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Article By Samantha Romero

This article first appeared in the Communicator Magazine, Spring 2026 Issue.  

When people talk about community engagement, it usually turns into a conversation regarding hosting more events, creating additional committees or sending more follow-­up emails. There’s this assumption that if you just do more, people will feel more connected.

That hasn’t been my experience. What I’ve seen is that engagement lives in the day-to-day. It’s about how homeowners are spoken to, whether they feel comfortable reaching out, and whether they think management is made up of actual people or just an email address that responds with policy language.

When I first stepped into my role, there was a pretty obvious disconnect between management and homeowners. Most communication to management came in hot, and you could feel the tension even in short emails. It was never meant to be mean; it was more that homeowners didn’t expect to be heard, so they led with frustration.

My te...