The last HOA meeting I attended was over 4 years ago, when I was pregnant with Peanut. Once he was born, the meetings fell to the bottom of my priorities. Not much is accomplished at the meetings anyway.

I decided to attend this year's annual budgetary meeting. OMG. Our HOA president is a jerk (which Hubby and I already knew) as are a few of our neighbors. Things nearly came to fisticuffs between the president and a very angry neighbor. Lots of yelling, posturing, and taunts of "Let's take it outside!" were parried. Thankfully, one of our cop neighbors convinced the president to go outside and cool down.

Once that (sort of) settled down, one neighbor stood up to chastize us for not acting professionally. She was right, the meeting was conducted horrifically, but she wasn't a prime example of proper conduct, either. Yelling and calling other adults childish is childish behavior as well. Then a "pascifist" neighbor delivered a lenghty speech on treating each other with respect, blah blah blah.

One of the best suggestions came from someone who suggested we follow a set protocol for meetings and was shot down by a member of the board. "We're all adults here, we don't need a list of rules." Ummmm, yeah, we do. I guess no one there has heard of Robert's Rules of Order. I don't know if I should email the HOA and suggest them. I only know the basics anyway.

Some good came from the meeting. We will be having at least 2 more in the next couple of months. One to elect a new board and another to address the concerns residents, some of which have been blown off by the president.

I also learned that roughly 5% of the homes in my neighborhood are under foreclosure. Sad.