To foster a climate of mutual respect and help community residents to explore areas of common ground despite their differences, CAI is encouraging all community associations to adopt a newly developed Civility Pledge to support the people who live and work in the millions of homeowners associations, condominiums, and housing cooperatives worldwide.
The Civility Pledge will serve as a model for community associations to foster a climate of open discussion, mutual respect, and tolerance between residents, guests, board and committee members, community association managers, staff members, business partners, and contractors.
“Community associations increasingly are being called on to play a significant role in the way we live, learn, work, and play," says Thomas M. Skiba, CAE, CAI's chief executive officer. “We believe these communities as a whole—with their unique mix of cultural identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and more—represent the increasing diversity of today's world. We believe community associations should strive to find common ground and build a lasting framework of civility in their communities especially when discussing important community issues."
Understanding the influence of today's community association leaders, community managers, and business partners, CAI's College of Community Association Lawyers (CCAL) developed the Civility Pledge to encourage interactions in a community association to be respectful and meaningful despite differences of opinion on a particular issue, and to create an environment where residents have the opportunity to express their views openly, without unreasonable fear of judgment or reprimand.
“As attorneys representing community associations across the country, we are unified in recognizing the growing challenges facing a community resident's ability to discuss, engage, exchange, debate, and disagree about community association issues civilly. The absence of civil discourse is impacting the ability of our community association clients to effectively govern," says attorney Matt D. Ober, 2019 president of CCAL's Board of Governors and a partner of Richardson | Ober law firm in California. “We believe that civility is more than just about being polite. It's about creating a place where all residents feel safe and are urged to ask questions and share opinions, a vital part of a thriving community. We are confident that CAI's new Civility Pledge will be an essential resource for all community associations that adopt it."
Download and adopt the Civility Pledge.