What would you do? (We'll finish with that question). Initially in Sun City, the Del E Webb Development Corporation (DEVCO) had a policy of "non-involvement." They wanted Sun City residents to do their own thing. It was one of three tenets they touted as the community opened and grew. Over time it proved to be less than a sound strategy. In 1965 when John Meeker took over Sun City's growth and success he did several things that changed the game. One of them was to help clubs become successful and blossom. He gave away the biggest color tv made at a club meeting and the rest is history. Clubs became the lifeblood of the community. Today, there are over 130 of them. They require officers by our documents and a fairly stringent set of rules and regulations regarding their governance. Occasionally clubs get de chartered for failing to follow the R and R's. Nope nothing amiss so far. So, here's my question: If you belonged to a club where the president put up camera's in the clubroom so he/she could watch you from home, how would you feel? Would you stay a member? Would you be pissed as hell? Would you go complain to the RCSC? As i said, asking for a friend.
Sorry, the president of the club decided to put the club room under watch with cameras viewed from home.
I can see no reason to be spied upon at a Club meeting by the president of the club. First of all, the president should be there. Second, I can't think of one reason that the president would need to see what's going on. It's a club, for heavens sake, not life or death! If I had discovered it, I probably would have questioned another officer. I'm still new enough here that I wouldn't know who to take my concern to.
It's simply shameful behavior by a club president who feels he owns the club. Oops, not how it works, he just wants to be able to see what people are doing when he is not there. There's way more to this story but someone should put a stop to the insanity. The club members tried earlier in the year, but alas, the board was to busy trying to figure out the appropriate size of the pool noodles or whether someone was hitting an extra golf ball on the mini-golf.
Reminds me of a story I heard about how a new Club president changed the rules without the approval of the Club Membership just so that new president would acquire some personal benefit for them self and for some friends. And now that person just might be sitting on the Board?????
I would be pissed. I would continue to contact the RCSC until they acted. I would not simply quit. The RCSC may have "nanny cams" such as the one in the Board Room, but I don't think there's any justification for a private camera in RCSC club space. Only the RCSC should have the authority to place and monitor cameras with the understanding that the space is being monitored much like our BOD Meetings have a notice that they are being recorded.
I couldn't agree more aggie. The problem is when they did approach the board they shuffled them of to management who did nothing...and now this happened with the camera's and big brother watching from home.
The cameras are everywhere these days -- kids/adults with their phones, residential doorbells and security cams, DOT highway/street cams, businesses security cams, even churches -- so it's not exactly like big brother isn't watching/recording a lot of what we do. Lawyers/insurance companies encourage it. Security companies make a lot of money doing it. The whole scenario is ripe for abuse, IMHO, since any video can be edited to depict something different than what actually happened -- the news media and conspiracy theorists do it daily by editing out the context so the video appears to portray something entirely different than what actually occurred! Here in SC there is at least one craft club I'm aware of that records closed circuit video of the club room due to theft of member's items, but AFAIK the recordings are only looked at if there's an issue -- certainly not intended as a big-brother activity. What you describe Bill is somewhat different and I would never join a club with that mentality. If the problem is only the President's odd behavior then I would hope the club wouldn't re-elect that person, but if the club supports the activity they need to reassess their sanity. In general I believe the RCSC has too many details in it's "Rules" and certainly way too many employees/members overly focused on catching violators. The RCSC should be a place of community spirit, not a place where everyone is looking over their shoulder in case they make a mistake.
Perhaps we should get one of our Members to show-up at the September 13th Board meeting with our own video camera and tripod? If they can record us, then we can record the Board...just to keep them honest!
