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No matter how harmonious your beginnings, or how wonderfully you handle disagreements most of the time, sooner or later it is likely that your neighborhood association will encounter real conflict. The alternative is to wither and die because the meetings become too bland when any hint of disagreement is dismissed and ignored.
In our experience, a low-conflict neighborhood association often is situated in an area that lacks problems or does not perceive its problems, so that is a possible reason for lack of conflict as well. On this page, we deal with a scenario in which there is some disagreement.
Three types of conflict typically arise in neighborhood associations:
First, often neighborhood conflict spills over into the neighborhood association. Factions may develop within your organization and cause enough hard feelings that people don't want to participate in your activities, at least for the duration of the broader debate. Alternatively, if the neighborhood organization is aligned behind one position, and strong people or groups within the community take an opposing view, this causes stress on your association and might focus it unproductively on winning an argument instead of addressing real problems. Either way, major neighborhood conflict can present a challenge.
Second, conflict may develop due to different styles within the organization. Examples would be the older folks want traditional meetings and paper newsletters, while the younger residents want the organization to exist through social media. Old timers in the organization want to keep the traditional logo, historic meeting place, and same parties, while the newer residents have a different style, want what they perceive to be higher quality graphics, think all communication should run on social media, like to socialize at trendy restaurants instead of the church basement, and so forth.
Third, conflict may develop because of personality conflicts between key leaders in your organization. Sometimes these will be so strong that you begin to develop the Judith faction and the Michael faction, not really based on issues or even work styles, but just based on who people like more.
Resolving any of these conflicts enough that they do not sap the energy of neighborhood associations requires effort on the part of the board, president, and-or a strong leader or elder statesman. Helpful approaches include:
To continue to the final page of our series on neighborhood associations, click the link for the third part, which deals with project or program selection, below. You also can find your way back to the first page of the series if you click on the link to page 1.
Home > Community Organizations > Neighborhood Associations, Part 2