By Robert O. “Bob” Jester
Chair, FAC Subcommittee
As published in The View, October 2023:
It is my pleasure to introduce two new members of the Finance Advisory Committee, who joined us this year. As I am sure you know, the committee is composed of homeowners with verifiable professional backgrounds in finance, accounting, or relevant business management. These skills are necessary so that they can act to assist the committee in its mission.
I begin by introducing Ronn Williamson, who has been appointed Vice-Chair of the Replacement Fund & Reserve Studies for the committee. This Vice-Chair position is critical to having an accurate Reserve Study, and Ronn has spent hours working with staff to better understand and update the data used to create the Reserve Study. The data supporting the study had not been reviewed critically for years, so the committee is extremely pleased to have Ronn’s expertise and skill on board. Ronn built a supply management consulting and training business over the past 25 years before retirement. His consulting business was based on his earlier 23-year career in manufacturing, engineering, and supply chain management gained with Thermo King Corporation. Thermo King is a billion-dollar global manufacturer. While serving as an independent professional consultant, Ronn was hired by organizations around the globe to analyze procurement and inventory management operations, that would drive industry best business practices. Much of the last 12 years were spent in the oil and gas sector to establish a supply management training curriculum for Petroskills, an industry leader in providing training for engineers. Ronn has a BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.
I now have the pleasure of introducing our newest committee member, Jim Bullock. Jim has been appointed Vice-Chair for the FAC Sub-Committee. The FAC sub-committee is the group of construction, engineering and business professionals who carefully examine every request to purchase a service or equipment in excess of $5,000 by the Administration and then make recommendations to the Board on whether to approve those requests. The budget that this Sub-Committee oversees reaches from 2 million to 3 million dollars a year. Jim was a Fortune 500 corporation Staff Systems Analyst for 7 years, working with the corporate audit team. This team performed audits of management operations, accounting practices, and computer systems for marginally performing divisional operations. Then, for over the last 34 years of Jim’s professional business experience, he worked for turfgrass (i.e., golf course) maintenance equipment distributors.
His responsibilities included informational systems, accounting, budgeting, and forecasting for a $50 million corporation. He also managed equipment leasing contracts, business inventories over three states, vendor relations, lease residuals, and the assessment of and dollar evaluations of trade-in equipment. Obviously, he comes to the committee with very sought-after skills, which the committee has immediately made use of for the benefit of this community.
As Chair of the Finance Advisory Committee, I am extremely proud of the skilled team that serves this Association and its residents. As with any advisory committee, some may disagree with the committee’s recommendations, but please rest assured that all the committee’s recommendations are well researched and are made to benefit the entire community of 3,450 homes.
Contact the author at finance@scshca.com.