Let's be honest, with each passing day, we all become more cynical, less inclined to trust those running the country, state or local government. Sadly, along with that, we begin to feel like what we think, say or do is even less important. I'll let you in on a little secret, that was exactly one of the reasons i moved to Sun City. Based on my research I already knew/understood it was a community built around the concept of self-governance based. However, once i moved here and became fixated on the community's history, my awareness of just how an important a role i/we could play became even more apparent. Then an odd thing happened around 2006. The RCSC made a decision to move away from a community where our opinions and our ideas mattered. They elected to center the power and control in the hands of a few board members and the general manager. It didn't happen over night. It was a slow drip of erosion. Members didn't appear to care, didn't pay much attention. A normal board meeting would draw 20 to 30 "regulars," and the board would do pretty much whatever they and the gm decided what was best for us. Then in 2020, they fired one of the board members we elected. No explanation, it was a secret because it was done in an executive session. That same board member had argued on behalf of the membership and it made them look bad. I won't dwell on it, yesterdays news. From that single action, came a firestorm of response. It was heated and at times ugly. Since then, we've re-elected the fired board member and are looking forward, not backward. 400 plus of you have joined our group and we are on the cusp of growing it even further. Stay tuned, get involved and we will return Sun City to the days where there was a sense of community, of ownership and the simple belief we all matter. Is it novel? Is it new? Nope, neither...these are/were the tenets that made Sun City special and unique.
I believe quite the opposite is true! The more the powers to be try to shove their ideology down our throats the more important our opinions become. That's exactly why the Sun City Advocates has grown to over 400! "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any longer!" We're tired of being told what to do and what to think, and each time we give in to those pressures we loose a little more of our Freedoms. It's time to start pushing back or else we will loose everything forever. We see it happening on the World stage and we see it happening in every city, town and yes, small community like Sun City. We are loosing our way of life subjugated to the elites who think they know better! But they're not any smarter than the rest of us, they simply like having the power! I urge all those reading this to join the Sun City Advocates. We will be available at the next Board meeting. You don't need to get involved but if you would simply like to be kept in touch with what's happening within the community, give us your name and email address and we'll be sending out periodic Newsletters to tell you about the things nobody else will!
I am admittedly one of those who has dropped out at the local, national, and international levels. A friend recently approached (reproached?) me saying, 'i don't see you around on Talk of Sun City any more" while another is still trying to get me back into BoD meetings. I am guessing that there is a thread or two about the Sun City Advocates movement that will spell it out for me.
We are working on a number of projects regarding the Sun City Advocates, most of which are above my pay grade. Obviously i like/love to write, but the technical side is all Greek to me. Years ago i had talked about getting involved with the computer club so i wasn't clueless, but alas, time slipped by and i never pursued it. My bad. I think you are going to like what we are doing carp. Nothing revolutionary, just trying to re-establish our roots of ownership by the members and rekindle a sense of community.
SUN CITY ADVOCATES THREAD POSTED Dec 24, 2021 OneDayAtATimeActive Member Advocacy: To change “what is” into “what could be.” Sun City was built on Value and Core Values where both the community and the board would work in partnership. Sun City was built around the concept of self-governance of ownership and with a culture forged around a sense of community. Our goals include: *Returning to the checks and balances that enabled the Membership to be served by RCSC. *Returning to allowing the Membership to decide what’s best for Sun City. *Returning to Community Input that is the bedrock of going forward. *Returning Sun City to the most unique age-restricted community in the nation, not only a community that is “The Original Fun City” but also “The City of Volunteers.” *Assisting all homeowners/members in becoming more AWARE of their community and using their voice to spread this AWARENESS; to “GIVE BACK WHERE NEEDED; to offer SUPPORT to new residents and our senior residents; to continue to search for the best way to COMMUNICATE; to VOLUNTEER where needed. There was never a question of whether Sun City would be successful; let’s keep it that way! An Advisory Panel is in the process of being form to guide us as we endeavor to "go backwards before going forward" (erase many of the mistakes of the last 15 years). The Panel is going to be formed with diverse members who are blessed with different skills. Many of us have worked well together in the past. We will give suggestions and ask for input. We are not experts; we are just like you - members of one of the best retirement communities around who care enough about their community to speak up when they see something going wrong. We'll be here to gently guide the group forward. We'll try to keep the emails to a minimum, and we may ask for your help. But for now, please have patience as we watch 2022 roll in along with four new Board members. Will there be a changing of the guard in the Board? Will the new Board members get a chance to be heard? Will the new Board members continue to stand for what they pledged on each night of the Candidate Forums on YouTube? I plan on reviewing those two YouTube presentations to jot down their expressed thoughts and concerns, and then I plan to hold them to what they stated. PS You can help by showing your interest by sending me an email to jean.totten47@gmail.com to join or telling a friend, telling the members of a club you may be in, telling a neighbor, telling a fellow church goer. This is one of the only means of communication we have. There are over 27K homeowners/members of Sun City; our database contains about 325. Let's grow!!!!!
We'll see. I used to be one of the "Stand up and be counted" folks. Forget the being counted bit, my problem now is the standing up part.
