A non-holiday post

I'm on the board of our home owner's association.

It's a complicated story of how I got on the board, and now I wish I had never opened my big, fat mouth.

Back when Mike was doing his travel to Houston, I was in the mode to become a very involved Alexandria citizen. (That was about the time I volunteered for about a dozen "committees" at church, and never got called to serve on any of them. Not that I'm bitter.) I also tried to keep up with my neighbors much more back then, partly out of security - I wanted them to know that I was alone and they should watch out for me.

So, one day this notice comes around for nominations to the board of directors. I had absolutely no complaints about the current board, and no causes that I wanted to take up as a director. But the way I read the notice, it sounded to me like there was an empty seat on the board. Not like I'd be running against anyone or anything.

I asked the busybody of the neighborhood, and he confirmed that, indeed, it was an open seat.

Out of civic duty, I put my name down.

Only to find out that it is not, in fact, an open seat, but rather I had signed up to run against the current president of the board, who'd served for years and pretty much ran the whole darned thing, and that by running, I was specifically running for the presidency spot.

Oops.

I inadvertently made a few enemies. And all I was trying to do was help out!

The meeting is held where the election will be, and both the current president and myself are asked to give speeches about why we'd be good presidents.

She gives hers, which is heartfelt.

I stand up and basically say, "Look, I didn't mean to run against anyone. I thought it was an empty spot, and I'd help out. I'd be happy to still do so. But in no way did I mean to imply that I was unhappy with [current president]. Sorry for the confusion."

Needless to say, I didn't win. (Thank goodness.)

But then a year or two later, a current board member moves. Not the president. So the president approaches me and asks if I'd like to be appointed to the board to fill his spot.

At this stage, I really don't. The civic duty calling has left me, and I'd really rather not bother. But I felt guilty, so I said "yes."

I'm not particularly active. The current president, while a bit domineering, really does take care of everything. It's a volunteer job, and she's really committed to it. There have only been a few small times when I've disagreed with a suggested policy, and we work it out.

Anyhow, I've pretty much skated by on the board not doing much but attending meetings. I've printed up and distributed a few fliers when we have construction going on in the neighborhood, but that's about it.

There is a third board member who has been keeping minutes AND sending out the dues notices every month. She asked if I'd take over the dues starting in January. And truly, it's only fair. It's my turn to pitch in, and it's really not a big deal. A few hours a month, some record keeping, no problem.

Last night I began my first attempt at sending out the dues and ran into immediate problems. The first has to do with the current system being a largely hand-written system, instead of any automation on the computer, or printed anything.

Fine, I put in a few extra hours this first month to make up a few Excel spreadsheets. No big deal.

But then I run into problem number two, and the true impetus for this rambling post.

The very first house record is wrong. A new couple moved in last month, and I don't know their names. I can't exactly send the dues notice with the old owner's name.

So I call the president. She doesn't know their names.

Then I call the neighborhood busybody. He also keeps track of the neighborhood contact list that's distributed to everyone, so he should know.

He does know, and he gives me their names.

Then he asks why I want to know. I tell him I'm starting to do the dues for the HOA.

"Oh!" He says with surprise. "So then you're the treasurer of the board now? I thought you were secretary. When did that happen?"

"Well," I reply, immediately seeing I'm in a trap, "I don't know what you'd call me, except someone processing the dues!"

"What happened to [other board member]? When people ask me, I say she's the treasurer. If you're doing dues, you must be treasurer. Is she secretary now? When did this take effect?"

Crap. I don't know if I've got a title. I don't know if [other board member] has a title. I know she's been doing the work of secretary (taking minutes) and treasurer (processing dues), and I was just trying to be fair. I don't know if we need office titles, or if the bylaws state we need some official action to change titles, or.... really? Really? This is important?

I try to put him off further by responding that we're just "not that big into titles, so call us what you want, I'm doing the dues now."

He actually said at one point, "I'm not trying to be nosey, it's just, well, I want to know what to tell people."

Because so many people care who's who on the Early Street Village homeowner's association. Really.

Okay, now that I have that off my chest, I can start entering these addresses into Excel...