Dear Neighbors,
Exercise is a loathsome matter as far as we’re concerned. But, Penny and I do it, 3 times a week, hoping that it will allow us to live longer and be healthy enough to annoy our children. You probably have noticed that Spanish Cove has little or nothing to offer in exercise space and equipment. Thus, we joined a local “club” and use the rather sophisticated equipment there. It’s moderately expensive, $60.00 per month for a couple. Sooo… I’d like all who read this to send me a few dollars to help me pay our exercise expenses. Okay! It’s a joke. However, what the Board is considering is no joke and we all need to pay attention here. They won’t come knocking on your door for a contribution to help pay my exercise expense. Instead the Stealth Cove Collection plan will be to simply build a facility costing tens of thousands of dollar and thousands of dollars to operate every year and add the cost to your quarterly assessment. I’d be real happy to have you subsidize my private interests.
I can hear the screams of outrage now claiming that mine is a vitriolic outburst. Not so. It is, as the Brits say, spot on. If the proposal to build a recreation facility happens in the absence of any resident input in matters of need, location, design, equipment, staffing, cost of construction, cost of operation, cost of overhead, cost of maintenance of equipment, and on and on you could find yourself paying for my exercise pain. Is that the way a community should operate? I think not.
Would it surprise you to know that more than 5 years ago I submitted a rather extensive plan to build a community facility with exercise equipment, club rooms, workshop and lap pool? I included a stipulation that it be designed to meet 150 mph winds so that residents in manufactured housing and RVs would have someplace to take shelter in the event of a hurricane. Perhaps you wonder how I can be so outspoken about what’s happening now. My proposal differed in one very significant way.
If we are to consider such a facility I could embrace the idea only under one of two conditions. The first and best way is to make it a membership operation. Not a spade of dirt should be turned until there were sufficient memberships pre-sold and advanced payment of a year’s dues paid to guarantee the construction costs and first year’s operating and overhead expense. That was basic in my proposal. It is outrageous to force residents who are too enfeebled, too disinterested, too frequently absent, too financially stressed or opposed for dozens of other reasons to pay for the interest of a few. And before someone says, “Well, that’s what we do with the pool and tennis courts.” I’ll note that those facilities were here when people bought in and they knew it. A new facility is a change of the rules and to do it without extensive community input is unconscionable.
The only other way I’d think about supporting the idea is to make it a referendum issue with a super-majority of all eligible voters required for passage. And yes, not voting would be a “No.” vote. Opting out should be the default position. If you feel as I do, contact your board members and let them know how you feel. If you don’t, prepare for another “low-use/high operating cost” facility that you will be paying for with increased assessments. Hmmm. Do I recall that we’ve recently had cash flow problems?
Sincerely,
W Hodge
Lot 2130
Let me start out with a very broad blanket statement… I am in favor of expanding the ammenities available in The Cove. That being said I also tend to NOT be in favor of constructing the “exercise and pool hall building” being discussed. I feel the location is questionable and the limited useage, I feel, will result in an empty room. I do not question the desireability of the Pool portion of the building. In fact, I think it may well be to small. Judging by my knowledge of other retirement communities, pool is very popular. I feel we whave a need for at least 2 tables and probably 3 or 4. The exercise portion concerns me. It appears that most of the exercise things going on now are over by 10am. That leaves a large area unused much of the day. We already have a large “exercise” area mostly unused in the RV Clubhouse. There is also the Poolside room in the Cove Clubhouse. It would seem to me that what is needed are some smaller more intimite rooms which serve multi purposes and small groups. Uses like the Bible Study, Bay Buggies, The Lost Bay Riders, Wi-Fi computer users, The card playing groups where 1 table makes a large room “used”. I would like to see a room where photographers could “play” with their pictures using software they could not justify buying themselves, and where someone with a little know could help others learn. I think the uses are numerous. I think we are jumping into a project without a real vision of what we need or can do. Jumping like that can be a waste of money. We need to do some planning. I agree with Wally Hodge that there has to be money consideration too. We take free use of everything as a given right. Free is nice, but it also makes non-users pay for someone who uses. There is another factor in free…it makes expansion of facilies (ammenities) harder to be accomplished. I do believe that it is fair, maybe even desireable, to have users pay at least a portion of the costs. I just came back from a vacation that included visits to several National Parks,that to the best of my knowledge as a taxpayer and citizen I own. There was a sign indicataing an admission fee at each of them, as there is at Johnson Beach. I think the time has come for users of our ammenities to share in the operating costs of our ammenities. The result I believe will be more and better ammenities and a better Spanish Cove. I do not agree with Wally about memberships paying for construction because the existance of an ammenity increases property values.
When I bought my lot a few years ago in Land Harbor, it had a few pines and a shed. I told the rest of the family I had a dream…………..then I said tiki torches, christmas lights, fruit trees, cannas, bannas, palms, elephant ears, azaelas, etc. Now a good portion of our vacation time is buying plants, and plannting. You can imaging what the kids say… My coworkers here in Kansas ask how are things going at the southern plantation.
Second Dream is to retire in a few years and downsize, and move to the Cove.
Hope you’ll have room to put a unit on your lot. Things grow pretty fast around here. Anxiously awaiting your arrival.
I have a dream, or at least I had a dream last night!
It was of an exercise facility that was located on the left hand side of the club house. Exercise machines were placed towards the bay side windows and people, while exercising, enjoyed the beautiful view. Periodically a masseuse and yoga instructor would provide massages, yoga and meditation classes. Healthy lifestyle classes were also offered.
To help pay for the facility, a limited number of memberships were offered to Lillian residents.
Spanish Cove is a wonderful place to live but I can see where, at some point, those of us who want more amenities will have to pay for them. Not all residents would be able to afford or even, due to health reasons, use a health facility.
Unfortunately, the dream ended and I was brought back to reality by Simon, our cat, demanding breakfast
I hope that Board members and residents will continue to dream on and explore new areas of interest.
If we can’t replace two shower heads that were stolen last week with $9 replacements, I think we are in big trouble…
I would not be interested at all, as I have a Y family membership at $500 a year in my home town. I would like not to renew, but get vetoed by the rest of the family although I pay the $$$.
Ben,
You’re right, we don’t have any numbers but we could begin a discussion on whether the community wants such a facility. I don’t think that community leadership should be in the marketing business. I’m fine with the Widget Company deciding that every American needs a new model Widget and setting out to convince us to by one. I’m not fine with community leadership deciding that we need an exercise facility and going about all the preliminary design and costing work without the community ever indicating (by a majority) that it’s an item of interest.
W Hodge
Seems a bit cumbersome to get the entire community’s consent before even investigating feasibility/design options. The image of “cart before the horse” comes to mind. We have a Board and its committees to perform just such a function. Right now this is just an idea. It’s being discussed and investigated. No need to lock & load and get ready to storm the barricades just yet.
And as for the supermajority and the not-voting = “No” vote, we have Bylaws that address voting procedures. We probably ought to adhere to those.
I have no problem with the discussion of ideas – even those that may involve capital improvements and ongoing expenses – if those ideas result in improvements to the lifestyle of the majority of Cove residents and add value and attractiveness to our property. Let’s see how the discussion goes. As Ben says, if it ever came to pass it would likely require a membership vote anyway.
My open letter was mischaracterized as a call to storm the bastions. Continuing the military metaphor, it was more a call to attention or in Navy parlance the ubiquitous, “Now hear this.” Simply stated it was an alert. Alerts are used to prepare those in hearing range to attend to some pending information or action. Many times they are verbal (written and spoken) but other times they may simply be sounds such as the rapping of a gavel, the thump of the tipstaff or perhaps the slightly but intentionally annoying tone preceding a television storm warning. That’s was the nature of my open letter. It was a call to attend to an action at hand or in consideration by our Board.
On the other hand, the writer was right on target with another point. Discussion. That is precisely what is in order with respect to an exercise room. The issue is enjoying some verbal exchanges among just a few people, mostly board and committee members, and thus is more a conversation than discussion In the instance of a community it needs to be a discussion and long before a plan for execution is at hand.
One doesn’t wake up some morning and begin to cost out an extended-family trip to Boliva that might include selecting a mode of transport, mapping a route, checking room rates and arranging for passport photos. That doesn’t happen until the extended-family is asked if they want to go to Boliva. If they show some preliminary interest as consequence of a family pow-wow then the rest has to follow. The discussion is the horse not the cart. That is the way it should be in communities too.
On the other hand, if one is a travel agency and the assembled board of directors decides that there is an opportunity to market a trip to Boliva because a few directors and a small collection of their friends think it a good idea then it might be appropriate to start a marketing campaign. And if the campaign is successful the agency might sell enough tickets to affirm the decision. The distinction is that only those who want to buy the tickets are charged. Not everyone on the block has to pay for the one guy at the end of the street who finds the idea compelling. Though our community operates mostly in a business-like way we are not a business. We’re more extended-family.
However, getting the discussion to happen is difficult. Spanish Cove has never found a way to effectively communicate between the Board and the residents. The Update Newsletter is more an history journal than news with respect to Board and Committee business. Like Sandra, I have a dream too. It is that when someone appears before a committee with a proposal the committee will discuss it briefly, just enough to make certain the proposal is understood. The committee then schedules the proposal for extensive discussion at the next meeting. Within 48 hours of the meeting there is a set of very specific minutes with notice of that and any other proposal as agenda items for the next meeting and a call for resident input published on the web and placed on our bulletin boards. As the time for the meeting approaches the agenda is updated with due notice. A similar procedure should be used for Board meetings. As a resident I need to know specifically what is going to be discussed at those meetings. Otherwise I’m left to just go to meetings hoping that agenda items will be relevant to my interest. It would be like going to a particular movie theater every few weeks, paying my admission and hoping that the movie is something I’ll enjoy. If we can’t give residents a reason for going to meetings they won’t and shouldn’t be expected to.
W Hodge
Wally, whatever happened to your exercise room proposal?
Since this proposal falls into our “Capital Improvement” category, and will most likely cost more than 5%($51K+/-) of our Annual Budget, it will very likely require a membership vote.
At this point, we don’t even have a “good” number to begin discussions, so …………………?