Joe,

Agree in total.  This is my first HOA; in terms of inter-relationships, I see it as no different from the myriad committees I've served on throughout my career in corporate America.  But, committees don't answer to the employee pool as a whole.  When they go off the reservation, as it were, into issues not germain with their charter; or request, petition, or suggest that budget limitations impede their effectiveness- more money will solve this problem or that- usually a single senior executive can wipe them off the planet with a single stroke of the pen. 

What I see with our directorship is a collection of a few headstrong self-absorbed people, with concern for their own societal influence, joined by one or more seat-fillers sitting there nodding in agreement with whatever the Illuminati dream up; in essence, trumping the desire for community prosperity that we all share. 

Most of our homeowners do not live on the water, in McMansions, with retirement incomes and investments that can more than handle the steadily increasing costs associated with maintaining a multi-million-dollar restaurant (forget the term Yacht Club); a 18-hole championship golf course; a sparsely populated indoor pool, etc., that, in concert, are costing us a million-plus each and every year.  Not at all dismayed with losing the million-plus, the 'group' is seriously considering coughing-up another million-plus for a slab of land that (they say) will be repurposed and turned into a BIG stormwater drainage DITCH; kinda reminds of the BIG DIG, and we know what that boondoggle eventually cost the taxpayers.

I suspect there are a number of retired residents in OP with disposable incomes that dry up as the month draws to a close.  They may not care what political machinations are going on in OP; they just know that if the annual increases are not kept in check (I'm not saying eliminated) then remaining in OP will be an impossible proposition. 

Speaking of going off the reservation... I think I just did!! 

Bob