The Power of Collaboration As I awake for my 3:30AM break from sleep, the National Civic League motto rattles around my sleepy brain. There is nothing we cannot accomplish if we work together. These simple words are devilishly hard to put into practice. People are people and pride and feelings can often cloud rational thought. All too often I have heard community leaders speak because they must be heard and they know best. Rare indeed is the leader that listens to understand and is able to bring out the best in people. Too often leaders revert to creating an enemy to fight so that they can lead the fight. This is a long-winded way of saying I am very disappointed the board did not reach out to the motion makers and express concerns about the motions in the spirit of finding common ground. In fairness, Marcia reached out to me to say my motion was very much the same as another motion. I gladly responded that I would withdraw my motion and join the motion makers in their motion. That is the way it is supposed to work! In the weeks leading up to the deadline for submitting motions, I sent repeated requests to the Board to start a dialogue regarding my motions to amend the bylaws to allow members to vote on a master plan. I published them in advance so the Board could study them. There was never any reply from the Board to discuss them. Instead, I like you, learned through a flurry of email blasts that the Board had decided to seek counsel’s advice which predictably said all the motions were defective in some manner or another and the Board should not allow members to vote at the Annual Meeting on any motion. No one knows what conversations took place. I remain firmly convinced that there is no project of more importance to Sun City’s future than creating an expertly developed member approved master plan and requiring future boards to explain if they do not want to follow it. I now agree that the stakeholders need to thrash out what will be at Mountain View. I recommend that the BP16 process be used as a guide for these “negotiations”.
John, Unfortunately, the Board has backed itself into a corner. RCSC is operating in a legal gray area that risks reclassification as a Title 33 Planned Community, leaving them no margin for error without risking legal repercussions and loss of autonomy. In 2018–19, they faced a serious threat to their autonomy but managed to sidestep it. I have no doubt that legal counsel is now scrutinizing every governance decision to avoid triggering Title 33 classification. That said, the Board seems to recognize that member dissatisfaction must be addressed. Creating an Ad Hoc Bylaws Review Committee that allows member input and generates pragmatic recommendations could be a prudent move—if the Board commits to a transparent, good-faith process and genuinely considers member input. If not, it will almost certainly escalate tensions and trigger yet another governance standoff between the Board and members.
Thanks for mentioning that standing bylaws committee SM. It's just another reason i saw a modest effort yesterday to restore the committee process. For years committees played a critical role when given the respect of their time and effort to help reshape the community. We know the structure was broken and if (as you mentioned) the board is serious about allowing them more latitude in bringing forward recommendations (as we saw yesterday), it is indeed a win/win. We'll see.
Creating a standing, NOT Ad Hoc Bylaw Committee was one of the Motions that I had submitted. But, as you stated above, Stephen, it would be have to allow Member input and the BOD would have to commit to a transparent, good-faith process and genuinely consider Member input. And, as both you and I witnessed as we sat on the Communications and Outreach Committee and as I continue to hear what transpires in the Long Range Planning Committee, the BOD would have to swear to work together on a stack of bibles. Unfortunately, prior occurrences have not given me a "warm and fuzzy feeling." But, I'm so tired of the "us versus them" mentality. Something or someone has to give before those tensions escalate into more! Jean Totten
