[villages07]

POA - Property Owners Association - totally independent of Villages Developer; voluntary membership; tries to keep the Developer and community govt boards open and honest on all issues; can sometimes seem to lean too far to the negative on the Developer and Villages but serves a useful role.

VHA - Villages Homeowners Assocn - more closely aligned with the Developer but still independent and voluntary to join. Tries to work with Developer on issues rather than fight him/them.

Both groups publish their own newsletters with their take on issues.

The formal govt is the CDDs - Community Development Districts which have elected reps (mix of homeowner elected reps and Developer appointed reps). They develop annual maintenance budgets for common areas that dictates your annual bond maintenance fee (which is separate from the amenity fee).

The Developer owns quite a bit of the common and commercial property. He may sell parts off as business dictates, but, my feeling is the Morse/Schwartz family will be involved for a long time. They own a lot of the ancillary businesses (real estate, property management, Katie Belle's, some country clubs, etc) and I do believe the statement that the family wants to stay involved and see the dream through. Yes, they are in business to make a profit but I believe they also deeply care about the community and its continued success. I give them alot of credit for the concept and the risk they took that enable each of us to live this wonderful way of life.