Apathy is a dangerous thing. With our busy schedules, it can start out as simply not having enough time for what you care about. After a while, you forget that you haven't been able to get to those things. Then, eventually, you realize what you've missed, but decide that it's not a big deal, thinking, "I guess it wasn't that important to me." At that point, you No Longer Care. Apathy has set in.

I used to really care about this community. I tried very hard to bring people together when I first set up this website, 8 1/2 years ago. Back then, the roads didn't even exist, and I was trying to help new buyers keep track of the progress of the homes as they were being built. It was really amazing when I met people who'd followed the website, and I do like to think that it helped bring the community together, even a little, back in its early years.

But since then things have changed. I stopped updating the website as regularly as I used to, and then, just like I described, Apathy slowly set in. First I put stuff off and did massive updates every few months. Then I missed a couple of updates. Then I forgot about it completely. For a couple of years, about the time of the annual meeting, I'd remember the site, and update it. But I'd also stop to think back on all the emails that I didn't get from people asking where the latest meeting minutes or budget information was. At that point, not only did I stop caring, but I decided that most likely everyone else had stopped caring, too.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just the website. The Apathy that set in also applied to my own home. Back in April of 2007, about a dozen mailboxes were knocked apart in the neighborhood. This was the third time ours had been broken, and I was sick of it. I re-attached it with bungee cords and swore that I'd totally rebuild it in a way that actually had some structural integrity. But I didn't have the time. Then other projects set in. At some point, I noticed the bungee cords were degrading in the sunlight, and not wanting them to snap and hurt someone, I replaced them with rope. But beyond that, I still didn't fix it, because I really wanted to fix it "right."

After it'd been broken for nearly a year, it occurred to me that not one person had asked me about it. No neighbors, nobody from the Architectural Review Committee, nobody even from the Board (of which I'd been a member since the start). So at that point, I kind of decided I'd just leave it until someone said something. Now Apathy was on the verge of turning into disdain or contempt. Not for any people as individuals, but for the entire community, which apparently just didn't care. Apathy, on a large scale.

About the same time, I was getting fed up with other things. For example, the Gazebo near Henry Pond was first damaged by vandals in the middle of 2005. We've mentioned it at probably every meeting since then, and the vandalism has only gotten worse. We even tried to "put it to a vote" to see what the community thinks should get done, but that's laughable since we never have more than about a dozen homes represented at a meeting. Even now, over four years after the first damage, it stands as a total eyesore, with the Board having taken no corrective action at all. Worse, we never even tried to fix it. Never replaced the missing shingles. Never painted over the graffiti. Never removed the Christmas trees and other garbage tossed in the woods behind the gazebo. We simply let it degrade in place. Apathy in the leadership.

Which is not to say that we didn't want to care. We talked about it constantly. We just never actually did anything. So even though we thought we wanted to fix things, apparently we just never found the will to make anything happen. Which is almost as bad. In some ways, it's worse.

We also investigated getting large recycling bins for the community. I really tried to push for them -- they seemed like a no-brainer -- as many people have multiple containers of recycling out almost every week. And bottles and cans that get blown out of the open containers almost always end up in the drainage ponds (or my back yard). About March or so, we finally got a cost quote, and I think it was less than $20, per home, per year. But then nothing happened. We never got the bins, and I don't know what rationale the Board used to finally decide to pass on them.

Because in April, I just gave up. Acknowledged defeat. Looked at myself in the mirror and said "I'm not really even trying any more. I should get out of the way." And I quit the Board. I promised them that I'd eventually write up notes from the last two years of meetings and publish them on the website, but I still haven't done that. And I've never had anyone ask me for them, either. Funny. As a corporation, we're required to keep minutes of these meetings, but we were never very good at it. Truth is, our management company was never very good at keeping us compliant, either. Apathy at a corporate scale.

Since then, the Board has asked me to relinquish control of the website, but I've resisted, hoping that at some point I'd start getting myself involved again. I offered to post anything they wanted, and about a month ago, I was contacted with a couple of changes, which I made within 24 hours. Again, I offered to post anything the board found useful -- meeting notices, budget information, FYI's, etc. But I've heard nothing. So for being so interested in controlling the website, the Board hasn't really shown any interest in actually putting anything on the website. Or in even putting together a newsletter (we haven't had one since May of 2005). Non-communication, I'm sure, helps to encourage apathy within the community as well.

Interestingly, though, it was this most recent bit of non-communication that has gotten me thinking. There's a general meeting coming up, and I thought, maybe if I write something like this, I can encourage people to come to the meeting. Maybe. Of course, it took me two weeks to even muster the resolve to start writing. But hopefully it's not too little, too late.

Also, the end of September, there was a death in our family and we found ourselves with three days at home with no kids (we kept them in day care). Faced with the prospect of visiting aunts and uncles and cousins, we cleaned up the house. And finally fixed that damned mailbox. I decided that spite and idealism just weren't worth it, and so spent the 40 minutes it took to do a "good enough" fix.

Is this enough to cure me of my apathy? Of course not. But it's a start.

Will this posting be enough to cure you of yours? Probably not. But hopefully, it's a start.

The HOA's general fall meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 20th, at 7:00 pm in the Rocky Run Middle School "Little Theater." If you care about the community, please come. Please. If you're upset that things just don't seem to change, come and demand change. If you're annoyed that you never see any content here, please, come and demand to be kept in the loop. If you want to see the gazebo fixed, or want the big recycling bins, or want the ARC rules enforced, or want the Yard Sale better planned and advertised, come to the meetings. Better yet, join the Board.

Even if you're happy with the way things are, please come to the meeting, just to tell the Board that you're okay with what's going on. Because if the community really doesn't care, then the Board needs to know that, with certainty, so that they can mold their actions and policies accordingly.

Either way, please come to the meeting. Or else the apathy wins.