THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A COMMUNITY GONE CORPORATE

The trials and tribulations of a community gone corporate:

1.      Corporations are notoriously non-democratic and are operated from the top down.

2.      Generally, a board of director’s is for show. I’m not sure why they waste their time with elections. First Electric recently had an election with one candidate. I’m sure an acquaintance of the CEO. That’s how our board is acting: like they were appointed, not elected. By us. For us. Maybe this will change with the new board. Maybe they will finally take charge.

3.      Corporations are always top heavy with administrative types. Generally speaking, the more people you see filling in the gaps, the more inexperienced the CEO. We clearly see this in Hot Springs Village. A financial CEO short on experience to run a community. So we have a place-maker, a restaurant director, and now, chief of resident satisfaction. A lot of administrative overhead that they don’t want us to know about, even though we pay their salaries.

4.      Secrets are the hallmark of corporations. They want to keep everything secret. And what do we have? A pile of secrets growing faster than the weeds in my yard. What do we pay Troon? What do we pay the CEO? The next five highest paid employees? Why rush to get things done before the new board members took their seats? They don’t seem to understand: secrets are the poison of any organization. And a secret never remains a secret, not as long as humans are involved.

A corporation or a community? Which do you prefer? I didn’t move here to watch someone try to urbanize the Village, or to be led by a CEO who bought a book of corporate fantasy for $500,000. I like what we have, and with good leadership, the potential for what we could become.