Here's one for whomever is assigned the soon to be formed Communication Committee. I know Jean is hoping for it (and should be the chair), but who knows which board member becomes the president and makes those assignments. Typically the pres asks each board member their preference, so we'll see. This column i wrote in April of 2012 was a sampling of my thoughts as we were trying to reshape the Communication Committee. Even back then it was struggling to find its own identity and purpose. I suspect some of that will still be the case. Communication Suffice to say, my first three months on the Rec Centers of Sun City (RCSC) board have been interesting. The challenges of working within a structure built over near on 50 years often are daunting. Time tends to solidify the process and because the day-to-day demands are so high on the paid staff, the organization moves slowly (that’s not a bad thing). The important aspect of this is they do move. Glacially may be a bit slower than i’d like to see, but doing anything well is almost always better than just doing something differently. Perhaps the best part of this is i have found the board members have come to the table with an open mind and an eye to the future. The biggest struggle for all of us are the time lines; a three-year term give us really a short period to make any kind of meaningful changes. Setting direction is the first step and working with committees to help determine where we are going is an important part in the process. Imagine how the staff feels with a constant revolving door as new board members bring new ideas. For purposes of this discourse, i want to hone in on the committee i chair; member communications. I asked to be assigned to it; i see it as one of the areas we can address and have some of the quickest results. At our March meeting the committee identified a dozen areas we feel we have purview over (though we missed a couple). Now we will begin looking at each of them in-depth. In preparation for this Tuesday’s (4-10-12) meeting at 1 pm in the board room at Lakeview i began an internet search. Google is fabulous and after typing in “effective communication” and hitting search, i quickly got back an amazing 102,000,000 results. Nope, didn’t read them all (he said with a smile), but i did begin reading through some of the more interesting ones. The oddity is there often is a wide difference of opinion between what we see as effectively communicating versus a lot of communications. I think much of what has happened over the years at the RCSC is that communications become simply what we need to do on a month to month basis. Rather than taking on a life of its own, it simply exists out of sheer need. I’m excited by the prospect of addressing these kinds of issues with the communications committee. Much of my life has been built around achieving outcomes; basing direction on how well we are doing on any given task. I found when things weren’t working as well as they could or should have, it was time for an honest evaluation, assessment and redirection. I would invite any Sun City resident interested to sit in on this Tuesday’s meeting as a guest. We are on the cusp of formatting a new direction in a number of areas on how we communicate with members of the RCSC and if you want to be part of it, stop on by and join us. It will be an eye-opening experience for all of us.
Nope, they need new blood with fresh ideas. As i read back all these posts from more than ten years ago, my views haven't varied much, if at all.
The quick answer: Reach. The longer answer is a bit more complicated and caught up in my article from 2012 which i summed up this way: "there often is a wide difference of opinion between what we see as effectively communicating versus a lot of communications." The old argument was that with as many RCSC meetings as there were; it's the members fault if they don't come, don't care. And as we drifted along that pathway of pushing members away, they ended up rewarded for efforts with tiny turnouts and small numbers of members voting. It was a cycle i have argued was planned and worked to perfection. Letting a scant few make every decision was the outcome and had everyone making those decisions been infallible, we would have been fine. We know now things as important as technology and maintaining our infrastructure were treated as a throw-away. When members were involved (pre-2006), their oversight via committees made a dramatic difference. The fascinating reality of how bad things had eroded wasn't revealed until June of 2021 fired Karen McAdam and the shit hit the fan. Without that action, they would have plodded along their merry way and simply out voting the minority board members. The board could not handle one of their own criticizing them. The result was a massive turnout at the returning 2021 Sept board meeting; the one with armed police officers that lasted less than three minutes. I digress. That started in motion the next couple of elections and the birth of the Sun City Advocates. Our mantra was simple: Communicate, Educate and Participate. We had no budget and a scant few volunteers to try and reach the membership and stimulate participation. In spite of the odds against us; we reached a quorum at the Dec 2021 membership meeting. It was the first time one had been held since the fall of 2009 when the quorum was 100. Then we proceeded to get 10 out of our 10 endorsed candidates elected over the three terms (2021, 22 and 23). The point here is this ragtag group of "activists," were able to reach enough members to help shape the future. To the new GM's credit, he has taken on the internal aspect of effectively communicating; better, wider reach. Jean's (maybe) new communication committee looks to me like they will be trying to approach the challenge of reach externally. It would seem to me the two efforts can and should marry up nicely. The easiest low hanging fruit is that initial point of contact for new home buyers (RCSC members). The black and white copies of crap they were handing out in the new-buyer packet (that included the 36 pages of Bylaws) was God-awful. The old $4000 PIF (now increasing with the $1000 CIF added to it), should have triggered a far better introduction/explanation to how and why Sun City works. After all, it starts with them. Creating buy-in from day 1 should always have been important...unless the goal was to push them away. Problems/questions and challenges, given our size and volume of amenities and clubs, needs structures and processes that are effective and work in sync with members needs. Two quick examples that came to light the other day amplify this: 1). On the Sun City Advocates Facebook page a reader posted a critique of how poorly an RCSC member was treated when requesting a chip/token to enter the Duffeeland Dog Park. It turned into a shit-show when he went to the office and was told the system is out of chips because a whole new system is being built. It's apparently been in the works for a while and the solution was to ask others with a chip to let them in. For those who don't know, the dog park was opened during hours but non-residents were accessing it. Without a lot of fanfare, the easiest solution was/is, open the park without the chip use until the new system is in. Instead it sounds as if there was an frustrating discussion and outcome over an easily solved problem. 2). This one threw me and i still find it hard to believe. We know the board passed the new $1000 CIF to become effective Jan 1, though the details were left to be worked out by management. The problem is Realtors have been signing contracts in Dec with buyers agreeing to pay the $4000 to the RCSC. Those are legally binding contracts and should be honored as such. Now the RCSC is telling buyers they also owe the $1000 CIF when they close in January. No attorney, but i suspect the RCSC is overstepping their ability to override a previously signed document. Somebody should address and fix that. Here's the point: These two problems aren't arms and legs but they are the kind of thing that gives the RCSC a black eye. While some argue it's not really communication, it is. How members are dealt with are critical to the future of this community. When an issue arises, there need be a internal process rather than an external exposure. At least, that's how i look at it.
Here's a recommendation that I sent to Jean because I believe the first thing they need to know is the extent of their outreach! Every Club has a sign-in sheet as does all the Rec Centers. Someone needs to compile all the Member rec card numbers from all the activities, for perhaps one month, let's say February when the snow-birds are still all here, remove the duplicates and see just how many Members of the 38,000+ Members actually use the facilities. That way you will understand exactly what outreach is actually required! This is not a difficult thing to do, it only takes time. The Microsoft Excel program already has the ability to remove duplicate data with a couple of key strokes so it's not like any special software is required or somebody needing to go back and forth just looking for duplicate Member numbers! It's my guess that probably only one-third of our Members actually use the facilities and the remaining two-thirds probably don't care much about what goes on! I think the effort to conduct such a research would be well worth the time? Bottom Line: Until the RCSC knows and understands the usage data of the various facilities can they really understand how to allocate their expenses. This is not unlike what should have been done on the Mountain View project. The first thing that should have been done was an engineering study of the building structure to see whether or not it could, in fact, just be renovated or was it necessary to demolish and start new?
I think it is important for outreach and communication to find and educate the RCSC Members who don't use the recreation centers. In fact I suggested a possible goal for the Long Range Plan would be to increase the percent of Members who use our facilities say 5-10%. Perhaps if they felt more welcome, they would participate more. Then there would be less criticism when any fees are raised.
Sounds like part of event coordination. The committee will need to determine their goal first and foremost. Communication of what and reach to whom?
RCSC Committee Descriptions Outreach & Communications Committee: “The purpose of the Outreach and Communication Committee is to ensure that we increase our visibility, help re-establish a sense of community, identify key messages, connect with our Members, Board of Directors and our RCSC Staff; while recommending avenues for an exchange of information, encouraging active participation, and serving as a link with our community partners to promote quality messages as we all serve the same people.” From:https://suncityaz.org/rcsc-board-policy-resolution-no-27/
And it will be interesting to see how the board interprets that mission statement? Will or does the committee have any power to directly promote those goals or does everything still have to go thru the standard process of only making recommendations to the board and the board then decides what they can and cannot do?
There’s the matter of Sun City In Focus, never should have been formed as a committee, in my opinion. Its purpose, as defined, falls under the Outreach and Communications Committee’s description now. This duplication is best resolved by reclassifying In Focus. Sun City in Focus Committee: The purpose of the Sun City in Focus Committee is to coordinate and produce a video news magazine for approval by the Communications & RCSC Marketing Coordinator and a Sr. Manager prior to publication. The video magazine will highlight RCSC’s current events, special events, recreation centers, golf courses, clubs, members and any other activities deemed of interest to current and potential RCSC Members. The intent of the video news magazine is to inform, and educate those who may have an interest, or seek information regarding the community of Sun City AZ, or the events and activities within the RCSC.
I somewhat tend to agree eyesopen. I think the In Focus is a nice idea however it's just to darn erratic, and the time span from one edition to the next is far too long. It pretty much only reports on things that have already been done or highlights a Member or a Club? We need communications that are contemporaneous with the goings on in Sun City! And as I mentioned above, do we really want to wait until the board decides what the committee can publish, or to allow the committee to implement their ideas? That alone could take months. The O&C committee should be better defined as to what they are tasked with and the allowable parameters to stay within to do things on their own. As far as the Sun City In Focus Committee goes?... Perhaps it should just be part of the Camera Guild Club? It was a nice idea that never seemed to pick-up steam!
No doubt those videos are alot of time and work. People are willing to help but when it becomes a job and a time consumer most efforts will die a slow death. Maybe some things are best left for staff to do.
