Thursday, January 26, 2012

Does Anyone Know What's Going On Here?

The members of the Portuguese Bend Board of Directors are our neighbors, all of whom have volunteered to do the jobs in our community that need doing; additionally, they all have busy private lives, and they are trying hard to be of service to our community, and so, out of respect for that and a desire to "get along," I have bitten my tongue and remained silent. 

For too long.

Even though I have been to almost every board meeting for the last two years,  looking back, I realize that I have very little idea of what is going on, for a variety of reasons. 

First: it is hard to keep track of the players. Over the last couple of years three board members--Casey Porter, Mike Cooper and Tim Kelly...resigned. The remaining board members chose to replace them with Suzanne Black-Griffith, Joan McClellan and Bob Cumby. By and large, these replacements arrived unannounced and un-introduced until, at one meeting, a resident asked who was who and what was going on.

Second: It is often difficult to follow the board discussions. At the February board meeting, I thought perhaps I was going completely deaf until someone behind me called out, "Are we supposed to be able to hear you?" The response was something to the effect that the board was meeting and we were guests and guests would be heard from at the end of the meeting. The four board members in attendance did not make any attempt to raise their voices and thus, most of their discussion was unintelligible to many in the audience. 

Third:  The first part of every meeting is devoted to architectural committee business which always is confusing for a variety of reasons.  In the first place, the committe membership changes from month to month. Most recently it appears to consist of Bob Halderman, Gordon Leon, Mike Cooper and Kim Nelson, who hasn't been there since it was announced that she has returned to the group.  Additionally, the meeting consists of conversation about addresses, names, private conversations with builders and building progress, which are unfamiliar, at least to me. 

Fourth: The architectural meeting is followed by the regular board meeting, which begins with board members each reading a copy of the minutes silently and approving them. Copies of the minutes of both the architectural committee and the board are unavailable for audience members. Copies of architectural committee minutes never have been available. However, up until five meetings ago, a few copies of the board minutes and the financial report were available for the first few community members who showed up. Apparently, at the one meeting I missed, the board voted to discontinue this practice as a cost cutting measure. Two months ago, I asked if perhaps the secretary could email me a copy of the minutes. I was assured that she would. Nothing was forthcoming. It isn't clear to me why copies of the minutes could not be emailed to everyone in the community with one click of a computer key. If anyone knows why this is impossible, please enlighten me.

The same goes for the financial report. Minimal at best, because it has never included a check register to show who got what, it at least showed how much money was spent in various categories. Copies of it are no longer available either. Couldn't that be emailed to?

Fifth: There is little or no communication between the board and the community. In December, in anticipation of elections at the February general meeting, several people volunteered to be on the nominating committee. No announcement of the appointments, nor any announcement of board positions that would be open followed. 

Two days ago, a notice appeared on community bulletin boards telling residents that three positions are open on the board and anyone who wants to apply should contact Tim Kelly. Just how to do this is unclear.

And then today, an email message from Bob Cumby that is making the rounds, explained that the nominating committee has found people to fill the spots on the board. Evidently this happened BEFORE the general notice went up. I feel as if I came in on the middle of the movie and missed the most important clue as to who did what to whom.

The same bulletin board notice tells us that the General Meeting will be delayed a month because of the fire, which cut short the January board meeting, as well as a change in our Certified Public Accountant. Who knew? Does anyone know why that happened?

Does this mean we will have a February meeting of the board? Or nothing until March?

Another example of a communication problem involves the upcoming Palos Verdes Art Center Homes Tour in Portuguese Bend. At least one resident is up in arms because Jim York has applied for a Conditional Use Permit for his Event Center so that the Art Association can have a luncheon there for people who buy tickets for the tour.  Representatives of the Homes Tour approached the Board at least a year ago, and subsequently made a presentation at a Board meeting during which they explained how they proposed to conduct the tour in our community.  Several PBCA members went on last year's tour to get a better idea of how it worked, and reported back that they were very impressed with the organization of the event, security and the entire operation. At that time, the Board approved the request. 

But no one told the community members about the decision. Too bad.

No one told community members when the Board voted to raise the assessments five per cent for the coming year, either.

In the past we had a newsletter. 

Later, we had a web site. 

Then we had occasional emails.

Now, we have nothing. 

Does anyone care?