Sunday, January 31, 2010

Laurel Oaks Community Forum

This forum was created to allow Homeowners in the Laurel oaks Subdivision to air their views and opinions freely as well as make suggestions that could help improve our community. This Forum was created by the Laurel Oaks Community Coalition, an organization that is dedicated to promoting greater awareness and participation of Homeowners in HOA activities and operations.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea. The theme of inclusion is a refreshing.

Charlie

Maxine said...

IDEA!!!

I would like to see our community establish an (Identity) that will be distinguishable from our surrounding communites.

I would like to see us work together to create an environment that will entice our surrounding communities to model themselves after; which in turn can continue to spread throughout the entire city making things better for us all.

I believe that we need to examine our current Neighborhood Profile - and improve upon it, leaving a Legacy that is so dynamic and progressive that it will attract our very own children to return, invest, and rear their own children here.

Let's get together at our next HOA meeting and decide just what our (LEGACY) should be.

What is Laurel Oaks known for currently?

& What will Laurel Oaks be known for from this point on?

Vested Home Owner
Lou Wiggins

Alexander Owuor said...

Hi Lou (Maxine),
Thanks you very much for your input. Your suggestion is one that is well worth exploring. I could not help but sense a great optimism in it and I hope we can turn that into something tangible. Your suggestion presents limitless opportunities for our community and I look farward to hearing more from you and other homeowners.

The questions you raise are the same ones that prompted the formation of this coalition and helped shape its agenda. Here are few items that we intend to work towards that will hopefully start us down the path to creating a lasting and enviable legacy.

Participation : Like many communities around us we have figuratively faded into the crowd by handing over day to day operations to a management company that is neither responsive to our concerns nor nimble enough to respond or react to suggestions and ideas from homeowners like yourself. One of our goals is to set ourselves apart by bringing control back into the hands of the homeowners and have a HOA that can truly listen and respond without the constrains that limit managment companies.
Accessibility : This is anoher area where we simply fade into the crowd because like many other HOAs, calling or writing the HOA results in neither a response nor aknowledgement. We intent to work towards helping elect Board members who enjoy and actively seek opportunities to engage with homeowners
Transparency : We live in the information age and technology offers a wide range of ways to share and disseminate information. Unfortunately our HOA currently has closed accounting and books just like most other HOAs around us. Our intention is to usher in a new era of transparency that makes it easy for homeowners to review and audit the HOA books. This will help remove the lingering legacy of secrecy and under the table deals.

In the upcoming elections, the Laurel Oaks Community Coalition intends to offer up candidates that will offer an alternative to the status quo and that are committed to the items above. If successfull (with your help) this promises to turn our community around and start us down the path to building a legacy that is characterised by
- True Homeowner participation with homeowners running the HOA's day to day activities
- A community with accessible board members where a homeowner can be heard when they have something to add to the conversation
- A HOA that sets itself apart by being open and transparent in it's activities.

We believe that these changes would have an avalanche effect because when the HOA's agenda is aligned with that of Homeowners then each year we will be able to see a host of other substantive improvements in our community.


Other areas that we intend to refocus on are:
- Community Brochure and potential homeowner welcome package that is professional and appealing
- Community activities that bring neighbors together
- Neighborhood watch and an active crime watch program to keep homeowners in the loop in an ongoing basis throughout the year.

Please let me know what you think about this and how we could advance this agenda of reshape it to be more relevant.

Kind regards
Alexander Owuor
281 217 8920