[mrkajz44]

The best way to find out what that fee is for is to talk to the board members of the HOA. I'd suggest contacting them prior to the AGM, but showing up and asking questions at the AGM is fine too, though probably less desired.

Being on a community board, I'd guess your situation is one of two items:

1) You are either unaware of certain amenities or are wrongly assuming they are city amenities. There are lots of situations where the city allows associations to use their land, so while the association is paying all the costs, people wrongly assume it is provided by the city.

2) The association lacks proper manpower and therefore are paying someone to help keep the association afloat with all the day-to-day.

I'd guess it's a combination of the above, but likely number 2 is the more pervasive issue. In our community our number one problem is no one wants to actually volunteer and help out - they just want to complain. Based on what I've seen, the difference in services provided by communities is almost entirely based on volunteer participation and is determined very little by funds collected. I was once told to value your volunteers at $25 / hour and that was several years ago, so it might be a bit low. You can see how quickly extra volunteer hours can translate into a much more vibrant community.