Residents of Change!

Board elections are fast approaching and this year “change” seems to be permeating the air. We have a self-appointed group call the “ROC” or “Residents of Change” which wants to be on the board. They have circulated a colorful (as in printed with a color laser printer) letter and profiles of several board candidates. I would have prefered that they be about "solutions" but I and my fellow unit owners are apparently not so lucky!

They summarize the candidate profiles with this statement:

“A grassroots movement to change the character and the attitude of the BLMH association board has been growing and is now organized as the Residents of Change (ROC). Our first order of business is to place a ROC team on the board and we have chosen three candidates to run for the positions open on the board in 2008. The ROC candidates are all successful professionals with backgrounds in project management, conflict resolution, team building, and interpersonal communications.”

The “ROC” is running with a series of objectives. These include:

1. We will be the voice of the residents, and will work with our management agents to be sure that our collective voice is heard.
2. We will champion forward thinking ideas over repressive measures.
3. We will seek ways to reduce expenses and keep our assessments as low as possible.
4. We will encourage open, two-way communications by:

• Creating an association website by posting news and bylaws.
• Establishing suggestion venues via email or written note.
• Publishing the minutes of the Board meetings.
• Notifying residents of agenda topics.
• Respecting residents opinions and concerns.

They also made the following statements in the letter mailed to all of the unit owners:

"As you know, we will be voting for association board members in the upcoming September 25th elections. For a long time now, a majority of us have been displeased with the current board for its lack of respect for the concerns and opinions of BLMH residents, as well as its failure to initiate or maintain any type of communication between us and the board."

I found a proxy instruction taped to my unit door this morning. This was apparently put there by someone else in the unit. However, no one was willing to take credit for this.

I have read all the material that the 'ROC' has given me and I have grave misgivings. I recall a story my spouse's 90 year old aunt told us a couple of years ago. That story was about the changes that were wrought on her condominium by a new board that was elected when some unit owner's were "dissatisfied". The result was higher assessments, and it turned out her new board had an agenda to make certain improvements that they felt were necessary, such as new windows on the units. My poor aunt was hit with a large assessment and she was convinced that new windows were not necessary. But that board had it's way!

As for the "ROC" I don't know if they can be trusted. I am unclear what their agenda really is. OK, I got it, they want to lower expenses and they are for everyone being heard. But what do they intend to accomplish? How will they accomplish this "lowering"? Will repairs be stopped or will they decide to allocate the funds to some "pet project" as occurred with Aunt "A"? I don't know because these people aren't talking.

One of the items they are promoting is a web site for the association. Great! But why haven't they put their agenda on a blog such as this one and promoted it to all of the residents?

They claim to be a majority. But until we received the letter requesting their vote, we had never been contacted by them. This leads me to question that statement. If it is false, then that leads me to surmise that these people cannot be trusted.

I suspect they are preying on peoples fears and are possibly making an end run at the board. But why? One possibility is to get to the cash reserves. I don't know how far they could go if elected. I suppose they could replace the management company with their own cronies. That would give them free reign.

I called our management company to discuss how far this can go, but the people I needed to speak to were not in. As this is not an "emergency" I'll wait.

In the mean time So I decided to formulate a letter to the three candidates and send a copy to the current board. I wonder if I'll even get a response from the "ROC"?