Frequently Asked Questions

Why should our Neighborhood or Home Owners Association join United Neighborhoods ?

There are many reasons why associations join UNSCC and the most popular reasons are: 1) low cost Member Services,   2) numerous Neighborhood Education Workshops / Annual Neighborhood Conference,  3) networking with other neighborhood leaders who have successfully solved common neighborhood problems so you don't spend volunteer's time "reinventing the wheel",   4) "Neighborhood Best Practices" procedure manuals and policies, and   5) working with other neighborhood leaders on multiple neighborhood association work groups to efficiently develop consensus recommendations so we can "speak with one voice " about local issues, planning and land use, public policies or procedures for local city or Santa Clara County government, elected officials and community groups to improve neighborhood  "quality of life". 

Who are United Neighborhoods members ? 

You can see our "Member Associations" web page by clicking on the left menu, but the volunteer members of UNSCC are the Officers, Directors, other active leaders and our member association regular members who are interested in UNSCC's committees, events and meeting activities and educational topics to improve our neighborhood and community's  " quality of life ". 

How can you provide the member services at the low annual membership dues and provide your other services, education workshops or your annual conference at low cost ?

We are able to provide our low cost member services and fulfill our stated mission with the full cooperation of all of our member associations since United Neighborhoods is 100% volunteer staffed and managed. Without our member furnished leaders / member volunteers, we would either not be capable of provide many of our low cost membership services or would have to hire people to provide these services. Many of our member associations could not afford the necessary substantially increased membership dues ( estimated to be $700-1000 or more per year ).  UNSCC had paid staff  for about 3 years but due to substantial decrease in funding since November 2003, we to 100% volunteer staffed as we had been for our first 6 years.

Why can't member associations pay higher dues to have UNSCC hire staff to provide member and administration services ?

Many of our member associations have no membership dues, low operating costs and they depend on member and local merchant contributions or grant funding.  UNSCC has subsidize our membership services costs in prior years ( dues were 20 % of UNSCC's budget ) but that funding is no longer available.