Put me on the list of "never met a mean rottie" people, too. But the only goldens I would ever consider turning my back on would be wearing a guide dog harness! I've seen a number of them just go off. In terms of the amount of damage done by bad breeding, IMHO goldens may be even worse off then German shepherds.
Maybe I could take the girls with me.
No maybes about it. You NEED to take the girls with you to meetings. Take them everywhere, and do it all the time. By keeping your dogs under wraps, you've apparently been feeding the idiots' perception that they're dangerous!
So much for trying to be sensitive to their feelings. It's time for you need to make your dogs so public that everyone in the whole HOA knows them by name and can tell them apart. Stupid #(*&@$^*!
Stop walking the girls at night--walk them as often as possible in the daytime, when there are lots of people around. If you can walk them when the kids are going to or just getting out of school, all the better for everyone. The girls can learn that kids are good because they get treats when they ignore them, and the kids can learn that your dogs are nice. Maybe some of them will even want to be friends.
I know that you're not a people person by nature, but you have such wipes for neighbors that you're going to have to learn to play the role of a people person for the girls' sake!
Go forth and bring wisdom, I say unto you; do not hide the girls' light under a bushel. You must be a faithful disciple of the Gospel of The Big Paw, and convert the heathens around you to the truth of our ways by the goodness of your dogs and the sweetness of their drools!
Well...the massive amounts of their drools, anyway.