Committee's and Sun City's future...

It would be easy to think my recent tirades about the PIF increase or the boards lack of understanding of the historical process is simply an effort to diminish the board's authority. In an effort to refute any claim, I went digging through my digital files for an article written for the board just over two years ago.

It was during that time where the board and management team was considering rewriting board policies covering committees. I presented this treatise to them in advance of what I had hoped would be meaningful discussions. Silly me.

Unfortunately, it appeared , we were more interested in flushing some people than we were in finding logical solutions. Really, why bother wasting time analyzing problems when you can rewrite policies and be done with those who stand in your way.

Suffice to say, I voted against the committee changes, but alas I was again in the minority.

Here is what I wrote to and for the board. It was one of the better pieces and I have crafted, but it may as well have been in Greek.

Warning: Very long so I will separate it and place it in the next post.

 

Sun City and its Future.

Committees…The good, the bad and the ugly:

“A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.”
Fred Allen

Seems Fred Allen had a somewhat nasty perspective on the role of committees and even a more jaundiced view of those foolish enough to appoint them. I suspect those of us who have had the misfortune of living in a world surrounded by committee-dumb have come to understand just how challenging it is to get things done. Organizations by their very structure are slow moving but when you bog them down with a dozen committees, one quickly comes to appreciate the concept of working alone and just getting things done.

With that vitriolic overview out of my system, it must be said that most assuredly committees have played an integral role in Sun City’s evolution. I suspect from its earliest days the powers that be turned to the old standard of committees being used to help shape and guide the community. It was standard boiler plate fare for the “greatest generation.”

It also should help motivate us to look at any changes we may consider in a highly questionable light. It would be easy if Sun City was in shambles and we knew for certain committees were the reason for it. Certainly not the case, but does that mean there may not be a better way to approach the future of Sun City?

And therein lay the fabulous self-examination potential we have before us. Rather than begin to think we are a group of nine who have been granted some sort of omnipotent powers, we need consider what has happened when we have acted in haste and without input from the community at large. Suffice to say; too often we have ended with the proverbial egg on our face.

Before we go there however, let me quickly review what was one of my most pleasant experiences in the 10 years I have been in Sun City. I have had the joy of serving on a half a dozen boards, working with any number of committees and have come to appreciate how we are uniquely different than so many other places I have worked at or lived in.

We are self-governed and that of unto itself is a blessing (yes I said blessing). Almost everyone that buys in Sun City is transferred through ownership the right to speak their mind about what we do and how we do it. Sadly, we have morphed into both a society and a community where complaining is far easier than acting on those issues we find troubling. We need change that and therein lay our challenge.

As usual, I regress; let me get back to the matter at hand. On April 22, the Sun City Foundation board engaged in an exercise that was exceptionally good. Approximately a dozen of us gathered to look at the future of the Sun City Foundation. To do so, we needed to look at the bigger picture of Sun City and the changes we ultimately will be facing. There is little doubt the pressures of a society where people will work later in life and be facing the economic impact where defined pensions will fall by the wayside will seriously change Sun City.

We quickly came to understand the challenges and rather than agonize over them, we felt our best hope was to try and manage them with some careful and speculative thinking about what those changes would bring. The difficulty was we were working in the vacuum of a small group (perhaps a good thing) and with a fairly narrow perspective (the role the foundation would play going forward). The experience was eye-opening to say the least.

Following the session I had the good fortune of having coffee and a brief internalizing of the meeting. Out of the process of picking it apart, I came to believe we were on the right course, but for certain, a far more aggressive analysis of our future was imperative. What brought this to light was the simple question: “Has the RSCS Board ever done this kind of exercise?”

Great question eh? Let me say, my answer was based solely on what I know and that was no. I have to believe somewhere along the line boards did a down and dirty 10 years from now scenario, but if they did, I have never seen or heard about it. The question brought to mind one of those really awesome presentations I attended along the way where the presenter suggested the successful companies always did 10, 15 and 20 year planning so they could properly position their company for the future.

If we did so, what would Sun City look like in the year 2023? What would the impact be to a community filled with more boomers and less people in their 80’s and 90’s? How would the community be impacted when better than half the population is still working and has less time for golf, joining clubs and becoming an active participant in the self-governance? Can we even begin to fathom the affect and begin to shape the future by coming to understand what new buyers will bring to the table when they move here?

It truly is a daunting challenge for most of us. Long range planning in Sun City has almost always been short-sighted. In age restricted communities the tendency is often just living in the moment. From the beginning, it’s been a more hedonistic lifestyle predicated on getting the most out of the incredible number of options we have here. I would argue that in fact our sense of giving back by volunteering was an effort to counter-balance the idea we need to have more in our lives than just a life of fun and games.

That’s a topic for others to examine; my effort here is to try and get us to shape our actions around those yet to buy into Sun City. I think it’s safe to say past boards have been more interested in making decisions based on those living here (and quite often for very long periods of time). The leadership by its very structure looks to longevity (at least two years as a resident to be on the board) and often those in attendance to be long time residents. Part of the problem was new people haven’t been welcomed with open arms. I see that changing and would argue if we do the right things before and as people buy, we will continue to bridge that gap between long term and short term residents.

More to the point, if we ask those living in Sun City for years, we will undoubtedly hear an outcry about doing away with committees. It will inevitably bring about the cliché “if it isn’t broken, why fix it?”Of course that begs the question…”is it broken?” For those of us on the board who sit through never-ending committee meetings trying to make it look like we are doing something of value, the answer is easily answered.

Which ultimately takes us back to the opening quote from our leaned Fred Allen; what is the purpose of committees? My past life has taught me the absolute value of feedback/input from those I represented. It also proved to me that often long-standing committees are almost always a drag on an organization. Unless they have a clear purpose with defined objectives, they tend to flop about like a fish out of water.

If that’s true, then we need look at what committees fit into a specific need and which are just there for “show.” Let’s be blunt, that gets ugly; hell, who wants to admit they are wasting their time by sitting in a room doing little more than filling a chair. I know I am being somewhat caustic but for clarity purposes, this is where we need take a careful and concise inventory of the role of committees.

In my humble opinion, this isn’t an action to be taken on solely by the board of directors. While we may have the best handle on which committees are essential and which aren’t; it’s a decision that affects the community at large for years to come. At the very least committees should be involved and I would argue the larger body community may even want to weigh in. One only has to look back at the decision to do away with the legal committee to give cause to pause and ponder.

From that process we then may consider how we replace those committees. I know many of us like the concept of ad hoc; some may like “town hall” type calls to action and maybe there are even more ideas out there we haven’t considered. The fact of the matter is committees are there to help us gain insight and suggestions as to what the community is thinking. In reality, it often becomes a place where a person’s personal agenda is being promoted (nope nothing wrong with that, it’s often how self-governance tends to work).

Through all of these ramblings, my most overriding comments are this:
1). Move slowly.
2). Seek committee/community input.
3). Use this as an opportunity to begin engaging in the education process of the changes Sun City will be facing to help people understand why we are looking to the future and what that impact may be.

Perhaps no one will ever read this, that’s fine. My purpose in committing thoughts to writing is it helps me understand the challenges we face.
Bill Pearson.

 

Spot on CM. Talking about doing things is 1000% different than actually doing them. It's never what you say, it's what you do that defines you.

It's a physical impossibility to have better communication with the members if you refuse to listen to what they say.

Oxymoron anyone?

 

I stayed in the bowl as long as I could but jumped out before the flushing.

The latest events have had an impact on finding willing candidates to run for the 2016 Board.

 

Great question and one that sent me to the corporate documents. Odd now to see the only reference to named committee's are the standing ones while the ad hoc is simply something that could be named if needed. Brings a smile to my face as there was no question the LRPC was shuffled off to Buffalo on a temporary basis. But as the management staff dangles perspective projects in front of board members, you can almost see some of them drooling over their new found freedom...to do as they please.

At least when they executed the Legal Affairs committee they were honest enough to tell them it was the end of the line. Not sure how much honesty there was in why they got rid of them, but that was before my time. I know several of the former committee members and how they felt about it. And that says nothing of how they rid themselves of several of the communication committee members.

The LRPC also had some former board members and it was clear to me why it got flushed. Hard to run your own agenda when you've got community members who may not have the same goals as the management staff and a handful of board members. And lest we forget, they never even got a whiff of all the money dedicated to the golf courses.

Truth be told, that's exactly why the committee process is so important to Sun City's future. Those in power think it's their right to decide when it fact it belongs to the community at large. One only has to look at the impetus to kill these committees to understand to grasp who is behind it.

If you don't get it by now folks, you never will. This community is shifting to a one trick pony and that is to no one's benefit.

 

You're giving the board('s) way too much credit E. It goes so much deeper.

 

In theory E's idea makes sense, but I suspect the board is more like the 5 gorillas story.
Substitute the cold water with bullies, peer pressure and the threat of expulsion by other board members.
Google 5 gorillas for the reference, but you may know it already.

 

It seems that the Board's very own Long Range Planning Executive Committee has worked out yet another short/long range plan. There are 3 motions on the agenda for the Exchange meeting on May 11th and will be voted on at the May BOD meeting.

Looks like they are now trying to come up with vague projects over the next 5 years to justify the $500 increase.

 

Thanks for digging that out aggie. Looks like they are moving up the South golf course buildings project to 2018 and flip flopping the Lakes East irrigation and the Willow courses for starters. By 2019 when they pay off the solar, we should have near on 35 million dollars tied up in golf course improvements.

Far down the road is the 2020 Mountainview auditorium theater plan and in 2022 is the Lakeview renovation. Of course by then, nary a board member presently there will be around. It will be curious to see how much more now-you-see-it, now-you-don't will have been done by those in control.

I suspect long before we get there we'll here the lament from management we need invest even more money into a game that is struggling to survive. That's why decisions made in a vacuum are often just wrong-headed. It's clear this board see's themselves as the sole decision makers, though all they have really done is agree to dump even more money into golf course renovations. Something the management team has been shoving down their throats for the past 6 or 7 years.

Congrats guys, the outcomes were ever so predictable. By the time you've all moved on golf will be the only beneficiary of your benevolence. Don't feel to bad though, we've all drank that Kool-Aid as we sat there buying into the idea we had some say in what was going on.

 

Don't you think it would be of utmost importance to RCSC Members that an email blast be sent out regarding the proposed agenda for the Board/Exchange Meeting? The same should be done for monthly Board Meetings. Why do we need to know about showers, golf clinics or brunches as a priority? I've been beating my head against the wall for years regarding keeping the membership informed in a timely manner. Most members, especially those without regular computer access, don't have a chance to know what's going on ahead of a meeting unless they walk into the Lakeview Board Offices each day to ask if there's any new agenda items.

 

There's no question aggie the whole question of letting people know before hand would enhance participation. Thei argument is they post it, but hell, go try and find it.

It begs the question; do they want people there and engaged? After what we witnessed the other day at the vote, it might be better if people don't come and see their concerns dismissed like so much used toilet paper. We don't want to frustrate people and have them think the board doesn't care what they think.

I've started reading volumes online of late. There's hundreds of articles on boomers and volunteerism. There's dozens of articles on the future of golf. All of which would be helpful in shaping the direction of a community like Sun City. Trends become the window to the future and by ignoring them, we insure we/the board/the community is flailing in the dark.

I had coffee yesterday with a friend and he said he wasn't as bound to the idea of reinstating the lrpc as I was. I understood where he was coming from and said I posted a 2 page summation of the future of committees. I wasn't locked into the committee concept as much as I was opposed to the board becoming the sole decision makers for the community. I suspect we'll see the board touting member involvement on future projects, just don't hold your breath on those that far down the road.

Note to Rich Hoffer: Aggie is not Carole.

 

I can confirm that I'm Aggie and not Carole. :chuncky:

 

The Sun City Fire Department does an awesome job, and it seldom has to do with fighting fires. The emergency runs are off the charts and these guys are truly professionals who understand how critical it is when working with seniors having severe health issues.

Sadly their funding has been cut for the past several years and response times are impacted when that happens.

I know all donations are appreciated and desperately needed.

 

The RCSC does make an annual donation to the Posse. As well as vacation checks, they also do door checks on many other Sun City properties, which includes RCSC buildings. This year the Posse is also the recipient of the annual fund drive by the RCSC management. Perhaps next year it could be the Fire Department. They are the first responders to our centers when someone goes down.

As far as donations to other organizations, there are so many worthy ones, where do you draw the line? I was always a proponent of helping with their recognition, but even that presents problems. Now that the Visitor Center is run by the RCSC it has better options to be of assistance.