Years of inaction, failure to enforce violations, deferred maintenance and too little money to get the job done all take their toll on an HOA. A sense of "muddle by" permeates the Board and meetings are more gossip than work sessions, if held at all. There you sit, the new kid on the Board, knowing that something's gotta give. This place is going down the toilet and you don't want to get flushed with it. What to do?

Change comes hard to an HOA in trouble. Members are conditioned to expect little and the Board feels helpless to do anything about it. Failure becomes habit and the vision dims. Camelot is just a dream. Let's just keep our heads down and maybe no one will know the difference.

But they do know. Silent but angry, frustrated and disgusted, members watch as the neighborhood slides toward the abyss. A few harangue and harass the Board but most shake their heads knowing it's useless to complain to the deaf.

Hope is looking past what is to what could be. Every new day has a dawn and another chance for change. If your HOA is floundering, here are some strategies for regaining the high ground:

Meeting of the Minds. Before change can take place, the Board must be of one mind (or at least of majority mind) that change is needed. This is the starting or sticking point. If a majority are agreed that things have got to change, good. Skip to the next step. If not, some roadblocking directors must first be replaced. This will take a bit longer to encourage new candidates to step forward and to rally support for them from the electorate. But nothing worth doing is ever easy. Keep focused down the road, not the potholes in front of you.

Define the Issues. Once the Board is of one mind, it's time to identify areas of change. They come in all shapes and sizes and from "can wait" to urgent. First, compile the list. Second, prioritize the list according to urgency and funding requirements. Research the cost and implications of implimentation. For example, deciding to bring all architectural violations into compliance this year could be an enormous and volatile task.

Devise a Plan of Action. With your priorities lined out, lay out a one-to-five-year plan of action. Keep in mind that volunteers will be needed to get some of it done so don't drown them before the swim meet starts. Pace, pace, pace. Overly ambitious and expensive changes will be met with proportionate resistance. Most of these problems compounded over years. Unraveling them takes time. Start slow to build credibility with success.

Cast Your Bread on the Waters. Hold a special meeting to roll out the proposed one-to-five-year plan to the membership and ask for feedback. Expect challenge and thank them for it because it shows they're paying attention. Promise to take the feedback to heart and find a way to make it part of the plan. That way, the membership is invested in the outcome.

Recall the King. Long entrenched Presidents rarely have the ability to make radical changes. While maybe well meaning and steadfast, they are the roadblock and not the bridge to change. Since the President serves at the pleasure of the Board, the Board can make a change for the good of the order. It should be done with diplomacy and sensitivity but done it should be unless you have that rare exception to the rule.

Worthwhile change is going to be met with some resistance and going against the grain will gather splinters. But keep the long view. If change is going to come, it's up to you. In the immortal words of Garth Brooks:

If you're gonna make a difference,
If you're gonna leave your mark.
You can't follow like a bunch of sheep
You gotta listen to your heart.
Go bustin' in like old John Wayne.
Sometimes you got to go against the grain.
Nothin' ventured, nothin' gained.
Sometimes you've got to go against the grain.