Authority versus Power
Self-effacing versus Egocentricity

Most organizations are structured
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But not all. Some of the world's most successful utilize a peer-to-peer network which GNA is still dedicated to the implementation of. We start with a basic understanding that among neighbors there isn't a distinction: electric, telephone and water bills - property taxes - mortgages - garbage, weeds, dust and sand.  This being so, then why should one neighbor lord over another?  There needn't be a coterie¹ on high to make policy for that which we are quite capable of doing ourselves.

The relationship between a Board of Trustees and Membership is a Fiduciary: that is, the former have a legal and moral obligation to act in the best interest of the latter.  A significant distinction of GNA is a decisive deference to authority versus power, self-effacing² versus egocentricity³. In practice the structure of GNA is to operate with the authority of our neighbor homeowners, but not power over. Thus our Board of Trustees is primarily an administrative organization and a Trustee's position as a custodian or caretaker.

1  Coterie:  A small exclusive group.
2  Humility or modesty.
3 The tendency to interpret the world in terms of the self due to the incomplete differentiation of the self and the world.
An immature, partial or complete lack of the ability to process the intellectual discernment of such virtues as empathy or sympathy.

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