LEADERSHIP

There are many factors critical to a successful resident park purchase, but one of the first and most important factors is RESIDENT GROUP LEADERSHIP.

Resident group leadership when buying the park is a surprisingly delicate factor.

Often, when the purchase process gets underway, there is an existing group organization.  Typically, this existing group is primarily social.  They may or may not be a legally organized group (not important at this point) because they are typically focused on community activities – clubs, interest groups, events, etc.

However, when seeking to purchase the park, there often needs to be another group – the PARK PURCHASE COMMITTEE.  This group, formed when residents first seek to buy the park, is often ‘self selected’. 

By this I mean that the individual residents who have a strong interest in the purchase, have the time and energy to see the process through to completion, and have the leadership experience and life skills to understand the process are the residents who should serve on the committee.  Individuals with a ‘ax to grind’ should not serve.

Leaders serving on the purchase committee must examine their motives.  Why does each committee leader want to buy the park?  

Typical positive reasons are for the overall benefit of the community.  Seeking to stabilize site rents, improving maintenance, making your own rules, increasing home values, enabling all residents to participate (if they want) are positive reasons. 

Negative reasons include the desire to punish some residents in the park, to exclude some groups from membership (even if those groups want to participate), and to control the park for personal reasons.  

Experience has shown that the negative reasons are not only bad for the community but also will cause the transaction to fail, primarily because the purchasing group will not be large enough to be successful.  More participation is better than less participation.  In any case, if the purchasing group cannot achieve 60% –  80% participation, the financial impacts of the purchase will be less attractive for members – higher site rents, higher share purchase prices, etc.

Buying your park is a complex process.  

The Park Purchase Committee should:

1. Represent All groups in the resident community.  This is important because different groups have different concerns, and, in order to have enough residents participate, these concerns have to be addressed and understood.

2. Have the time and skills to organize the group.  In a park purchase, everyone in the park has the right to understand the transaction and make his or her own decision as to whether or not to become a member.

3. Have the life skills to understand the various financial and organizational aspects of the purchase.

4. Be inclusive of every resident and inspire confidence in all residents that the committee is working in the best interests of the group.

5. Recognize that the park owner is a valuable part, even a critical part, of the process.  Spending time highlighting all the past injustices of the owner, or berating the owner is a waste of time.  If the committee makes the process too painful for the owner, he will quit, and the deal will fail.  That’s simply human nature.

 But with strong, positive leadership, the purchase can be successful, and, in the end, that is the goal.

Deane