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February 14, 2006
Dis-Association
In reading the media stories and sorting through some of the newly proposed legislation from around the country, I'm noticing an interesting trend -- the separation of the owners from the association. I don't mean that the owners are feeling alienated, although that's probably true in some cases. No, I mean that the legislators and media are somehow thinking that the association is a separate entity entirely, disassociated from the people who live within it's boundaries.
I guess its easier to reduce the association to an impersonal, corporate structure when opposed by an owner or legislator. If you see an owner on the news who is claiming an injustice against him by the association, he never says, "My neighbors, whom I elected, are out to get me". Its "The association is ruining my life".
Legislators pass laws to regulate "associations" never mentioning that the cost of abiding by that legislation will be passed on to the owners. Its easier if you're taxing corporations, not voters. And "associations" are not an organized group to deal with at election time.
It's like our complaints about "government" without clarifying what roles the leaders we voted for are playing in it, or our role in electing them. It's human nature.
Community associations really need to remind owners and everyone else that they are simply groups of people, trying to get along (most of the time)in a structure that is still struggling to find ways to deal with it's strengths and weaknesses.
Posted by joewest at February 14, 2006 10:56 AM