Yes and No, it could be worth it depending on the HOA board. I successfully penetrated my HOA board (24 years old with no experience) and in 2 years became the president. I then rewrote the HOA covenant to be more sensible and cut the fees by 50% with a plan to phase them out in 3-5 years. 98% of the neighborhood voted my changes in. I only put leans on houses that absolutely refused to cut their lawn for multiple months and pay their HOA dues.
I was motivated to change some of the sillier rules that I knew could bite me in the butt, like the rules around putting up seasonal decorations and allowing garbage bins to be out for more than 24 hours. I had a friend who also sat on a completely different HOA board as president and he mentored and enabled my success in many ways (His neighborhood and board was over 2x the size of mine and offered many more benefits). My neighborhood was 238 households (single family homes), 2 playgrounds, 2 large common areas for cookouts, 2 entrances and a single pool. My HOA collected $450 dollars yearly from every household to maintain all of the above and threw 4 community parties yearly.
That said, is there something specific you wanna chat about?
Thanks for the additional detail. It's a rare success story among hundreds of negative stories. You might want to write it up, likely many outlets (both pro and anti HOA) would be interested in publishing, because it shows the system working as designed, and breaks the stereotype of older people monopolizing HOA boards. You could inspire an entire generation to take an interest in practical local governance :)
