways - claiming a lack of participation while ignoring the participation collected but that's their chosen tact.
Hey, can you tell that I find this duplicity bothersome??
As for the parking, I'll give Paul (HOA Pres) some credit as he has contacted the local authorities about the potential for ticketing and that ended up as a dead end. Something about the streets being public streets and it not being illegal to park on public streets unless posted. That said, I'd be curious about what else could be done to escalate this issue. I know the Acworth mayor was instrumental in the initial development of this community. Perhaps he'd have a personal interest in this issue. Afterall, this could become a critical safety issue in very short order - imagine a fire truck or ambulance not being able to traverse the maze of trucks and cars clogging our streets... I know I've struggled to even pull out of my driveway so the idea isn't over the top.
So as for my personal suggestions, 1) I'd continue to press the local authorities for relief. I'm sure photos of clogged streets would add further weight to the issue. 2) I think I'd also post letters asking for participation and cooperation on the windshields of habitual offenders. 3) Finally, I'd reach out to the HOA's of longer standing communities to understand how they handled similar issues.
Hey I'd also suggest that we embrace tools like this blog as forums for collecting and sharing ideas.
It appears to me that there needs to be more in-depth, open and honest discussions regarding the state of affairs in Charleston Park. What are the chances that we could get community wide support for a proper HOA meeting for all of us to discuss? Say something over the next 1-2 months. The last one was on a Friday at Christmas time. How crazy and inconvenient was that? Hear this, Friday evening is never appropriate. It appears that a meeting date, geared towards ALL of our community members’ availability, would have a greater turn out. We could discuss the valid and sincere points you have raised. For example, I too have been quite suspicious of the motivations behind the picnic worthy event you described with petition to change our rental policy. I find it interesting that the recent events on Fort Sumter Landing (parking issues, new renting neighbors, domestic type disturbances with underage youth, etc....),how these issues could have potential to directly impact 2 of the HOA board members and now a rabid type interest in changing our covenants. Are they all related? I don't know. I really don't care. What I do care about is that any changes or new rules or reprimands for not following the rules, etc should be done with the WHOLE of this community in mind.
If the HOA feels that we as a community have not participated, then maybe they should make it a little easier to do so. I can't be notified less that 2 weeks from a work day and be able to attend. I would bust a gut to help this community stay clean, look nice and do my part. But this has to be with proper notice. Better yet, why not ask us to all input on a date we can lend services. I think the HOA referencing we are descending into chaos is quite extreme. I believe people are interested. I also believe the HOA as alienated some, ignored others and at times acted so aggressive, why would anyone want to bother. Not to mention most of us are out there every day working our asses off as well as maintaining our homes, families, etc. It is my impression that many on the HOA or affiliated boards do not work outside the home. Maybe that is a problem and our board does not accurately reflect the mix of folks we have in this community
Thanks TB, I appreciate your comments as well. Wow you've brought up some interesting events over on the Fort Sumtner side of the community. I do NOT want to descend into gossip but I do share your wonder as to how an apparently strange sequence of events may be related and how it may have driven movement from our HOA after such a quiet period from this group.
I like your idea about organizing an HOA meeting as well as an interest in moving the date from December. I typicially travel during the week so Fridays work ok for me but I get the point - I missed last year's meeting myself due to a scheduling conflict. I'd imagine the Dec date was left over from the original management group. I was at the meeting when they cowardly backed out and we elected our HOA representation. I think we retained the date simply as an anniversary date. I don't think there's more magic than that. I wholly agree we should poll for new dates and follow the lead of those willing to participate - how ever it is that they are willing to lend their voice.
One thing to be aware of is how the HOA wants to collect information. Clearly this is point of aggrevation for me so I'll simply cut and paste Paul's words in here so there's zero room for interpretation - this is from a very recent email from Paul to me:
"1) The Blog was not created, administered, or sanctioned by the CPHOA Board of Directors. I personally responded to some postings, however, in an attempt to clarify policies and procedures. The only sanctioned communications channels have been P.O. Box 616, cphoa48@aol.com, the DRC Request Form, and the Annual Meeting."
I guess this makes me wonder how the blog could be a communicative tool for messaging FROM the HOA but not TO the HOA... but I guess that's part of the reasoning behind the apparent skepticism.
Again, thanks for your message and I agree that folks are interested in being involed. Hell Luis opened and manages the blog but the current HOA has marginalized rather than celebrated his efforts. I believe with proper cultivation we could avoid the looming "chaos".
I concur, gossip was not an intention. I simply question the motivation for this change when it was so obviously ignored when those of us brought it up on the blog initially. Let me know if you want to work together to identify those in the community who are interested in an earlier HOA meeting. We could ask the HOA for this change and see if they are willing to accomodate and organize. If they don't, I don't mind volunteering my time to get a petition for the earlier meeting signed by those interested. Do we know if there is a requirement for those interested, such as 1/3 or 2/3 of majority? By the way, you are an eloquent, thoughtful writer and superb conveyor of your message. Have you given any thought to donating your time as a member of our HOA?
There is one very important thing for you to keep in mind TB... and that is flattery will get you everywhere! Ha...
Seriously, I do appreciate your comments. Ironically enough I have just recently been offered a place on the board effective nearly immediately (without waiting until the next meeting - still currently slated for December). I'm currently waiting for details about the role and its requirements because I don't want to join if I can not fulfill the duties. Frankly, that's partly why I didn't volunteer a couple years ago. We had folks willing to serve who were home all the time so I found them to be better fits than me. Funny how you interpreted that situation now in your earlier note - who knew?
I'm still conflicted as to whether I should take the role but that's something I'll figure out. However, it is nice to collect (and I'm bending your comment a little) your support.
I agree with the idea of moving the annual meeting but I think it needs to be an HOA sponsored or sanctioned event as we've seen how they respond to unsanctioned discussions.
If we're serious, one of us should propose the idea and back it up with ideas for how we'd generate buzz or interest in the meeting. It does take 2/3 approval for a new covenant but I think HOA meetings can be called without a vote (or without much notice) - see the workdays and picnic.
I even have ideas for accomplishing this...
- communicate, communicate, communicate let everyone know the meeting is taking place and provide a compelling agenda well in advance and then repeat as the meeting draws near.
- location, location, location... a local resturant or coffee house with a back room or even someone's home (that may really be too much of an imposition), or something more compelling than a church sundy school class - not that I have anything against Sunday School
- Reward Participation - offer door prizes or HOA fee 'coupons' to incent folks to show-up and participate.
These are just simple off the cuff ideas but they are new (as far as I know) and might be worth trying. If nothing, it may demonstrate what could result from some thoughtful planning by those smarter then me.
Hey, you've expressed an interest and willingess to serve too? Have YOU given any thought to donating your time??
Together we may be able to stave off the impending "CHAOS"... sorry, plays off that just don't get old!
Yes sir, I actually attempted to do so initally, having thrown my name in the hat. I think I might be a little too outspoken and direct for many's personal liking. In all honesty, I think my style might be an "aquired taste". Neverless, I am always willing to help. I would venture to guess there are a lot of people in this community with something to offer from a business/past expereince/communication standpoint. Our community is so small in comparison to others and with a lot less demands, it doesn't have to be this difficult.
You take the lead here, either you or I will contact the board reqeusting an earlier meeting. Your call. I agree with all of your suggestions above to make attendence greater. You know, I could ask Henry if he would let us use his upstairs rooms for our meetings. On a weeknight, I could attend the meeting, eat something and have a cocktail. It doesn't get any better than that to me! Wait a minute, I think that is a beer commerical....
You mean the Henry's on Main Street?? Oh, that place is great! I'm sold on your commercial!
In all honesty, I think it would be best if you made the first move on this one and I'll explain why I believe this way. In addition to all the emails between Paul and I that I've attached here, I have a pretty good chain going now and it's pretty clear that 2 board members are not interested in my thoughts because they've not responded dispite my direct questions and Paul is clearly tired of my inquiries. I don't mind sharing this chain if you're interested but I won't post it all here at this time.
I think adding a new approach to the board would be good and overdue.
I do want to offer a balance to my agression towards our existing board. While I wildly disagree with some of their tactics, I do think they are good people and I do appreciate their service. I would not want to run roughshod over them but would rather work together for the greater good. I think that there is a limit to the number of folks who are interested in being active so I'd hate to have a divided camp... though I have to add that I believe we may already have one....
....and now a new issue arises on Ft. Sumter.....seems as though one of our teenage neighbors has acquired some sort of small motorcycle type vehicle...something else for children and adults to watch out for as he races back and forth through both cul-de-sacs!
Yes! I saw the little grunt riding it on the walking trails earlier today.
I bet he'll have great fun weaving in and out of all the parked cars... until he wrecks into one.
Post a Comment