The February board meeting is less about events and more about how our association functions. Several agenda items affect how information flows, how participation works, and how we structure long-term governance.

The January Board of Directors meeting covered a wide range of operational, governance, and committee matters. Several decisions made during the meeting affect how compliance actions begin, how and when members can participate during meetings, and how committee work will be scheduled and noticed going forward.

The membership section is actually very personal. It answers basic questions like: Who gets to vote?  Who can run for the board?  Who is officially a member of the association? That’s why we’re taking our time with it.

An overview of major topics surfaced at the planning meeting.

The Lake Committee met with City of Olympia representatives with a focus on keeping pollutants out of the lake before they enter the system. This approach prioritizes simple, practical actions that reduce debris and sediment at the source, rather than relying on costly cleanup after the fact.

At the same time, community organizations are shaped not only by what they manage, but by how people interact within them. Events play a central role in that process. They create repeated, visible opportunities for neighbors to gather, observe norms, and learn what kinds of participation are possible.

Our purpose is to protect members, the Board, and the Association’s shared assets by ensuring our governing documents support predictable, fair, and workable processes in a volunteer-run community.

When members are told to step back and be quiet, the board doesn’t get to “do its work” more effectively — it just does it with less information, less trust, and less legitimacy.

When we demand how the work, it’s a signal that the issue isn’t procedural. It’s cultural. It’s distinction between support and compliance.

No candidate could identify a point at which their own conduct might merit reflection — or even consideration. We will also be collecting checklists and takeaways from the series in one place.

This site includes different kinds of writing, each with a specific purpose. Being clear about those purposes helps readers understand what they’re reading, how to use it, and where opinion and analysis fit. We don’t aim to sound neutral. We aim to be transparent.

At its core, HB 2118 limits an HOA’s ability to retroactively tighten use restrictions on homeowners without their consent. For Ken Lake, that touches several real and recurring areas of friction.

This meeting revisits how the board governs, not just what it decides.

This article prepares residents for the January Board meeting by explaining what the agenda items mean in practice, what authority exists, and what precedent or process has been used before.

This weekend, JOLT reported a proposed multifamily housing development at the corner of Black Lake Boulevard and 21st Avenue SW. We’re paying attention, and here’s what we know and what comes next.

This article explains how groups move from honest error to entrenched conflict — not through a single bad act, but through a sequence of thresholds that change how correction, accountability, and disagreement are handled.

Gowrylow stated “There is no zoning crisis, the city is not pulling a fast one on us as far as I can tell.” This is a stark contrast to Gowrylow's earlier position that the city upzoning would mean "crowded streets and parks."

During the election, specific choices were made—under pressure—to prioritize de-escalation, documentation, and long-term trust over short-term vindication. Those choices could be seen in the materials produced and reduced the speed and spread of conflict at a moment when escalation was most likely. This was containment.

I have opinions, and I’m not neutral about systems that reward exclusion or punish dissent. I write from lived experience, from documents and records, and from direct involvement in the community issues discussed here. I bring references not to posture as objective, but to show my work — so readers can trace how I arrive at my conclusions and decide for themselves whether those conclusions hold.

Interrupting a speaker during community comment is never neutral. It is a communication act — and it reveals who is allowed to define the story and who is not.