Nope, never said a word. Second meeting in a row. Tired of so much of what is going on and speaking up and out becomes even more taxing. When it is posted, watch it for yourself. The board passed the motion (for the third time) to move the RV club and put in place online ticket purchases. The online ticketing is a huge plus for the community. One little problem though: not once during today's meeting did they tell anyone there won't be online sales for this winter concert series. Apparently they announced that last meeting and felt no need to tell people asking repeated questions on how it would work. It would seem to me passing a motion that isn't happening is ludicrous. I know it was bundled with the move of the events department, but for simplicity sake, why not change it to reflect what you are actually doing? There just always seems to be a disconnect from those of us in the audience and those sitting on the stage.
One of the first classes i took after going to work for the local union was called Effective Communication. It was also one of the best. The instructor was a young Latino woman who was exceptionally bright and very good at making her points. To this day, i remember her name, Irene Lopez, and more importantly what she tried to teach us. Yesterday was the classic example of a failure to communicate effectively. The first thing she told us was 85% of good communication starts with listening. More importantly, she taught us if someone was failing to understand, it was because the sender wasn’t being clear enough in what they were saying. When you watch the video of the meeting, you will see and hear those on the stage blaming the receiver for their shortcoming; their inability to grasp what they were saying. Sorry, it’s just plain back-ass-wards. When we went to the open meeting format i said several times, you cannot expect those of us in the crowd to have the same understanding those of you on the board have. It becomes even more muddled when the motions they are working from are poorly written and not even accurate. The only point i am making here is they should be getting better as they move forward, not worse.
As long as i am on a rant, here’s another gem to watch for. There is a motion where the board makes a “minor” change in the wording. The problem is, it’s not minor in any way shape or form. It is in Board Policy (BP) 12. It initially was written to say the RCSC management may not take club space for their use. Yesterday they deleted that portion of the Board Policy in the motion. It wasn’t bad enough the board has abandoned their role as a buffer between management and the board. Now they are allowing them (management) the right to take club space whenever they see fit. A little change? Hardly.
I was at the meeting and am still shaking my head at the proceedings. The amendment to the amendment regarding club space was not on the agenda and I'm wondering when the amendment to the amendment was added? This was discussed in the agenda portion of the meeting and passed so does that mean that it will not be revisited as a motion and require further discussion? I guess I'll have to re-watch the meeting to see if my mind was drifting during this important move by the BOD to give away more of its power. It also seemed like the President of the RV Club didn't have the backing of his members or there was a lack of communication of his actions regarding space. Perhaps a better use of the space to be granted to the Sun City Posse at Grand Avenue could better be used by the RV Club. This is what was on the advance agenda for the 9/26 BOD meeting: 2. Proposed amendment by Director Hoffer to BP12 titled Chartered Clubs, Section 19 titled Use of RCSC Facilities, paragraph one as follows: Chartered Clubs are assigned temporary (used only for a period of time by a club) or dedicated (used only by that club) space as designated by RCSC Management. However, Management may not take occupied club space for management’s use. The Board RCSC Management has the authority and responsibility to direct similar clubs to merge or share dedicated space in order to provide efficient utilization of RCSC Facilities. 2. Proposed amendment by Director Hoffer to BP12 titled Chartered Clubs, Section 19 titled Use of RCSC Facilities, paragraph one as follows: Chartered Clubs are assigned temporary (used only for a period of time by a club) or dedicated (used only by that club) space as designated by RCSC Management. However, Management may not take occupied club space for management’s use. The Board RCSC Management has the authority and responsibility to direct similar clubs to merge or share dedicated space in order to provide efficient utilization of RCSC Facilities. Amendment by Director Hoffer to remove: as designated by RCSC Management. However, Management may not take occupied club space for management’s use Motion passed as amended.
Haven't seen the video of the board meeting and I am wondering why it takes so long to posr the video. If the video is shot correctly it should be able to be posted immediately.
Guess I wasn't nodding off during the discussion regarding RCSC Management taking space from clubs. This was a change of the amendment/motion made at the spur of the moment so how could people possible sign up in advance to speak? Still wonder if this is up for further discussion as Board Member Lehrer did raise some valid points about just what criteria would be used to determine what clubs could be uprooted. It was also interesting it was placed after the lengthy discussion regarding security cameras. I felt it was rude of the RV Club to all walk out early. This has happened many times and gives the impression that they are only concerned about their own issues. They could have added to the discussion regarding moving clubs even though it would have been at the very end of the meeting in member comments.
Sadly, way too many people these days are only concerned by their own issues aggie. It is curious; did the RV officers approve and sign away their club space without the members voting? Because the members in attendance certainly did’t appear to be on the same page as the officers. It is fascinating when board members act as if changes are no big deal. They are. I went to the RCSCW website and read their Board By-Laws and compared them to ours regarding management. OMG. The differences are staggering. And, the change, no matter what the one board member said about it being a minor change was pure bullshit. We’ve now just given management to claim club space for their own use. Purely at their discretion and the board has no say. That is freaking insane. I’ve been outspoken about the board giving away their rights/obligations and now i am on a quest to see how much the By-Laws have changed in the past 12 years. The one thing we know is the board doesn’t write those changes, the GM does. In case any board members read this, let me shout it out: “WORDS DO MATTER.”
Sorry, but I have to fall on the side of the RV club. As a longstanding club, they had their space ripped out from under them. Then have the motion read three times, and nowhere was there any time allowed for dissenting opinions. Why stay and watch a sham of a meeting and a vote? Why voice any concerns at the end of the meeting when the deed has been done? Rude? I think not.
I know you were speaking about them leaving CM, and i get it. The problem is no one pays attention till it is too late. Taking ownership has to be more than just when you are angry at something. If you watched the video, there was an agreement reached between management and the RV club officers. I would love to hear how that came about? Unfortunately we have let everyone moving here became spectators rather than participants. In the day, owners paid attention and spoke up and out. Nowadays, it only happens when someone is getting screwed and gets pissy about it. Of course back in the day, the board was there for the membership, not the management team.
I guess rude wasn't the right word to use and sounded harsh. The RV Club members were upset and it just would have been good to hear their comments and questions when the motion about handing over power to take away space came up for discussion in the agenda portion of the meeting. It was addressed briefly during the motion regarding ticket sales but the actual motion came later. So many times at the Member Exchange a large group would show up, sign in early and then noisily split once they voiced their issue. Any RV club members out there willing to explain what happened?
Bill, thanks for the link to the video. I used to be on the email list for all email blasts but I never got one this time. Anyway, I have to agree that the on-line ticketing seems to be faltering. One question that came up at the meeting was " will online sales take precedence over walk-ups?". The answer if I recall was that both walk-ups and on-line ticketing will occur simultaneously. That in fact may occur, but assuming that the RCSC ticketing server has enough power to handle multiple requests for tickets at the same time, then yes, on-line ticketing will likely outpace walk-ups very quickly making for an uneven playing field. When open meetings were first announced the most active on this board were praising the decision and fully expected things to get better over time. Well, that has not happened and probably will never come to fruition. I for one was very skeptical of the announcement of open meetings and do not expect things to get better over time. The plan for the board and its meetings has been put in place and cast in stone and will not change for the better over time. Changes to Board policy 12 is further proof that the board has no function other than being a mouth piece for the management. I agree with you Bill that management should not be making any changes to any Board policy. In my view, the GM's responsibilities are to oversee the daily activities of the corporation (RCSC), developing and implementing growth (not impeding it), creating and managing budgets, researching growth opportunities, generating reports from data gathered through technology. To date, research has only been done reactively and and data gathering for the most part is done by pencil and paper. Using technology to gather data will provide a much clearer picture of where things stand and where the RCSC should be heading. But I don't think the GM wants the information generally available. As for the RV club walking out, my question is when did they walk out? Was it after their president said they have a done deal or before? In any event, most people who show up to gripe are as you say only interested in their agenda. That in the case of our BOD meetings will never change with the boards we've had. have, and will be getting. Our BOD has no function at this point. I fail to understand why anyone would even run for a board seat (and express transparency) as the GM has managed to take complete control over Sun City. I know there are some on this forum who think the GM is the worlds best - but at what? She has not kept pace with technology, has gone political to get her way, and only reacts to the needs of the members rather than being proactive. She has however, managed to gain complete control of Sun City. Smart? You betcha. Members have no voice and I'd be willing to bet that the majority of members don't care at all. They are willing to accept whatever comes along and shows the difference between the generations now living in Sun City. The BOD has no interest in being there for the membership. The membership be damned, the GM makes the rules. Another interesting tidbit I heard was that increasing capacity of cameras to support more recording will require more disk space which is very expensive. Well, I can get a 10 terabyte hard drive for approximately 300 bucks. Hard drive space has gone done in price significantly over the years. Also, recording techniques have gotten better and videos are now being stored in compressed formats that allows more data to be stored on hard drives. The worlds largest hard drive can hold up to 2 years of data. Managements presentation of video surveillance was interesting, but again, they are being reactive - not proactive. Video surveillance should have been in use for at least the last 10 years. Where can you go today where cameras are not being employed 24 hours a day except Sun City. One final thought. Why can't the camera pan out to show the numbers in attendance at the Board meeting. Even better, why can't the minutes show the number of participants for any given BOD meeting. The video showing the audience is better proof of how many people care enough to show up at BOD meetings. Hand counts of participants are not accurate. Well, that's my rant for the day. I like Bill am getting very frustrated with the BOD and the general direction of Sun City.
I was one of those SCR who was encouraged by the open meeting format. I just expected they would fine tune how they ran the meetings, but it still looks and feels like a Chinese fire drill at times. After the last meeting, i did two things: went to the Sun City West documents page and read their by-laws regarding the duties of the general manager and then went to the RCSC by-laws and compared them. Holy shite. Somehow we have given our GM total control. But then, as SCR noted., when the GM writes them, what is to be expected?
Damn. Just saw the email where the SunDial show season ticket prices jumped from $14 per show (last years $154) to premium seating $20 per show ($220) and non-premium seating $18 ($198). That is a massive increase. Single season tickets went from $17 to $20 and there is an added cost for non-members. I guess it's a good thing (said tongue in cheek) they didn't get the online sales in place because that had an added per ticket charge with that as well. I guess it begs the question: Is there any accounting on where and how they money is spent? I know, silly on part to ask.
