Neighbourhood Turnover

Another odd little vehicle.

Parked, as always, in front of our doorstep. 

 Our condo held its annual general meeting this past week. For the second year running, Bruce and I hosted the event.

The crowd in our livingroom measured sixteen on Tuesday night.

At past AGMs, there had been a lot of complaints about high condo fees, delays in maintenance jobs, and unspecific grievances about the fireplaces and the gardens. This pervasive whining made these meetings tedious and unpleasant.

A tactic the board has adopted over the past several AGMs to quell the bitching and moaning, is to remind owners that the volunteer Board does all the work that a maintenance company would otherwise be paid $20,000 a year to do, and, if the owners don't like what the Board is doing, they can either volunteer themselves to do the work or add another thousand plus dollars to their annual maintenance fees.

This message seems to have sunk in. There was no whining at the meeting on Tuesday night. It helped that some of the most vocal malcontents sold their units this past year.

The new neighbours that have moved into these units are young - there are several sets of Muppies (millennial urban professionals) and even a family with young children, aged 7 and 9. At this meeting, people offered to help, and the children, with their father, have been dragooned to work in the garden.

After the meeting, we held a reception with wine and cheese. Ten people stayed behind to fill our home with a hearty roar of conversation. It was 'way past my bedtime by the time I shooed the last of them out the door around 10:45 p.m. 

Best. AGM. Ever.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen