I joined the board because I thought the rules were stupid and that I could change them. You can get a fine in our neighborhood if you have 6 or more weeds 3" or taller. If your garbage can is visible from the street, you can be fined. Stupid crap like that.
Once on the board I discovered that the board is trapped into enforcing the stupid rules. We tried to have one ruled changed, had a physical meeting, but accepted proxy votes, which is allowed. Got the requisite 80% approval. Went forward with the lawsuit (the vote was to allow the board to sue our previous management company for financial malfeasance) and they countered that our vote to allow us to move forward violated the law (our own rules in this case) because we didn't have 80% of the homeowners PHYSICALLY at the meeting. This crap is STILL being fought in court.
No, this is not the way I want it.
BTW, our members each got a $90 dividend check last year.
Stuff it.
I'll stuff nothing. HOAs are one of the most drippingly corrupt creations Satan has ever come up with. If you're fighting the good fight, then good for you. But don't tell me you're not deep in darkness doing it.
And while you might be suing a management company, you HIRED them in the first place. And you also personally have franking privileges and funds and mechanisms for communicating with every resident - abilities that the residents don't have. So if you're not poundng on everyone to change things for the better in concrete ways, then it's because you don't want to. So stuff it yourself.
And P.S. - Dividends come from investments. Which means you're collecting more money than you need. I wasn't kidding about the SEC - and the capital you're investing comes on pain of punishment for non-compliance, and where's the alignment with SEC rules for investment companies? Lemme guess - your HOA wrote its own rules for investing, and even whether they have to listen to any advice from the people they demand money from. That's extortion. Stuff THAT.