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May 10, 2005
Telling a Positive Story About Associations
This past week I was very happy to see two stories in the news telling nice things about community associations. Or rather, about two specific associations. The first was about The Meadows, a large planned community in Florida. One of the first things to catch my eye was the fact that they had bronze placques in the community center honoring past volunteers. This is something that every association should do, find a way to thank the people who donate their time and talents to help. One of the residents and a county commissioner said "I think that the pride you feel there from residents is part of the mystique of The Meadows," Mercier said. "They are conservative people. They make their dollars go further. They keep things in wonderful shape because that's what they want their community to be. Their leadership is amazing." Nice to read for a change, isn't it?
The second article was also from Florida (I don't think they have a corner on good or bad associations, just the newspapers actually print something about them). Cypress Lakes One of the things they did was put together their own emergency preparedness guide and distribute it to all residents. I like what the columnist who wrote the story had to say: "The information and detail included in each section is complete and will prove important to any resident. While there are publications printed each year by area television stations, etc., I found this guide to contain more common sense things to do and to be more complete than most of the generic guides. They were able to include sections specific to the community. I believe every community's homeowner association should work on preparing a similar guide if one does not already exist. It can save lives!" One other new program recently developed is a C.A.P., Citizens Assisted Patrol. Community volunteers staff it and they are rasing funds to support it, without an assessment.
Now and then its just nice to remember that associations can work.
(Note: By the time you read this the links, which are to newspaper columns, may be no longer functional).
Posted by joewest at May 10, 2005 4:45 PM