From the day we moved here in 2003, i've been a proponent of marketing Sun City. We know from our history, DEVCO was almost fanatical about telling and selling the Sun City way of life. The argument was they had to be that aggressive and find ways to get potential buyers to at least look at what they were offering. It was the cost of doing business. It's impossible to argue that wasn't the case, but the simple reality is, they had virtually no competition. As the first of its kind, they were standing by themselves in the marketplace. Hardly the case these days as active senior communities have exploded across the country and competition is everywhere. Those who hated my suggestion told me often, "why market, we sell 2000 homes a year." Fair enough, if the only reason for marketing is based on selling X number of homes per year. I've always taken the long view, believing by doing a great job on marketing, those buying here have a better knowledge and understanding of why this community is more suitable for them than others. I have the luxury of 20 years of Sun City living behind me. I've watched as our communication techniques have changed; i would argue they have been diminished. The good old days of a communications committee where the members actually played an active role has gone by the by. Admittedly we have the In Focus committee and as good as it is, there's simply not enough meat on the bone to get the job done. Of late, the Visitor's Center is doing a better job on social media, but again, there could be so much more. If only we had spent the past 20 years of building a network between clubs, members and the RCSC, we could have an endless stream of videos and photos detailing and documenting why life is better in Sun City than our competition. I'll be the first to admit, we can't fix the past 20 years. We can however acknowledge our shortcomings and begin to put ourselves on a better, more effective path forward. The first step would be for the new board to reform the communication/marketing committee. Identify the long and short term goals and then advertise and find members who have the knowledge, expertise and interest in selling and telling the Sun City story (sound familiar?). This isn't a new idea gang, this is just returning to our roots. I know from attending the working group session, there were countless ideas bantered about how we could market Sun City. Some were steeped in older more tried and true methods, some were far more forward thinking. All were better than what we are currently doing. I suspect the obvious question becomes "why should we?" The answer is easier than most would suspect; because sales have fallen to a 10 year low point. It's too early for perfect projections but the RCSC is hoping for 1750 sales by year's year; well down from the previous 2000 plus yearly sales in each of the past 10 years or so. Our ability to do the things that need be done to keep us current and updating our amenities relies on the Preservation and Improvement Fees (PIF) and on the revenue from the yearly lot assessments (rec fees). Our future is trapped in what we do today. We've for far too long lived on the mantra cheaper is better (and all that really matters). We've been shortsighted and let too many things go, while focusing on all the things the GM and a small cadre of board members thought was best. We've simply fallen behind and now we need to catch up. As much as this is about selling Sun City, to me it's far more important that those buying here know and appreciate how and why we are different and unique. More importantly to help them get their head around the idea, without them involved and committed we cannot and will not maintain the values and tenets we were built around.
I hear what you're saying but I'm also hearing about things on various other blogs or from Member comments that I don't like. It seems like we're slowly being infiltrated with more and more of these group homes and halfway houses. Look, if you're an enterprising person you can purchase a home in Sun City at a relatively reasonable cost, turn it into a multi-bedroom house suitable for 10, and collect big bucks each month while paying next to nothing in property taxes! Looking into the future I see more and more rentals, Airbnb's, group homes and halfway houses coming to Sun City, and they're not coming here to necessarily take advantage of the amenities. There here to become landlords and for the low cost of living. When are too many of these types of homes enough? Is there anything we can do about it? Will all these new occupants be able to use the facilities? I'm sure I'll be long dead before they cause any real affect on the community but little-by-little the creep has begun. Perhaps we need a committee to keep eyes on the real estate transfers or the requests going into the county for group homes and halfway houses? And the more we advertise we're creating a double-edged sword. Most real estate agents don't give a crap about Sun City because all they're looking for is where they can make their next buck! Open your eyes people! We're slowly losing our sense of community, and I don't like what I see!
I agree FYI. I see major problems on the horizon. SC is very vulnerable for various reasons. My immediate concern is sober houses. The numerous fraudulent cases uncovered recently are especially concerning, and placing them in an over 55 community with no local oversight/enforcement is especially alarming. Consider sober houses for addicts housing up to 10 occupants with unscrupulous owners/managers next to the home of a very frail single female, for example, with no family in the area to watch out for her needs. Can't happen? There are already problems in the Oakmont area of abuses of underage residents that can't be controlled. Imagine no control over group homes. A friend and I were talking yesterday: could a Gemini be purchased and walls torn down? SCHOA really needs to get a handle on this, along with RCSC. This matter requires legal and legislative involvement because of federal laws, but we have to be being attention.
If i had a dollar for every time i have written "history matters" over the past 20 years, well, i'd have a lot of dollars. When i mention the word "marketing" they think i mean how we sell Sun City and the homes that come on the market. Like most things or better stated, goals in life, there can (and should be) multiple reasons to do them. For example, i'm working on a Facebook Sun City Chat Arizona gathering at the Museum in early Sept and while it will be fun to gather members from the site, another goal is to raise awareness of the Museum and more importantly give people a taste of our ever so unique history. How many of you know the name, Betty Pearlman? Without her efforts, Sun City might just be another Youngtown. She was the resident who led the charge to add the age overlay to our documents. How many of you know of the 1970's intense battle over schools in Sun City and that without them, we might well have been part of the Peoria school district? Or even more impressively the 35 year fight (1961-1995) over incorporation, where had we gone the other direction (than what the members wanted), we would be just like Sun City Grand and be a part of the city of Surprise. It's exactly why i laugh over the constant attempts to downplay Sun City history. People are always telling me to let go of yesterday and look towards tomorrow. While that sounds great, look at the comments above. Group homes, sober living homes, Airbnb and rentals up the ying yang and it's pretty clear, Sun City is on a path fraught with issues. Throw in the internal RCSC issues like the massive fail with technology, the misdirected expenditures on all things golf and letting non-members use our courses for less money than members and of course the biggest one of all, the Mountain View boondoggle and one quickly comes to understand how short-sighted we were. History taught us when the membership is a co-equal partner in the concept of self-governance, we make solid decisions. The past 15 years have shown us, when a GM and a handful of board members make the choices for us, it doesn't work out so well. It gets worse though, because as we have moved down this path away from members, we have embraced the idea members simply don't care. Since 2006, when we began the paradigm shift, we have pushed members away and told them to buy into Sun City and just have fun. I get it; it's easier to make decisions when someone isn't looking over your shoulder asking you why you are doing what you are doing. The problem is just this: "What if you are wrong?" What if that burning desire to be like the other 1000 age restricted communities (only cheaper) is misguided and we end up in a bad place? Some will argue, that's not the case, but when you peel back the layers of skin on the onion and start looking more closely, we began to see the blemishes. We know now as the community is facing issues and changes, we (the community and especially the RCSC members) are ill-prepared to deal with any of this. It is exactly what happens when the sense of community has been destroyed and we just tell people moving here to have fun. We end up with a bunch of members who just want what they want when they want it; good of the community be damned. It's a long slow slog back. The best, easiest course of action is through a solid and sound marketing program. One where we incorporate all of the tools and techniques from our earlier years and bundle them with the modern technology available today. The community is filled with folks who know and understand marketing far better than i do. The best advice i ever got from Ben Roloff was this..."just ask them to help." I've written at least on a couple occasions, the reason i think John Meeker pushed for incorporation was because he feared Sun City was too big to be a stand-alone community without the benefit of the trappings of city government and the taxes that came with it. The residents disagreed. The challenge for all of us, do we care enough to stop our slide and maintain this amazing life we all live?
Everything we do has a cost; with an actual organization or business, the question is how much time would be spent on doing what needs to be done. It's easier in a for profit business because they typically would look at it as a return on investment; asking the question is the time spent getting us back more than we are spending/investing in, worth the effort. And to be clear, when i say easier i mean from a valuation standpoint. In the not for profit organizational structure it is a different calculation. The most former GM and i went around about this as he felt everything the RCSC did (and was his job) was to run it as a business. While running a local union i was in a similar position and many of the things we did, it was important to know what the costs were and then evaluate what the impact or benefit was to the membership. The reality was, hardly anything we did was about making money. I have written this more times than i can count but it is always the cornerstone of understanding how Sun City works. For-profit businesses exist to make money either for the owner(s) or the stockholders. End of story. Not-for-profits existence is defined (most often) in their governing documents. Which is exactly why we have pounded home the definition provided in the Articles of Incorporation. Here's the start and pretty much tells you everything you need to know: "To do anything and everything lawfully necessary in the interest of the Members of the Corporation." The RCSC was created to serve the best interests of the membership. Nowhere does it mention existing to make money. The RCSC's board has, with their election, an obligation to serve as fiduciaries of the organization which is a fascinating discussion unto itself. Some have used it to manipulate others into believing their obligation is to blindly follow the lead of the general manager. Having spent part of my work life in trustee and board member education regarding fiduciary obligation, i found the logic specious at best, and utter nonsense at worst. The evolution into the vacuum was long and steady. From 2006 the drift from a bottom up organization was slowly and strategically positioned to be run absolutely from the top down. I would be foolish to argue it was done with intent to harm; clearly it wasn't. It was just a handful of folks who believed they knew better than everyone else. They had come to the conclusion they could make better decisions than the membership at large. They were wrong and now we are all paying for it. In organizational structure the return on investment (time spent) isn't measured in how much money you are making, but in how involved and committed the membership is to being involved. In how much ownership they take and whether they hold themselves or others accountable or responsible, or whether they just ignore everything that is going on around them. It's a calculation that is far less apparent than a bottom line profit and loss statement. That measurement is intangible when looking at financial ledgers. We saw glimmers of hope with the enormous response to a poorly worded survey (imagine if it had been well done). We saw great response to the focus groups and the follow up working group session was nothing short of spectacular. The question really becomes, now what? If we spent the 56k to feel good but with nothing to come from it, was it worth it? I would argue not, but that certainly doesn't mean i am right. Having sat in the working group sessions, i know one of the tables/topics (with 3 different groups of members) spent their time talking about "marketing" Sun City. It would be a great starting point and one i would place at the top of the list moving forward. Way too many people move to Sun City who know virtually nothing about the community or how it is run and even why it works. Hell, there's countless numbers living here who are clueless...and i don't say that unkindly. Why should they know anything when we've made so little effort to tell them/teach them? Of course when you're defined goal was to encourage new home owners to just move here and have fun, there should be little surprise why we are where we are. One of the earliest lessons i learned, being in a position where i had some opportunity to affect outcomes, was this: If you don't know where you are going, there's a good chance you will end up there.
