I've freely admitted, i simply cannot drag my fat ass out of my chair to attend in-person monthly board meetings. Sorry, my frustration over the callous disregard for our history tests my patience for the failure to grasp just how far we have fallen from our roots. Yesterday's meeting (March, 8) was the absolute perfect example of what i mean. There was a spirited debate (that's a good thing) over transparency. As i watched i first started with a smile and it quickly became a smirk. How pathetic is it to be talking about transparency when this is the same body that took away members rights to quarterly membership meetings (back around 2010)? Those meetings were regularly scheduled every three months following board meetings. Most often they were set aside because the requirement was they needed a quorum of 100 members to hold the meeting. The last membership meeting was September of 2009. They had 100 plus members and so it was an official and legal meeting. Surprise; nothing bad or scary happened, just like it had never happened with the bar set so low. Then a funny (pathetic) thing happened; the board (via the gm rewrite) changed the quorum to 3500 members and then reduced it to 1250. To this day, there has never been that many people show up for either the quarterly meetings or even to the changed annual meetings we now hold. Convenient. Along the way, any number of other safeguards for community involvement have gone away as well. It wasn't an accident, it was simply insulation to insure all control lay in the hands of the gm with a complacent board acting in conjunction with her. The odd ducks along the way either quit or left frustrated by the group think that is pervasive in the controlled environment we get to watch from a distance. Yesterday was troubling indeed. I remember all too well how board members were pounding their chests during the lawsuit about transparency and going to "open work sessions." They proudly proclaimed there were no other meetings, everything was to be done in broad daylight. Then damned if yesterday one director freely admitted they were in fact conducting business behind closed doors, via emails and in closed door sessions with the gm. Education they claimed in part. Let me be perfectly clear. Sun City is not the gm's, it's not the boards', it belongs to all of us. That is how Sun City was built. I am not some god-damned "card-holder" as the gm likes to call us. It's our community and it's our responsibility to take ownership. I was delighted to see members (yes members/owners) stand at the mic yesterday and tell them how they felt. Sadly, it appears too many of them didn't hear a word members were saying.
I do so want to be optimistic about the changing of the guard as present gm says goodbye later this year....If the right person is selected and isn't a power monger, oh what we could do!
I'm always an optimist scj, just frustrated by the lost opportunities. We had so much that could have been done better. Hell, this past year of the pandemic, the rcsc paid staff to "work" from home. I get not wanting to lose good people and paying them was solid. That said, imagine what could have done with an orchestrated program done online. Imagine a full blown course of social media postings and highlighting the community when it all came back together. BTW, Sun City West is opening it up for guests on March 15. Finally scj, given your background, any interest in joining the museum board? We just lost two board members in the last couple of days.
So, you thought there was a “changing of the guard”. I don’t think there can be, while Sue, Rich, anyDan rule the Board. . . by any means necessary. They are very deft in contorting the by-laws, when not just plain rewriting them to suit their whims. As long as they remain in control of the Board and GM selection process, the future of this community remains bleak. Rich is very quick to remind the Board that they operate under Robert’s Rules of Order, to bad they don’t follow them. There is little hope for change when there are only one or two voices challenging the darkness. Change is possible. This is the first Board to embrace the positivity that can be created through Technology. They will even admit that we are behind the times. So, why was the Board’s call for members to join the new Technology committee so lackluster? Mark my words, they are sacrificing our community’s future, and I will take no joy in saying, “I told you so”.
Sue, the 2 bookends Ying & Yang and the newbie McAdam are worthless and Ying is a sneak and I am surprised that someone has not put their fist in his mouth. He is terrible when he is out in the public eye. Cardholders WTF we are paying members. Again Bill you have been right all along and I have been wrong. The golf course water problem is going to cost us millions that I don't think we're going to have when the time runs out.
Hey E, how are you? I take little solace in being right Say What. We had so much potential to do things differently but shortsightedness was our enemy. It is what happens when you take the community at large out of the equation and let a handful of board members and the gm be the guiding light. And personally i hate being manipulated, which is exactly what i felt when i was on the board. I lived in a work environment where manipulation was a way of life and simply have refused to allow it to happen. I'll give you the shirt off my back if you are straight-up with me and deal with me openly and honestly. That was never the way it worked and hence i was less than successful during my time on the board than i had hoped to be. As far as the new gm, i will wait to see who it is and how they act once they get in. It is troubling to me the gm, past boards or existing board members have taken so little interest in our history. A tour where they actually paid attention would be a great start. I would love to take the new gm on a tour. I'm not holding my breath. I elect not to be openly critical of board members. They are volunteering and as such, i give them credit for stepping up. I get frustrated by their choices, but i truly do understand how they got there. We taught manipulation for the right reasons is a good thing; to simply use it to get the outcomes you want, not so much. I would also make the point, Karen McAdam, gets it. She knows how non-profits and boards are supposed to work. I would be stunned if she lasts her full term. Frankly, telling the new board members they can't be part of the initial interview process would have had me walking out the door. They ran being told their election was one of the most critical in our history because who became the next gm was a significant decision and they would be a party to it. Apparently that wasn't all that important because now they will get to help select from the final candidates only. Technology is critical to our future. We made that point as strongly as possible while i was on the long range planning committee. Then it was blown out of the water when the gm returned from vacation and it was easier to walk away than fight a fight we had no chance to win. Sadly, the water problems will decrease our ability to do the things that need to get done regarding technology. All of the plans for improvements will shoveled off to the side to pay for golf courses getting desert landscaping and whatever happens with the lake. To my knowledge, i know of no-one other than the gm who has seen the deal that was struck 11 years back with the state. Seems to me, that is another one of those well kept secrets that helps insure we stay mushrooms in the dark. So sad.
