When I first became active in my Sun City Anthem community, our elections for the Homeowners’ board of directors was very different than it is today. Campaign signs were placed in most homes front yards and “campaign coffees” were held all over the community.
The hosts would invite neighbors and friends to their home where they could meet and ask questions of the candidates.
The coffees were a quiet, social way for many homeowners to put a name and face to candidates who would represent them on a board of seven directors who would hold the position for a two year term.
Most of the coffees I attended back then introduced anywhere from one to four candidates invited by the host or hostess. The idea was for residents to get to know potential board members a little bit better by asking non-filtered questions as opposed to official community election events.
The coffees did not have a “time requirement” for either question or answer. Simply raise your hand and when recognized, ask anything related to how they would govern if they were to be elected.
As the years have passed many people have expressed disappointment with some of the directors serving on the Sun City Anthem HOA board regarding decisions made, contracts signed and lack of transparency.
Additionally the length of the campaign period has been cut considerably. Perhaps that is the reason signs are no longer around and “campaign coffees” mostly seem to have become a thing of the past.
I have continued to host the coffees for candidates in my home most years and the resident turn-outs have been many. Unfortunately, these days with a shorter campaign period, and many other events filling calendar days, planning is more difficult and these campaign events seem to be less and less.
My thoughts are that the voter turn-out would be higher if the time for elections were, longer, making time for “campaign coffees” to once again flourish. A good test of that might be to ask your neighbors if they were going to vote for board members. In my Sun City community with 7,144 homes I wonder how many owners even know there is an election going on?
