The AAW Has Become An Home Owners Association

[William Baumbeck]

Good Evening,

I once lived in a subdivision for fifteen years (with an active Homeowners Association) in which the occupants of any residence had to be older than 21 years old. A change to the By-Laws & CCR’s was later voted upon to change the ‘occupancy rule’ to 55 and older (those younger than 55 were ‘grandfathered’). That change ultimately resulted in a totally dysfunctional HOA because there were people older than 55 that had nothing else to do but to nitpick the By-Laws & CCR’s. I have often told people that I would rather go back to fight in Vietnam than put up with the wining and moaning encountered in a HOA. Right now the AAW is no different than a dysfunctional HOA.

The current BOD was duly elected by the membership. Some members got their underwear bunched up into a knot after Mary was relieved of her position. What is done is done. We have read for calls for a Guillotine to be rolled out, ropes to be thrown over the strongest branches, etc. Folks, this bickering has got to stop our Association will cease to exist.

I am a business owner who supplies product to the woodturning community. As a service to the AAW (which I STRONGLY support) I include AAW membership applications in all of the orders we ship. I can no longer do this under the present climate. Should one of my customers call and asked me “Why should I join the AAW?” I wouldn’t know how to answer the question.

I know what the AAW used to stand for (woodturning without the politics) but now there is too much infighting, bickering, animosity, and distrust among its current membership.

It is now time for all of us to end this whole controversy- “This horse has been beat to death”. We have all heard of the pro’s, con’s, opinions, accusations, threats, etc. There are only two ways we can proceed: The AAW is going to survive or it is going to die because of the current discourse. I personally hope we survive.

Thank you for your time.

Bill Baumbeck
Arizona Silhouette Inc.
Member 9447

P.S.
To those few people who threatened to boycott my business because of my beliefs – give me a call and I’ll give the phone numbers of my competitors.​

 

[Ron Sardo]

Thank you Bill.

 

[George Guadiane]

At the risk of having my torch and pitchfork privileges revoked, I'm going to agree in principal to your post...
In that, I think we (the torch and pitchfork crew) may well have reached beyond our original intents and, in fact our best interests...

Everything was "fine" till it wasn't. At that point, we came out in force against bad behavior by at least some of the board members. Our initial intent was to undo a perceived wrong... Then we needed to get rid of the BoD (or get an agreement between Mary and the BoD), then we needed to rewrite the ByLaws (OK, they really do need a lot of attention), now we're getting into control over the board moderators/moderating, because the "?" wing of the ideological spectrum has appeared (on rare occasion - at least IMO) to have been political in their censure. Gandhi and Mother Theresa are not available to moderate, we're either going to have to accept an imperfect world or leave this one, one at a time in flames and ashes.
Another solution to strapping the message boards down to the operating table and, with rusty germ infested tools, reconstructing this thing too might be to stop being political about it. Stop blaming, accusing, defining others and take responsibility - make suggestions without rancor that are constructive, not defensive. As if we're raising a good child that has made a mistake.

I'd STILL love to see the BoD answer all of the questions I have about who, what, where, when and why on the REAL reasons for and the originators of the whole thing (but that's unlikely to happen). I'd like to know what EVER possessed this child to behave as it did.

 

[AlanZ]

I agree, it's been beaten to death... so why start a new thread about it after things have been more or less settled?