I've been asked a couple of times why i've gone silent? Fair question and the answer is; i'm pretty happy with what the new board has done so far. It's way too early to proclaim any sort of victory or mission accomplished, but they clearly are on the right path. With that out of the way, let's use an old sports adage to make my point here: "Everyone loves a winner." Most of us came from somewhere else and let me take you back to my old favorite sports team. I grew up in Minnesota and while i loved the Minnesota Vikings, they never won the big one. In fact, when they got to the Super Bowl (several times), they usually stunk the place out. Fans and most of us in general love winners. Winning is celebrated way more than losing. Most folks don't think about that from an organizational standpoint; oddly, i do. My good friend Ben Roloff, a die hard Green Bay Packers fan, was a season ticket holder when they were kicking butt and taking names. He understood that as well or perhaps better than me. We first met at SCHOA in 2006. We were both elected to their board and within months of being together we came to the conclusion, the organization was on the wrong side of being loved or admired by the community. I ran a non-profit and he was a county commissioner, both of us for more than 20 years. Our experiences were well grounded in being more successful than the situation we found SCHOA mired in. The organization (SCHOA) was widely hated across the community. It inspired us to reach out to other board members to make some dramatic changes. Mostly they agreed to get on board or at least not get in the way. We began an effort to help the 14 employees to become successful. That worked well as 13 of them quit the first week. Nope, didn't ring our hands or gnash our teeth. We all rolled up our sleeves and went to work. Fellow board members stepped up and filled in until we could hire new employees. Beyond that we built a strategic plan going forward. There were 75 open cases, some as much as 2 years old. It's why the residents were so angry. Complaints went nowhere and the letters to the editor were a constant drumbeat of how bad we were. It was a fairly straight forward solution. We took the worst case and made it the test case. The owner was living in Michigan and his under-age son was living in the home and it looked like crap (i'm being kind here). We went after the owner who pretty much laughed us off. We in turn, went to our attorney and made sure the CC&R's allowed us to pursue a legal settlement we could win. We didn't mess around as we made it open news to both local newspapers and the SCHOA membership the game of ignoring problems was over. Within 6 moths the son had moved out and the property was completely cleaned up. We celebrated and shared our success with anyone interested. We also made sure the other 74 cases knew, they were next. By years end, almost all of the complaints were resolved. Next up, we published a SCHOA magazine with the header: Compliance Matters! From there we dropped a copy on every doorstep in the community. We had virtually no budget for any of it and we used community resources and community members to help make it happen. By years end, our membership had grown 30%. The only ones badmouthing us were those in violation of the CC&R's. Let me be clear, we knew exactly what we were doing and we set aggressive goals to make them become a reality. Nope, we didn't accomplish everything we wanted but we changed course on SCHOA's downward trajectory and put them on a path to a brighter future. The other day, Ben and i had coffee and we were intrigued by the changes at the RCSC. We've both been dismayed as the former leadership ran from our history and adopted such an internalized process of governance. Letting the GM make every decision was a recipe for disaster. The board's action as rubber stampers was frustrating to watch. Not because she had bad intentions, but because she wasn't listening to the community at large. All of which brings me full circle; the current board has done a pretty good job. I would hope they have come together to draft an action plan the membership will buy into. I've long argued they don't need to have every answer, what they do need do is learn to listen to what members are saying. In all the years i have been kicking around organizational structure, the one thing i learned was the better you listened and acted on what members were saying the more successful you would be. In the next post, we can explore how the RCSC board of directors can become more effective and better yet, within a relatively short period of time. Why you ask? Simple...because everyone loves a winner.
Let's start with the really good news and finish with the great news. After a rocky start with 3 board members resigning and the newly named president and vice-president stepping down from leadership positions for health reasons, the board has quickly found their footing and is recovering nicely. Added to the messy mix was the slightly (i'm being kind here) survey. While it produced a lot of responses, there was a terrific amount of frustration over both quality and content. The old adage is true, you can't put toothpaste back in the tube, so rather than worrying about the flaws in the survey, the board plowed ahead with a plan that is now becoming crystal clear. Survey aside, i've heard nothing but great comments about the efforts of the ASU professor who has been aggressively working with the focus groups. Her credentials are above reproach and the next step is a "working group." I wasn't part of the focus groups, but i did sign up for the next phase. Call me a skeptic, but i needed to see and hear this was a legitimate effort to find answers to the myriad of problems we face. I was also scratching my head when my old friend and retread Denny Nichols was appointed to the board. When i asked, they had a great answer; they needed someone with experience, Denny has that in spades so it was hard to argue their logic. Then when the other two quit, rather than going to the retread well, they opened up the process and interviewed potential candidates. So far, i am impressed by the new-comers to the board. I also am stunned by their willingness to take on the two most challenging issues facing the RCSC board and membership. Most times newbies look for low hanging fruit, the easy little things, but this new group of board members understood the 40 million dollar remodel at Mountain View was utter nonsense. Putting it on pause and building a committee to review and research more practical outcomes was logic personified. Mountain View needs to be fixed and done so quickly. We have the money to get it done, but it has to make sense. Has to be cost-effective. The other issue that has been ripping the community apart as been outside full play golf passes. They not only sold them at half price, they allowed those non-residents to take our prime time tee times by joining small groups of 30 and bumping members on a daily basis. This issue hit the floor in April of 2022 and the management team has been pleading to give them a chance to fix it. While they've raised the cost, the fixes have been meaningless. I have a good friend who has bought the surcharge pass for years. I saw him the other day and asked if he was bumped this past golf season. He rolled his eyes and i inquired further; more than 10 times. His answer; way more. The board has to get their hands and heads around this golf problem. The golf courses belong to the membership; not the management team, not the 25% of small group players who simply want the status quo to stay (cheap golf and prime time tee times guaranteed) and most assuredly not golfers living outside our white walls. This isn't an issue that should even be on the table. The day it became clear members were being screwed it should have been addressed. Arguing we need the revenue is folly at its finest. Members should always have the first option on prime time tee times, not non-residents. Therein is the great news, all of the above topics are on the table and being sorted through by the membership. Nothing happens overnight, but in the above cases help is on the way. I've told several board members prioritize, prioritize and then prioritize some more. Organizational structure and changing it and the direction it was going in is never an easy task. It is doable, but it starts with proving to the members you care about what they think, say and want. Sun City was a built around an inclusive and collective voice. It was never intended to be one-person show with a majority of the board embracing her vision be the guiding light. We drifted afar from our roots. If the columns the board president is writing each month are what she believes in, clearly we are on the road back to a better Sun City. That's truly awesome because, as you know...every one loves a winner.
“If the columns the board president is writing each month are what she believes in, clearly we are on the road back to a better Sun City. That's truly awesome because, as you know...every one loves a winner.“ Bill Pearson Most recent column, another winner! Our future has arrived in Sun City By Kat Fimmel, Recreation Centers of Sun City board president for 2023 Not to sound too profound, historians, philosophers even theoretical physicists (think Albert Einstein) have long held that if you want to understand the future you must first study the past. Even our own local historians continually remind us as much whenever the opportunity arises, and we thank them for doing so. That’s the beauty of our community — we are surrounded by our past, we are easily able to reconstruct it and it’s easy to follow. The challenge is to apply that history to what’s relevant to us today, tomorrow, and beyond. We know that we owe a great deal to those who built Sun City, and to those who helped shape the community, leaving us an incredible legacy upon which we could build. It wasn’t just well-built homes or golf courses or recreation centers, but a foundation that was created to stand the test of time. It was a community where those moving here took ownership of the process of self-governance and were willing to give back the time, talents and expertise that those of us who followed simply had to continue. Our community was more than an amazing amenities package. There was something even more important — an impressive sense of community. Our predecessors created the articles of incorporation and bylaws that were honed from trial and error to ensure an ongoing partnership between the members and the Recreation Centers of Sun City that would be obvious to anyone who looked. One of the most pivotal points in our history came when the 1999 RCSC board realized Sun City was on a collision course of growing old and outdated without a mechanism for updating the amenities/facilities. From that single realization the Preservation and Improvement Fee started to be collected. The RCSC board turned to the community and asked for help. Committees, clubs and community organizations all joined together to plan how to best invest in our future. This one change held the promise of an ever evolving future for Sun City. By 2010, 50 years after Sun City’s opening, the housing market crash hit. Baby boomers were replacing the Greatest Generation and technology had changed just about everything. The Internet had become the gathering place — cell phones allowed connection to everyone everywhere and in-person contact with neighbors declined. These changes clearly had an impact on the Sun City way of life. Fewer members were volunteering and paying attention to what was going on within their community. The response by the RCSC was to become more internal, more removed from member involvement. It would be another decade before the RCSC fully realized the importance of technology and actually invested in it. This is a historical observation, not a judgment. Today, the RCSC board finds itself at another pivotal point in our history, and again it deals with building modernization and the PIF. So, it is only fitting to once again ask for help from our committees, clubs and community organizations. Here is the challenge — two RCSC centers are in need of renovation/renewal/replacement, but there are finite resources and conflicting interests to be addressed. The goal is to develop a buildings plan that meets all of the community’s needs within the budgetary limitations and in the most expeditious manner possible. Like our predecessors, we must rise to meet the challenges that lie before us, knowing the outcome will lay the foundation for generations to come. There is much work to be done! The future has arrived in Sun City and it is all around us. No one said the future would be easy, but then again neither was the past. We can meet the future head-on if only we are willing to take this journey together.
