The Future is Now...

It would be money well spent and it wouldn't take much. One of the reasons we moved away from the members having a voice was because the GM wanted to make the decisions. The board allowed it to happen without much push back. There was a feeling she knew what she was doing and their role in holding her accountable became expendable.

It's always been a delicate balance between the board, GM and members. There was a reason the documents gave the membership the ability to intervene and override. I'll be the first to admit, members should not make every decision, they never have been able to. Their voices should be heard as part of the process. That has always been part and parcel of our self-governance.

Without outside training for board members, it is as John has pointed out, left to the general manager to show them the way.

 

Well, here's a thought! Let's make a motion at the upcoming Membership Meeting that the Board needs to adopt Board Training sessions for its Directors every year.

Now that's not even an amendment to the bylaws, so all it would take is a majority vote of those in attendance, providing of course we get a quorum?

Let's not leave the decision up to the Board. Let's let the Membership decide!

 

We are also thinking about training for the Foundation Board members about nonprofits and the role Directors play. Linda has information on many good resources to help.

 

Were our voices heard on Grand, T-Bird, the libraries and now the PAC? Not until after the fact. If I missed someone asking our opinion, please let me know.


Cross post from ND
Josie P.
Author
•Boswell Blvd•Now
I shared comments with TOSC. No Names, I would never do that. People don't want to join TOSC and I get that, however they need to know what the residents are thinking/wanting. Chris beat me to the punch when all she would have had to do was ask. My statement was in a word document ready to copy/paste to ND. My apologies if anyone is offended and if you do not want comments shared please PM me, although I believe it helped and will share why later. Have a lovely evening.

 

Whatever happened to the common sense approach mentioned on page 2 of this thread by Tom T. and Linda Mc???? How quickly we forget.

The Exchange 9/11/2023 | Page 2 | Talk of Sun City

 

These days I prefer to focus on the nonpersonal positive and negative aspects of what I hope will be a paradigm shift in the way RCSC thinks about investing in its future. Unfortunately, most tend to focus on their own sandbox (or sand trap as the case may be.) That leads to tribalism and opaque decision making in my opinion.
Today I had the unique privilege of speaking with some highly educated and informed members who chose not to suffer the slings and arrows of speaking out. Having been stabbed in the back myself I get it. They wisely pointed out that they understood the board and the GM had made PIF decisions but were left clueless about the rationale and data supporting these decisions. I am told the Board and the GM do not want to apply the newly conceived and well thought out business case analysis to anything that is on the PIF plan. Is this transparency or just version 2.0 of previous management/boards tactics? If it is, I shake my head in disbelief. All I worked so hard to change is giving way to the soft corruption that power brings. I hope this is food for thought and a call to action.

Best regards and God Bless,

John

 

This coming RCSC election will play a deciding factor as Sun City moves forward or slips back into that old comfortable garment where the GM makes every decision and the board rubber stamps it. I too hear rumors of a couple of board members carrying his water. I'm not close enough or involved in what is going on to know if it is true or not.

I do know the Lakeview project being pushed is at best an incomplete picture. The center sits on 17 plus acres of land and long before they take the double greens to throw up the PAC, i want/expect to see the entirety of remodel displayed. We've talked a lot about data driven decisions, which in my mind includes the future not of just lawn bowling but mini-golf, shuffle board, 10 pin bowling, tennis and how to maximize every square inch of that property.

Do we need two bowling alleys? Do we need 7 lawn bowling greens? Do we need 4 mini golf courses? Do we need 3 venues for tennis? Is outdoor shuffle board still something new-comers will play? Is there a reason any clubs should be at Lakeview when we have so much underutilized flat space?

I don't pretend to have the answers, but i know they are there. I know that projecting out 5 or 10 years is how responsible planning is done by well run organizations. We simply haven't thought like that in the last 20 years. We've made emotional decisions often impacted by those elected and often from board members who had a vested interest or bias.

John's point is quite simply we need to get past that shortsighted thinking with far more deep reaching plans. It's asking those who run to leave their personal agenda outside the door. That's hard to do given our human nature that is disposed to look inward rather than outward. Over the years, i have had discussions with board members who agonized over direction. My best advice was, trust the membership to help you sort out where we should be going.

There was a time when the documents given to board members included how to interact with the membership. It was short and sweet, but it was clear to anyone who read it, they (members) played an integral role in how those decisions were made. The fact it was removed around 2006 should scream volumes.

Our history has taught us we are often 2 steps forward and 1 step back. It truly is time to sort out why we even consider going backwards rather than forward.

 

Well, there are 5 open positions and there's only the probability of two being actual new members. The rest are those who are currently serving and one that has served in the past, which means, there may not be a big change in leadership as far as who's carrying the water!

I think it was in very poor taste and against common sense for one of the Directors to say that by losing the 2 Lawn Bowling Courts at Lake View, Lawn Bowling would cease to exist in Sun City! Give me a break! Gee, that would only leave 5 courts for less than 400 members!

And right now that's all there is, short sighted plans???? The only confirmed plans that I have heard was that the Players would use the new PAC. I have heard of no other definitive plans regarding who else would use it!

A 400 seat theater is too small to hold the paid entertainment venues being held at the Sun Dial Auditorium, so that leaves attendees still sitting in those uncomfortable folding chairs. So could somebody PLEASE tell me what the RCSC's plans are for other "confirmed" scheduled events.

To justify a 14 million dollar PAC somebody needs to convince me that that facility will be used at least 3 days a week instead of for the Players with only 18 performances a year!

My vote would be to renovate the building at Mountain View as originally planned. There already has been a set of floor plans from back in the 90's on a possible expansion? And just as the architects stated that the proposed location at Lake View would cause the least disruption, leaving it at Mountain View would cause no disruption at all at Lake View!!!!

Just my opinion!

 

I don't think homeowners matter anymore. We didn't re the Grand Bldg, the libraries, the T-Bird Bldg, the PAC. From Bill's posts above:

One of the reasons we moved away from the members having a voice was because the GM wanted to make the decisions. The board allowed it to happen without much push back. There was a feeling she knew what she was doing and their role in holding her accountable became expendable.

It's always been a delicate balance between the board, GM and members. There was a reason the documents gave the membership the ability to intervene and override. I'll be the first to admit, members should not make every decision, they never have been able to. Their voices should be heard as part of the process. That has always been part and parcel of our self-governance. (Has it)

There was a time when the documents given to board members included how to interact with the membership. It was short and sweet, but it was clear to anyone who read it, they (members) played an integral role in how those decisions were made. The fact it was removed around 2006 should scream volumes.

 

The problem is, the Members have gone soft, lazy and complacent!

This might be the perfect time to petition the community with a referendum about the PAC?

Do they want to spend $14 million dollars on a facility hoping that if they build it people, other than the Players, will use it? So far no other takers as far as I know!!!!

Or, would they rather revamp the existing Mountain View building? I assume that if they were to build a PAC at Lake View, those dollars will come out of the budgeted cost intended for revamp at Mountain View?

The RCSC needs to start thinking about what Margaret Thatcher once said, "sooner or later you run out of other people's money," and the only place the RCSC gets their money is from us!!!

Do you like seeing your assessment go up every year?

 

Exactly! It's why I "cross post" to ND. People are not aware of what is going on. Folks are getting more vocal and I am getting quite a few responses and some direct messages about petitions. I keep telling them about TOSC and always get an emphatic "No Way".

 

The Members need to understand the powers that they do have!

The RCSC doesn't make it easy, but we do have power over the Board if we choose to use it.

Remember, the Board of Directors are elected by the Members, which make them subordinate to the Membership!

We have the ability, but apparently not the desire! And Like I always say, "The government you elect is the government you deserve."

 

They do not. I have 4 plus me who want to start a petition. They are tired too. I am trying to get an extension here, or another site for SC Residents to be heard where they won't be ridiculed for expressing their opinion. There is only so much 1 person can do. I was up late emailing and getting suggestions.

 

Bill has eloquently summarized my view. Having a well thought out master plan for the recreational activities of Sun City will be of lasting benefit. What we have today (a new PIF spreadsheet) is not what I envisioned when I took on the challenge of change. I asked the new GM to try to use the available data (ASU survey, facility usage data, cost information, income forecasts and ad hoc surveys) to put into words a cohesive and exciting plan for the future. He and the Board chose not to do that. The most obvious examples of ad hoc planning are the theater at Lakeview and the indoor pooch park. Neither one has solid supporting data to support it. The theater at Lakeview suffers from an additional defect in as much as there is not a site plan for the entire site and yet the Board is approving redevelopment of part of the site. And now we have a special portion of the exchange meeting dedicated to the PAC at which the Players club will have many of their 75 or so members speak. A few of the silent majority will request that these very large expenditures be subjected to the business case analysis which requires data supporting the cost benefit to be presented. The Board and the Player's club will reply that this will delay things, and the train has already left the station. Here we go again...

 

What issue would your petition address? If it is an RCSC issue, there is a petition process in the bylaws. Be sure to abide by those rules if you move ahead with it so your time is not wasted.

 

thank you. at this moment I am happy about the future of sun city member involvement.