November 5th - Busy Day!

Discussion in 'Sun City General Discussions' started by aggie, Nov 5, 2015.

  1. aggie

    aggie Well-Known Member

    Today's not a day to just sit home. This morning at 10:00 SCHOA is hosting a Town Hall at the Sun City Posse on the topic of Sun City CC&Rs. This event will be attended by Maricopa County Code Enforcement Officials. SCHOA adds this on their website. Might be worth a call in case too many show up: Registrations are requested. Please call the office at 623 974 4718, ext. 203 or email Marketing@suncityhoa.org to confirm your reservation.

    Get yourself to Fairway Rec Center by 2:00 this afternoon for the RCSC Candidate Forum. There's much to be learned by hearing the candidates answer questions on the fly. There will be another forum next week in the evening at Marinette Center.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2015
  2. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the heads up a, always something going on in Sun City eh?
     
  3. aggie

    aggie Well-Known Member

    So true Bill. There's actually 2 more events we have to attend today so I'll have my running shoes on to keep up. Isn't the Farmer's Market also on Thursdays at Bell? Way too many options.

    It was reported that the RCSC Voter Forum will be recorded and available via the RCSC website. I hope the electronics function properly and the Forum is archive worthy.
     
  4. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Dang aggie, I wish they had a recorder the night I had my voter forum. Seems some of the board back then wasn't crazy about me running and tried hard to get under my skin. Too fun. Now that would have been archive worthy...if only.

    Spot on btw about the Farmers Market held every Thursday (in season) at the Bell parking lot. For those that haven't been there, some of the clubs elect to showcase their stuff at it. Always fun to stroll through and see what's shaking.
     
  5. J_and_V

    J_and_V Member

    I still think it would be a good idea if they did a live webcast - - - - people who aren't in the room have questions. There is never one of those A/V geeks from high school around when you need them.

    Tie those running shoes tight, and please come back and let us know how the meetings went.
     
  6. aggie

    aggie Well-Known Member

    Baby steps J&V. It's better to hope for taped access for the first go around. If a live feed were available it would be all the better for both these forums, Board Member Exchanges and monthly Board meetings. We have somewhere near 35,000 members and only a dozen show up for meetings. I can only hope many members access information online to keep up to date.

    The A/V staff at the RCSC has always been helpful and up to date in computer know-how. They can only do what Management and the BOD will allow them to do. The BOD and Management functions not in total transparency but kinda like a business envelope with the small cellophane window. We need to ease them into sharing more information.
     
  7. Cynthia

    Cynthia Well-Known Member

    You're asking a lot. just recording it is a step. We talked about this long ago on this forum and from what I remember the board had refused to tape and post. Isn't that true BP? They could do live streaming very easily on YouTube. A dedicated public access channel is no longer needed, just a camera that streams live. Some phones even do that now.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2015
  8. J_and_V

    J_and_V Member

    Have I found my cause, or would I be tilting at windmills?
     
  9. aggie

    aggie Well-Known Member

    Just don't forget to wear the helmet for when you start banging your head against the walls!!
     
  10. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Spot on C, we did talk about it. One of my goals was to record meetings for playback on the RCSC website. No chance of that given board's who didn't get it and staff who didn't want it. As far as windmills V, someday. We need to get to the point where the board better understands what younger buyers want.
     
  11. Cynthia

    Cynthia Well-Known Member

    Sharpen your sabre.
     
  12. Big Red

    Big Red New Member

    If I follow what is being said correctly, we on the RCSC email list will be getting notice of how to link to a recorded version of yesterday's candidate forum. Wonderful! I really hope this is true and that the effort is successful. I find it ironic that the RCSC Board and management staff would choose to require that "prospective" board candidates be the first to participate in this first ever recorded RCSC event offered for delayed playback via the RCSC website. There are two possible good outcomes from the venture: 1. Continuing board members may find the exercise beneficial to the membership and non-threatening, and 2. The three successful candidates from the field will find that communicating with a larger number of stakeholders has more positives than negatives and will support widening the use of new communication possibilities going forward. While I take no issue with what BPearson said about the "board better understanding what younger buyers want," I would add that I can be counted among the older buyers who believe that "better communication" as a stated goal of several of the candidates includes better transparency. This looks like a good first step.
     
  13. aggie

    aggie Well-Known Member

    I don't think the Candidate Forum yesterday at Fairway will be the initial venture into recorded meetings for sharing. There were sound problems and a general disorganization to the flow of the forum. A few people stood to ask a question of the candidates but mistook this for the monthly Board/Member exchange and just wanted to express their own opinions. There were two candidates missing due to events that could not be postponed.

    Hopefully the next forum at Marinette Tuesday November 10 at 7:00 p.m. will be a better example of an informative Candidate Forum and it can be recorded for sharing. The one yesterday just confirmed the ones I do not wish to vote for this year. Remember.....you only have to vote for 1, 2 or 3 candidates. It's not necessary to vote for 3.
     
  14. aggie

    aggie Well-Known Member

    It just dawned on me that the next forum at Marinette on the 10th is the same evening as the Sun City Historical Gala. There are many that will attend the Gala that would be good participants for asking questions at the Candidate Forum.
     
  15. J_and_V

    J_and_V Member

    From an organizing and the technology side....this is disappointing.

    When things were going well, was it informative?
     
  16. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Two of the RCSC candidates were away on trips, so we only got to see the other 5. First off, hats off to all those who have stepped up and elected to run. For many, sitting in front of folks with a microphone is a little intimidating. I felt it went just okay. As aggie mentioned, this was the first step and truly there was a learning curve to be had for all.

    As far as the candidates themselves, this has been a constant for as long as I have been going to these forums; clearly some have a better handle on what's going on within the RCSC. Several years back candidates had to have been living in Sun City for 2 years before they could run. It was changed to one year and while I liked the change, it also opened the door for those who have less knowledge of the community.

    Sun City West has a better approach in my opinion. They run a multiple week program where they teach anyone interested how the community works. It's called TORCH and has been quite popular. They cover the basics and for lack of a better explanation, it's a crash course on the various aspects of the community and the RCSCW itself.

    I am a huge fan of people getting involved in the various opportunities here to become more conversant of Sun City. Other organizations, committees and even just attending meetings gives potential candidates an eye opening view of what might be expected of them. It's always daunting for candidates who have little or no exposure to get their arms and heads around trying to answer questions about something they know little about.

    The bigger issue is how to push the peanut up the hill and convince coming boards to record all open meetings and put them on their website. It's simply part of an education process whereby we increase the numbers of those who want to be part of the self-governance aspect of the community.
     
  17. Mullet

    Mullet Member

    A little off the original topic but I did discover another area where tech advances have been spurned. To lighten the load, I use an app to electronically store all my discount/membership cards and thought why not the RCSC card? They won't take it. A fear that it could be fraudulent I was told. After reading the above posts with the challenge of getting even a recorded forum, I fear digital memberships are light years away. Oh well.
     
  18. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    The entire technology issue is one we could spend a week on. Just getting wifi being available in the RCSC centers/amenities was a challenge. There's always the question of security, but for the most part, it's not all that difficult (in my limited knowledge).

    When I was the chair of the communication committee, we brought forth a proposal for board consideration. One of the club officers who was tech savvy (did it for a living), suggested we run a beta test with 5 clubs incorporating a laptop or pc that would be live/interactive with the RCSC's data base.

    The computer would become a living document for those clubs so as to have an ongoing historical base to work from. It would have negated sending membership rosters to the clubs office's (it was 4 times a year then, 2 now). They do that to insure members are current on their dues. The whole idea was to eliminate the horrendous amount of paper flow and work created by simple computerization.

    The potential was unlimited. We even proposed clubs would have to buy half the cost of the computer to have some skin in the game. Obviously some of the smaller clubs would have elected to stay in the dark ages, but over time the majority of the clubs would have bought into it.

    When we brought it to the board, we got the deer in the headlights look. Huh? Why? If you have to explain it, it has virtually no chance. Staff argued security concerns, but to me that was simply a Trojan horse. It meant an amount of start up work, some costs and staff time, but in the long run clubs would have had built in data bases, sign in with card readers and a historical record virtually none of them have now.

    It was the tip of the iceberg and would have opened other doors to move forward. Sun City West now has electronic punch cards so when guests use the facility it's logged into their account. My friend made a proposal to have electronic card readers available at the Sun Bowl and Sun Dial so if someone forgot their cards for admission, they could scan their drivers license to prove they were a member. Nope, wasn't in the cards (pun intended).

    Organizations just move slow. I lived it in my previous life and the only way to overcome it, was to become president and they just do it.
     
  19. Cynthia

    Cynthia Well-Known Member

  20. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Cool other than it appears I would either need to join Vimeo or log-in.
     

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