Florida Condo, HOA Holiday Decorations Marked by Spirituality, Tolerance and Inclusion, CALL Survey Shows
As year-end holidays approach, the spiritual "reason for the season" will be on display in lobbies, entrances, hallways and other common areas of the majority of condominiums and homeowner associations throughout the state of Florida, according to results of a statewide survey of community association members released today.
Nearly 80% of respondents to the survey, conducted online from Nov. 5-20 by the Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL), an organization representing more than 4,000 Florida condominium and other community associations, said their communities choose to place holiday decorations in common areas of the property during the month of December.
Of those, fully 78.8% said the display includes Christmas decorations, while 36% said their association displays Hanukkah decorations in December, indicating that many condo buildings and homeowner associations (HOAs) choose to publicly celebrate both the Christian and Jewish holidays. An additional 1.7% said their association would celebrate Kwanzaa.
While 37.2% said the holiday display in their association would remain non-denominational, survey organizers said the responses show that the religious and spiritual messages of the holidays remain substantial in most Florida community associations.
"Clearly, most community associations in Florida recognize the spiritual origins of the holidays and tend to deal with different religious and ethnic traditions in a spirit of tolerance and inclusion," said Donna D. Berger, Executive Director of CALL and a community association attorney and shareholder with the Florida-based law firm Becker & Poliakoff. "The survey also showed that the display of decorations is sanctioned by association tradition in 40% of the cases, while the association leadership establishes the decorations policy more than half the time, either by a specially designated committee or a decision by the association's elected Board of Directors."
A total of 459 property owners in condominiums, HOAs and other community associations from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys responded to the survey, conducted in an effort to identify trends and "best practices" in how Florida community associations deal with issues related to year-end holiday decorations, association parties and employee gifts and bonuses.
Key survey findings include:
- While more than 60% of associations shy away from throwing a year-end
party, of those that do go in for a community-wide holiday bash only
16.8% are willing to foot the bill directly out of the annual budget.
- Nearly half (44.6%) of respondents said their association earmarks less
than $100 in their annual budget to spend on these year-end holiday
items, with 28.3% spending from $100-$500 and 27.1% saying their
association spends more than $500 each year.
- Slightly more than half (55.1%) of associations give year-end gifts or
bonuses to association employees -- of those, 52.2% have created an
annual budget item for that purpose, while 47.5% fund employee gifts or
bonuses through voluntary contributions from association members.
"A clear consensus is yet to emerge among associations on the question of whether and how to provide year-end holiday gifts or bonuses to employees," said Ms. Berger. "Often at issue for those that do provide employee gifts or bonuses is how to do so equitably, and on that point associations appear nearly evenly split between those that prefer to guarantee an amount through an annual budget line item and those that leave the amount to be determined by voluntary contributions from individual unit owners."
The survey also found that fully 65% of associations place no restrictions when it comes to holiday decorations and of those that do, nearly 80% said their association takes no action or sends a warning letter with no follow through in the case of a property owner who flaunts the restrictions.
"We found it interesting that the survey responses showed a more relaxed attitude on the part of community association leadership regarding enforcement of restrictions on what individual owners can display on doors, balconies and front yards," said Ms. Berger.
The survey's sponsor, CALL, is a statewide organization established in 2003 to advocate on behalf of the interests of Florida's community associations by the law firm Becker & Poliakoff, which has the largest community association law practice in the state.
The full report on the survey results is available online at the website of the Community Association Leadership Lobby: www.callbp.com.
About the Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL)
The Community Association Leadership Lobby is the leading organization working to enhance the quality of life and protect property values for Florida's community association residents. CALL advocates on behalf of more than 4,000 member communities, including condominiums, homeowners' associations, mobile home communities and cooperatives throughout the state. More information on the Community Association Leadership Lobby can be found at www.callbp.com