CAI Civility Pledge

Your Community’s Commitment To Civility | CAI’s Pledge To Be Respectful & Harmonious

How we talk about things matters. While we may be able to share our views with people who already agree with us, expressing our opinions and leaving room for someone else’s viewpoint can be challenging. How can we seek to listen to those who hold different beliefs? How can we respectfully disagree?

Association boards regularly are faced with challenging and complex issues that can spark strong emotions. A critical responsibility of a board leader is to facilitate conversations in the community about these important issues.

Understanding the influence of today’s community association leaders, community managers, and business partners, CAI’s College of Community Association Lawyers (CCAL) recently introduced the Civility Pledge to support the people who live and work in the millions of homeowners associations, condominiums, and housing cooperatives worldwide. The Civility Pledge encourages community associations to have respectful and meaningful interactions despite differences of opinion on a particular issue, and to create an environment where residents have the opportunity to express their views openly.

Community association boards that adopt the new Civility Pledge commit to embracing principles that establish a framework for conversations about difficult and complex issues and harmonizing feedback from residents, resulting in decisions that are informed and well balanced for the whole community.

By encouraging associations to adopt the Civility Pledge, CAI strives to promote harmony, community, responsible citizenship, effective leadership, and make life better for the millions of people living in community associations around the world.