RCSC posted the discussion topics for the exchange meeting. Interestingly, there is no topic about the PAC and Doghouse and rumor has it they are spending like crazy on the architect to design a PAC in order to make it too expensive to reconsider alternatives that were never seriously considered. AND, the theater could still be placed at the Lakeview Lawn Bowl greens by the Board next year. If you care about your community, please come to this meeting.
Well said John and what we know is all too often people get excited for a moment or two and then tire or get bored with being involved. The last exchange was an oddity with the special session being scheduled to follow; they asked members to hold their comments regarding the PAC till then. Obviously that won't be the case this time. One item on the agenda i was stunned at was the Visitor Center being moved to Fairway...why? The Sun City Visitor Center was my first volunteer position; starting about 4 months after moving into the community. I also served on their board for several years. It started as a free-standing organization where the director had to raise enough money every year to keep the doors open. His salary was the only one with every one else being volunteers. When he was retiring, the RCSC board offered to take over the responsibilities of running it. It is interesting to note the history of the Visitor Center. It began in the 90's when a group of business owners felt the need to market Sun City. They were called the Ambassadors and their first location was on 99th and Bell where Benny's (or is it Lenny's) Burgers is. Paul Herrmann, executive director, often joked the biggest aspect of that location was letting people use their bathrooms. He was instrumentalist in working out the Bell location they stayed in for so many years. All of which is the perfect segue to a class Ben and i are preparing for the Life Long Learning club. It will be this spring (late January or early February), as the date is yet to be decided. When Ben and i were having coffee the other day, he said to me he has never been so enthused about doing a class (and he's done a bunch of them). I share in his excitement, because anyone who familiar with those first 18 years, knows that everything DEVCO did was marketing and selling the fledgling community. The real fun of the class will be the show and tell props we will include in the presentation, all DEVCO driven. In fact, as we are listing out all of the items, even we are staggered to see just how thorough the company was. They knew the concept was a hard sell and they knew at some point they would walk away once completed. The question was always nagging at them in the background; would it survive without their support and subsidizing so many of the activities and events? One of their goals was to make those living here the owners of the community; as the company called them, their best sales force. Clearly we have survived and even more obvious is the fact it has never been easy. Self-governance is hard, especially when the membership divorces itself from the process. Communities like ours, when left to the devices of a handful, will always be left with outcomes that are questionable. Which is why DEVCO and the community leaders made a point for the structure to be inclusive of the membership. Tragically, we decided to push members away and minimize their value and importance. We were left with the hope that every decision made by the small collective of decision makers was the right one. Looking back, the first question should be: How did that work out for us? I know my answer. At some point we need look more closely at the current state of marketing Sun City. I know this, we aren't doing a very good job given the potential we have that exists on a daily basis. We have become so insular when we should and could be doing a boatload of low cost promotion. Hell; we don't even do a good job of reaching our current members/residents, let alone the massive number of potential seniors looking for their place in the sun. If you care about any of this, you should be at the Dec 9 Exchange meeting at the Sundial auditorium.
I love to be the cynical one here but does anyone believe the PAC will be built anywhere by the end of the decade? I project more studies, more data, more meetings, more committees, more town halls, etc. with nothing being accomplished. Prove me wrong.
I cannot overemphasize Bill's observation. I met today with the organizers of the recall petition at the Lakeview center where they had a table set up for the recall and this is the last thing they wanted to be doing. As I was talking to them, we saw the Board, management and architects walk in for a secret meeting. The GM did the petition organizers the courtesy of a drive by where he stopped rolled down the window and said the table was set up in fire lane (which I believe only applies to the ingress and egress pavement), and suggested it be moved to a place where no one would see it. He then smirked and said how you are doing on getting 3,000 signatures. I asked that they move the table to a place where the curb wasn't painted red. He then sent out a safety employee to check on what was going on.
John, in the words of my generation, the truth will set you free. That was positive as someone who has lived here nearly 20 years and visited regularly the previous 10, the past is prologue and that was a prediction.
