Thursday, July 21, 2016

Why YOU Are the Most Important Asset In Our Community!






Although, as we often mention, the most important duty of our association is to protect the value of our property, the most important asset within our community is not the property itself, but the members who make up the association.

Without you, the homeowner/resident, our community is nothing more than a collection of buildings, landscape and asphalt. As members of the community, homeowners bring their own individual tastes, likes, dislikes and preferences into the community. It is that diversity that makes our community interesting and full of life.

It is also that diversity that creates the need for commonly accepted guidelines in order to help everyone get along and pursue a collective goal: peaceful and harmonious community living that benefits the investment we have in the  community.

By recognizing the diverse makeup of our most valuable assets, the homeowner members, each of us can begin to understand the need for commonly accepted rules and regulations, architectural guidelines and the need for a Board of Directors made up of a cross-section of homeowners in order to represent the full spectrum of individual tastes and concerns. Without that understanding it is easy to become distracted and concern ourselves with the loss of individual freedoms and distaste of conformity that some associate with association living.

In order for our community to develop to its fullest potential, each and every one of us must develop an appreciation of the others who make up our community. And with that appreciation will come a desire to contribute to each other's well-being within the community. We can choose to embrace the potential of our association and work within its framework to create an atmosphere of peaceful, harmonious living, or we can choose to ignore that potential and view our association as a hindrance in our own pursuit of unbridled happiness. Either way, we alone have the power to create the perceptions that we embrace. If you don't appreciate the benefits created by our community guidelines, then those guidelines will never be respected.

The key to successful association living is to recognize the benefits provided by living within an association and accept that certain behaviors and actions detract from those benefits. By doing so, we are able to contribute to the success of our association, our community and ultimately our own investment we have made in our property.

Likewise, successful association living also relies heavily upon recognizing those behaviors and actions that enhance the benefits of living within an association. Conforming to community guidelines, active participation in association activities such as committees and the board of directors, and choosing to attend board meetings in order to understand the issues that face our association are perfect examples of how each and everyone of us can contribute to the betterment of our community.

Our association may be legally obligated to preserve, protect and enhance the common assets of the association, but in order for our association to do that, we must also recognize the value of its most important asset: you the homeowner. Without your cooperation, support and involvement, our association cannot succeed. The investment each of us have in our property demands that cooperation, support and involvement. To neglect that responsibility is to neglect our investment, and few of us can afford to do that!