As published in The View, July 2022:
President
Living in Sun City Shadow Hills is Pretty Special by Anyone’s Standards
With 3,450 homes, we are not just a Homeowners Association but a vibrant community larger than many cities in California and the second-largest HOA in the Coachella Valley. As such we are a self-governing entity with five-member Board of Directors (BOD) at the helm.
There are two important meetings that your Board of Directors attend: executive session and open session. Executive session is not open to the membership, and by law it is only during these sessions that confidential matters may be discussed, such as contract negotiations, personnel issues, matters of rules enforcement and collections, and legal transactions. There can be as many executive session meetings as needed during the month. Usually there is at least one.
The other important meeting is, of course, the regularly scheduled open Board meeting, where all homeowners are invited to attend in person or watch the video from the comfort of their homes when it is posted on our website. At these meetings, homeowners can offer their input by submitting speaker forms, submitted prior to the start of the meetings. As with many meetings, Board meetings may not be your idea of a fun way to spend an afternoon. But remember this is your opportunity each month to see how our community is being managed plus how our money is being spent, find out what plans are in the works, and make comments on agenda items or policies and changes you would like the board to consider.
Managing SCSH is a big undertaking, and everything can’t be done by the five members of the BOD alone. The Directors are assisted by volunteer advisory committee members. Our many committees investigate, evaluate, report, advise and make recommendations to the board. The work done by the many volunteer committee members assists the BOD in governing our HOA. Without the many hours of work that they invest and the reports they provide, the Board simply would be unable to manage the volume of work necessary to run the community.
The advisory committees include City Development, Finance, Safety Advisory, Facility & Services, Design Review, Covenants, Food & Beverage, Landscape Advisory, Health & Fitness, Golf Advisory, Lifestyles Advisory, Information Advisory, Emergency Preparedness, The View, and others.
In addition to our advisory committees, there are many homeowners who volunteer their time in the library, deliver The View, staff the Lifestyle desk in the Montecito, and elsewhere throughout SCSH. I invite you to bring your professional experience to a committee by letting us know of your interest.
Where Have All the Employees Gone? The Answer Is Simple, We Don’t Have Any. How Can That Be?
Who are the workers we see and depend upon every day to maintain our safety, trim the trees, clean the pools, and answer the phones?
Sun City Shadow Hills does not have employees. We are self-managed, but we contract with different companies to provide their services and their employees to do the daily tasks for our community. These are the folks you see every day doing the work, keeping things running, and making everything look nice while being efficient and friendly. Remember to thank them when you see a job well done. Here are the companies and the services they perform for us: Desert Resort Management (professional management services), Vintage (landscape), Troon Golf California (golf course and restaurant management), and Allied Universal (security).
Who Do You Call When You Have Problems?
You can find contact information on our website at www.scshca.com/contact. This information is also listed every month on the inside cover of The View for the various departments and the chairs of the advisory committees. Your board members are also listed and available to answer your questions. Remember to direct your questions to the responsible department or committee in order to receive a more timely response to your question or issue.
Enjoy your day, your Board is here to serve.
Contact the author at john.macdonnell@scshca.com.