#SocialCurrentSee ®▶ #Serval * ( @ALTALOMAN archive via @Storify ▶ Survival in case land and cell comm is down! ▶ https://t.co/KqKj5Q4Q2c — Mike Foxworth (@ALTALOMAN) May 16, 2016 STORIFY From our oasis of a retirement community, a common interest development (aka HOA or homeowners association) in the Inland Empire of Southern California ( Trilogy Glen Ivy ), the topic of disaster recovery following an earthquake is the subject of debate and study by a committee made up of condominium homeowners living in the area. If you have never been to  Trilogy , you would not know that the community of 1317 homes includes what is known as a Special Benefit Area (SBA), the Cobblestone Canyon subdivision of 170 condos that are uniquely built as two-unit pods (see inset photo).  That is the homes have upper and lower units, only two homeowners per dwelling. Word is that this community, finished about ten years ago by Shea Homes , is one of only about six such co...

Back in August 2012, our first experience to attend an HOA open forum when the HOA legal counsel was invited to address homeowners for the Board did not go so well. That is, an attorney representing the long-time counsel for the HOA came to the meeting solely to help put disgruntled homeowners in this place after the board had made a controversial, unpopular decision. Essentially (I paraphrase), the attorney explained: "The HOA is not a democracy and there was nothing that homeowners could do to override the board decision." As it turns out, something was done about 18 months later when, after mediation, the decision was reversed and homeowner democracy prevailed. Another area in which democracy is prevalent in HOAs has to do with committee work. If these volunteer groups did not follow a democratic model, why would a homeowner volunteer for the role? [ View the story "R&RC has pivotal HOA role" on Storify ]