I've written that statement/description of Sun City a hundred times, maybe more. The beauty of knowing and understanding our history is never to get caught up in just the amenity side of equation. You know, the one where people see Sun City as the RCSC. It's so much more. The reality is all of those other parts do it without the fanfare, without all the hype and glitz that comes with owning beautiful amenities. Recreation centers, golf courses, swimming pools and an abundance of clubs always get the attention. Sadly, too often to the detriment of the other organizations that make Sun City unique and more importantly keep it an inexpensive place to live. Let's face it, there's nothing glamorous about CAN (Community Assistance Network), SCHOA (Sun City Home Owners Association), PRIDES (Proud Residents Independently Delivering Essential Services), POSSE (voluntary group of residents driving around in cars doing vacation watches and keeping an eye on property), The Del Webb Sun Cities Museum (speaks for itself), Meals On Wheels (helping feed seniors in their homes), Sunshine Services (providing medical equipment for free), Banner Olive Branch Senior Center (meals and companionship for under served seniors), COA (Condo Owners Association) and a handful of others. For the purposes of this exercise, i want to post data received from the Community Assistance Network in an email. It's sent to anyone who donates money and gives them their email (sadly a really small percentage of Sun City residents). This is where i get crazed because all of these organizations need to be supported and promoted. They aren't. Look at these numbers and tell me you aren't impressed. Then factor in these are often the seniors who have outlived their resources and are struggling to get by: *** Sun City CAN TaxAide volunteers e-filed 1,967 free federal taxreturns and helped clients get $1,397,000 in tax refunds. *** we helped about 441 low income families get $134,663 in property tax refunds or $367 per family. *** after tax season last year, we helped 273 people respond to IRS letters and file late/amended returns. *** through the APS and Southwest Gas crisis assistance program, we paid about $29,000 on the utility bills of low income people. *** our counselors helped 429 people with benefits assistance and over 127 people with Medicare/Medicaid issues. ••• we partnered with Habitat for Humanity to paint four houses at a cost of over $10,000. *** we mailed out over $70,000 in checks to 305 low income condo residents for EPCOR Water rebates. ••• we installed 37 free fire department lock boxes on the homes of low income residents at a cost of $2,590. *** Sun City CAN TaxAide volunteers e-filed 1,967 free federal taxreturns and helped clients get $1,397,000 in tax refunds. *** we helped about 441 low income families get $134,663 in property tax refunds or $367 per family. *** after tax season last year, we helped 273 people respond to IRS letters and file late/amended returns. *** through the APS and Southwest Gas crisis assistance program, we paid about $29,000 on the utility bills of low income people. *** our counselors helped 429 people with benefits assistance and over 127 people with Medicare/Medicaid issues. ••• we partnered with Habitat for Humanity to paint four houses at a cost of over $10,000. *** we mailed out over $70,000 in checks to 305 low income condo residents for EPCOR Water rebates. ••• we installed 37 free fire department lock boxes on the homes of low income residents at a cost of $2,590. Let me be graphically succinct but politically incorrect: Holy Shit! Truly amazing the services provided by volunteers who get virtually no credit for the work they do. Kudos.
Thanks, Bill, for providing this very important, and sadly, eye-opening information. All is not sunshine and roses in our community, but thankfully, we do have organizations that are helping lighten the burden that our friends and neighbors are facing. And, friends and neighbors that are contributing their time, talent and treasure to these very important organizations so they can continue their important work. I'll venture a guess here - these organizations could all use more volunteers; I'm sure they could all use some additional resources if anyone can make a donation. Sun City is a better place because of these groups. If we all do a little bit, we can help keep it this way. It's all about our volunteers.
WOW! Great information. I would love to see more information from all sectors, interests, etc. on how Sun Citians give back, give to and support each other and our community. This is a lot to be proud of. I listened to the Long Range Planning Committee struggle with defining their job in the long-range planning process and the future of Sun City again yesterday. I was amazed about the amount of concentration on comparing amenities to other 55+ active living communities. We definitely don't want to continue to brand ourselves as the 'cheapest' or low-cost option without mentioning the many other great things happening here. Future homeowners are concerned about club opportunities, golf, and pickleball to be sure but they also have other concerns and interests that we should proudly be marketing and developing for the next 5-10-20 years of Sun City residents. How about our tournaments, our award winners (swimmers, lawn-bowlers, etc.), our number of hole in ones per year, our volunteer hours given. We have the opportunity to deliver better communication, security, technology, and learning opportunities. We have the opportunity to support pet owners, plan for outdoor open green spaces that are not golf courses, to become environmental stewards concerned about water, asphalt emissions, and a cleaner future. Our Events could be expanded in many directions. We could celebrate members by providing places to gather rather than requiring permits for 10 people or more to sit and discuss, celebrate, and build friendships. There are so many great things happening here - I wish we could hear more about them and celebrate our wonderful community. I also wish we could make a more concerted effort to be more forward-thinking with actual planning that includes all members, not just board members and RCSC management.
Yesterday i spent several hours at the Del Webb Museum talking with visitors and telling and retelling stories from our history. Lots of people came through and so much interest from those that came. So often i hear the comments; this place is a real treasure, so cool, amazing how this all came together. It's like walking back in time and finding yourself standing square in the middle of 1960. It's always been my achilles heal. Since my very first visit to the Museum, i was hooked. Speaking bluntly, i'm not a museum kind of guy. Like most of us, i took several history courses to escape high school but it never really turned my crank. Sun City changed all of that. I knew and understood Sun City was unique the first day i saw it; it wasn't until i started the deep dives into the history i could articulate why. The more i read, the more i dug, the more i became enamored with how special we were. Talking with people yesterday invariably leads me to explaining the fallacy of the drift from the slogan, City of Volunteers. The math of movement, sales from year to year insures a constant churn of new residents; owners who know virtually nothing about our roots, our beginnings. They know we have the great rec centers, plentiful golf courses and an abundance of clubs. They see up close we are clean, orderly and quiet. All good stuff. As i said yesterday to several folks, those things aren't the heart and soul of the community. Sadly, the support organizations across Sun City are often left to survive on their own. While each has the folks that join, voluntarily contribute either time or money attract tiny percentages of the population. They have email lists where they tell their story, but all too often they are preaching to the choir. As we saw above in the email summary of the Sun City Community Assistance Network (CAN) they do incredibly important work. There's always a segment of the population that will be pressed and stressed financially. The question has been asked too many times: How do we reach them? It's always been a question of reach, how to increase and enhance the organizations that make Sun City unique. I've wrestled with this in every organization i have been involved with. There is no one answer, it's always been a broad brush approach that is a constant. This isn't like our schooling where you go for X number of years and then you are done. Call it continuing educations for seniors. Call it outreach on every available media option. Call it Building a Sense of Community 101, but don't ignore it. Don't dispel it as "not your job." It's all of our jobs. It's part of the commitment when moving to Sun City. As the owners we are obligated to passing it on, growing it forward. I said yesterday one of the reasons i struggled with the now departed general manager was because she looked within the RCSC only with one caveat; she had a yearly fund raiser to local organizations that generated about 10k a year. That's a good thing, but money alone is seldom the answer. My concern with this general manger is he appears clueless about the bigger picture Sun City. His role and goal appears focused on the RCSC and even that is questionable. I've argued, give him a chance, but to date, i've seen little indication he cares one whit about the community as an entity. I hope i'm wrong. In the meantime. each of us need take ownership of that continuing education; why Sun City is unique and why we need to spread the word. Otherwise, we just become one of many other age restricted communities selling the good life to seniors. Sun City is far better than that.
I certainly agree with Bill that SC needs a better sense of “community.” Volunteerism and interaction with the workings of the RCSC used to play a larger role in that sense, today not so much for many reasons. Rekindling that community spirit/pride is challenging because “community” has so many connotations and an infinite set of nuances. One “definition” I read says The Sense of Community has four components: membership, influence, fulfillment of needs, and emotional connection. I suspect if you asked each of us to define the specifics of what “community” means to them there would be vast differences . Geographically Sun City is a community that relies on Maricopa County for most government stuff (laws, police, libraries, roads, parks, etc) so SC itself has little substance other than it's 40 thousand residents -- many of whom I consider friends and a part of my community. But I have no sense of community with Maricopa County, and only slightly more for Arizona. I guess the RCSC itself rightly is a “community”, but I have no respect for it and no sense of community with it per se – it's just an autocratic organization providing services with an often myopic and annoying set of ideas, rules and regulations. But within the RCSC is a collection of real communities (clubs, rec centers, amenities), two of which I've embraced and support. I don't think the good ole days of SC are likely to return, but it's not healthy for SC, nor the RCSC, that they can't foster community spirit hand in hand. I don't see it as the RCSC's mission to lead the SC community, rather it's role should be to provide a lot of the resources and connective tissue which makes up the SC community. The community and the RCSC have been at odds for far too long thanks to years of wrong thinking by past Boards, the past GM, and more than a few members. Communities are built on team spirit, common issues/goals, respect for others, and compromise. The bigger question is what individuals and organization(s) will provide leadership in leading SC as a community? The businesses that used to provide that sense are long gone (stores, newspapers, locally run hospitals, independent doctors, churches are less mainstream, etc). The “SC is an island” (which necessitated a sense of community in the beginning) was overrun by urban sprawl across the West Valley decades ago. I live in SC but often I identify more with Peoria, Surprise, Glendale, or even Phoenix and I don't think that will change. That doesn't mean the SC community is no longer relevant and necessary.
The bigger question is what individuals and organization(s) will provide leadership in leading SC as a community? Communities are built on team spirit, common issues/goals, respect for others, and compromise. Rekindling that community spirit/pride is challenging because “community” has so many connotations and an infinite set of nuances Speaking as Jean Totten, I would like to see Sun City Advocates step into that role of leadership here in Sun City that you talk about. We need a village. Communicate Educate Participate
IC: Just might be one of the best summations of where we were to where we are i have seen. My only disagreement is i find no identity with the outside communities. But then again, i rarely leave Sun City. If i had half a brain i would have given this battle up years ago. Thing is, i know it worked once, i believe it can work again. The ugliness outside the walls doesn't need to be brought inside the walls. But let's be very clear; it won't happen by accident or osmosis, only if and when those of us living here make it happen. I wish the Advocates could be the catalyst Jean. Unfortunately the powers that be see us as the " bad guys." It speaks volumes about how they (the RCSC) views the community and those of us living here. We are simply an end to justify their means. Pay the bills and shutting our mouth isn't ever going to inspire building a sense of community.
And nothing proves that point any clearer than finding yourself on the receiving end of an incident report just because you made face when you heard a comment you didn't necessarily agree with while attending a committee meeting! Or how about a year long suspension from all RCSC facilities just because you went and asked an architect a question about the Mountain View renovation at their facility in Phoenix? A question, by the way, that if asked during their presentation at the board meeting at Sun Dial would have been perfectly in order? Oh Yes, folks. It is happening. This is not the kind of management of Sun City I care to live under! When you can get written-up for some ridiculous accusation I question the judgement of management for even entertaining such a report!. Something has to change!
Well said FYI and indeed they are acting like it’s their community and we all should just feel lucky to be able to throw money at them. Sorry gang, not how it works, never has been, never will be. You can write up all the bullshit warnings you want; it will come back to haunt you. The simple reality is their actions the past 15 years has us (the community) in a position where we all struggle to survive. The RCSC doesn’t need volunteers, they have all the money they need to pay people. Of course the way they are treating them, there will be a cost. Firing employees, especially good employees who are well liked is a fools game. My goodness the stories and comments i am hearing are truly fascinating. At some point those too will take a giant bite out of their backsides. Finally, think in these terms; if you had 100 million dollars to spend in the community, wouldn’t you expect a better plan than the mess we are looking at. Let that roll off your tongue, 100 million dollars.
