Starting a new year always has me reflecting on the past year and how to make the new year even better. In reflecting on 2015, I recall a few of the items this current Board accomplished:
1. Reduced our speeding citations by 59% and our failure to stop by 40% in the seven months the $200 fine schedule had been in place. The goal of this program is to keep our residents from experiencing what the people in Thousand Palms experienced where two of their residents and two dogs were killed by a speeder.
2. Sent out over a dozen RFPs to run our five F&B venues – got two proposals and chose WGP to run the five venues. They took over July 1, 2015.
3. Has been working on, with resident feedback, a 3- to 10-year strategic plan for our community.
4. Listened to the residents in our community and added four Pickleball courts. This now gives tennis six courts and six Pickleball courts to play on.
5. Listened to residents and expanded the Santa Rosa area around the pool and furnished the new area with additional lounge chairs and umbrellas to accommodate more residents.
6. Renovated the Shadows restaurant and our ballroom.
7. Had the landscape committee work with the local water authorities to reduce our turf coverage in the community while getting a full reimbursement through Water Authority rebate programs.
8. Has been working on upgrading and expanding areas in our current dog park.
9. Conducted a Meet a Board Member each month to give residents more time to discuss concerns they have about our community.
10. Reviewed our reserve study and budget. We are now 95% funded in our reserves.
11. Went line by line through our budget and balanced it for 2016. We held three open sessions where residents could attend and hear the discussions on the budget before it was finalized. The budget was mailed to members so that everyone can review the details of the 2016 budget that the Board
will be following.
12. Made available an open session Board book online (at the SCSHCA.com website), and Board meetings are being videotaped and placed on the website so residents who cannot attend can watch what occurred and what decisions were made.
13. The Board wanted to know what is better, self-management or communities that are helped by hiring a management company. The Board received an analysis of how well our community fares compared to other
self-managed and communities managed by management firms and we are leading the pack with lowest assessments, and lowest administrative costs.
I live and serve in this community because I believe this is a wonderful place to be. No place is perfect because people live in our community and people oversee our community. What your Board of Directors asks you to do is, when you hear something that concerns you, ask the Board through “Ask a Question” on our website or email Hot Topics and then check the documents for yourself – they are stored on the official SCSH website.
Something I do want to clarify, as I have had several people come up and tell me they pay my salary, is that I serve for free as does every person on the HOA Board of Directors. We are volunteers, as are all the committee chairs and committee members who work hard to keep this fabulous community the great place we all love.
As we start this new year, we as residents have a choice. We can work together to solve our future challenges/issues, or we can choose to fight against solutions and try to tear our community apart. My wish is that we all choose to work together to improve our fabulous community.
Happy New Year – may God bless you and
your family with health and happiness this year.