Annual Meeting
It would be best if an officer of the Board would provide the input, but I'll try to summarize some of the discussions. The financial report from the Treasurer, Jeri Deisinger, showed the Association to be in reasonably comfortable territory with acceptable building in the reserves and decent management of funds.
There was an agenda and a plan for the meeting to move through the steps and then leave time for questions and discussions. The Board was not rigid in applying this routine and soon the meeting moved into a rather typical complaint session. It was familiar in that a limited number of attendees seemed to consume a lot of floor time. Unfortunately, some residents were rather redundant and repeated their comments and charges, ad infinitum.
Among the issues were:
The quality and conduct of the roofing contractor and certain failures in the work.
The work of the lawncare contractor and a number of failures that were noted.
The inability of the Association to deal with the swail problems behind Wessex Ct.
The condition of certain sections of curbing and lack of attention to this problem.
The Board's apparent disinterest in providing information to the Association members.
A general lack of real communication and reluctance on the part of many to be involved in their community and to build any degree of community spirit.
The Board announced that there have not been enough votes to allow the expansion of the Board to five members. It was not an issue of negative voting but rather not enough owners sending in the ballots to confirm the larger Board. This is the kind of frustration that makes it very difficult to get good volunteers to give up their time to serve this community. There is general consensus that a community of this size should have at least five members on the Board.
This lead to expression from the Board that there is a real need for committees and that Wingspread will become a better community when more individuals take part. It appears there will now be an effort to restore some of the more important committees and to activate new groups where there is interest.
Although there was a round of applause, thanks and encouragement for the Board toward the end of the meeting, one member was quite strong in expressing the need for a review of the processes used by the Board. She made a significant point in noting that the same issues seem to arise at each annual meeting and that there appears to be no real vehicle for resolving some of these matters. It seems quite evident that the residents do not clearly grasp how things are to get done here in Wingspread or who should be contacted when they feel attention is needed. There was also a request for the preparation and sharing of a list of priority issues that need to be addressed. One resident even proposed raising the dues to $200 a month so that things that should be done can be done. This idea did not get much support.
After the meeting we learned that our request to allow volunteers to clean out our woods had been approved but was never communicated to the group who requested this. We were told that the suggestion for using the old playground plot as a community garden had been discussed but not resolved.
We also learned that for more than a year the Bulletin Boards were not used because the keys had not been made available. These keys are now in-hand and there is hope that some degree of improved communication will now come into play. Maybe there is hope for us after all.
There was an agenda and a plan for the meeting to move through the steps and then leave time for questions and discussions. The Board was not rigid in applying this routine and soon the meeting moved into a rather typical complaint session. It was familiar in that a limited number of attendees seemed to consume a lot of floor time. Unfortunately, some residents were rather redundant and repeated their comments and charges, ad infinitum.
Among the issues were:
The quality and conduct of the roofing contractor and certain failures in the work.
The work of the lawncare contractor and a number of failures that were noted.
The inability of the Association to deal with the swail problems behind Wessex Ct.
The condition of certain sections of curbing and lack of attention to this problem.
The Board's apparent disinterest in providing information to the Association members.
A general lack of real communication and reluctance on the part of many to be involved in their community and to build any degree of community spirit.
The Board announced that there have not been enough votes to allow the expansion of the Board to five members. It was not an issue of negative voting but rather not enough owners sending in the ballots to confirm the larger Board. This is the kind of frustration that makes it very difficult to get good volunteers to give up their time to serve this community. There is general consensus that a community of this size should have at least five members on the Board.
This lead to expression from the Board that there is a real need for committees and that Wingspread will become a better community when more individuals take part. It appears there will now be an effort to restore some of the more important committees and to activate new groups where there is interest.
Although there was a round of applause, thanks and encouragement for the Board toward the end of the meeting, one member was quite strong in expressing the need for a review of the processes used by the Board. She made a significant point in noting that the same issues seem to arise at each annual meeting and that there appears to be no real vehicle for resolving some of these matters. It seems quite evident that the residents do not clearly grasp how things are to get done here in Wingspread or who should be contacted when they feel attention is needed. There was also a request for the preparation and sharing of a list of priority issues that need to be addressed. One resident even proposed raising the dues to $200 a month so that things that should be done can be done. This idea did not get much support.
After the meeting we learned that our request to allow volunteers to clean out our woods had been approved but was never communicated to the group who requested this. We were told that the suggestion for using the old playground plot as a community garden had been discussed but not resolved.
We also learned that for more than a year the Bulletin Boards were not used because the keys had not been made available. These keys are now in-hand and there is hope that some degree of improved communication will now come into play. Maybe there is hope for us after all.
posted by Bruce May at 10:04 PM
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