Update - 27 May 2014
In the four years since I wrote this original post, there have been a lot of changes. People are volunteering!!! Lots more activity is occurring on our neighborhood Facebook page. Recently, there was a Picadilly block party. Organized yard sales have occurred. Neighbors checking on their neighbors and showing concern. More attention has been paid to sprucing up individual landscapes. Residents getting to know one another. Neighbors providing support to a family after a fire disaster.
WAY TO GO !!!
David Jeffreys, blog editor
PS: In answer to the two original comments in 2010, Victoria Place HOA is now well managed by Network Real Estate and the McKoys! Also, Rebecca is now President and serving her third year on the board! Thanks, Rebecca, who has also added a full time job to her repertoire answering your 911 calls.
In the four years since I wrote this original post, there have been a lot of changes. People are volunteering!!! Lots more activity is occurring on our neighborhood Facebook page. Recently, there was a Picadilly block party. Organized yard sales have occurred. Neighbors checking on their neighbors and showing concern. More attention has been paid to sprucing up individual landscapes. Residents getting to know one another. Neighbors providing support to a family after a fire disaster.
WAY TO GO !!!
David Jeffreys, blog editor
PS: In answer to the two original comments in 2010, Victoria Place HOA is now well managed by Network Real Estate and the McKoys! Also, Rebecca is now President and serving her third year on the board! Thanks, Rebecca, who has also added a full time job to her repertoire answering your 911 calls.
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Victoria Place has had a homeowners association (HOA) since the neighborhood was started by the original builders. Certain covenants were built into the original documents in order to protect the residents and maintain the community. Some HOAs have a lot more communal property as well as additional amenities such as clubhouses, pools, tennis courts, etc. And of course for such amenities they may have very high annual dues to cover their costs. Victoria Place does not have a lot of communal property -- the main one being the streetfront buffer along 41st Street. We try to maintain these areas so that they are beautiful and inviting, so we have a landscaper maintain them for us. Our architectural committee reviews all changes to the outside of properties, so that they continue to look nice and fit in with our character.
August, 2010
What we have NOT had is a lot of participation by our homeowners. We have tried to organize a community-wide picnic, block parties, and yard sales. Very few homeowners have volunteered to help.
So what does Victoria Place Homeowners Association mean to you? Do you think it is successfully carrying out its mission? Are you proud to live in Victoria Place? What else should VP HOA be doing? Could I help by being on a committee, becoming a board member, or just organize a pot luck dinner? If this HOA is going to thrive, it needs your volunteer participation as well as your annual dues.
PLEASE START A DIALOGUE HERE by clicking on the comments below and giving us your opinion.
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4 comments:
We have lived in the neighborhood for 6 years now and the Homeowners Association has struggled to get participation. As has been stated, a few cannot do it all and from my experience and from what I have heard from longer term residents it has been this way for a long time. A small group has worked very hard in the past few years and is clearly frustrated. From a practical standpoint I would be interested to know what it would cost to turn things over to a management company.
I've volunteered in the past (treasurer) and would be happy to volunteer for the HOA in non-board member tasks like landscaping, garage sales, etc. I just don't have the time I used to have.
I spend much of my day working on computers so in the evening all I really want to do is relax a minute and catch up on Facebook. I pretty much forget about this blog just because it's not right "in my face." Has anyone thought about creating a Facebook Group? I'd be happy to start one off of my login but just need to know if that's something you all are interested in me or someone else doing.
I think a FB group could add a little fun and communicate more effectively than a blog, as lovely as it is :-) (Good job, David!)
I look forward to hearing back - you can FRIEND me at http://www.facebook.com/BecAndCall to reply since I'll probably forget again (it's 2am Sunday morning)
Thanks!
I served as HOA 'President' for a couple of years before we had the help of the real estate management company. It was more of a miserable drag than a pleasant duty, to be honest, with constant calls about home sales and dues in arrears or complaints about one neighbor's dog pooping in another neighbor's yard. Community spirit was sadly lacking.
I do believe that turning over the 'bill collecting' part to the real estate management firm has taken some of the acrimony out of neighbor-to-neighbor dealings, and that's a GREAT thing.
I also think that there are pocket handkerchiefs of neighborliness going on between people who live next door to one another.
What we seem to lack is a sense of real community spirit, which grows out of frequent contact with one another. If we treat our homes as our caves and bedrooms, and don't come out of them much except to leave for work in the morning, that is pretty natural I guess.
Since last September I have been going out for a walk every morning for one to three circuits of the neighborhood. If you take in every cul-de-sac and go around three times at a moderate pace, you will get an hour-long walk. And guess what? You will also get to know more of your neighbors, whether by name or not. You will certainly meet the people who walk their dogs. You might see people sitting out on their front steps or porch or going off to work. You might occasionally see a child. You will ALWAYS see an interesting bird, flower, tree, or other phenomenon.
If you see me walking (usually between about 8 and 9 a.m.) feel free to join me and we can walk and chat. This seems to me to be an amazingly good, and good for you, way to connect to your own neighborhood!
Penny Schmitt
A great way to get to know your neighbors and build some community is to go outside and walk around the neighborhood.
I do this myself for up to about an hour each morning I am at home. I've really enjoyed seeing people, dogs, flowers, and other neighborhood phenomena. If your home is your cave and your neighborhood is just something you see from your car . . . well, it won't be very neighborly.
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