Plans and Activities of your Board

- notes from Ray Cook

Just as the last newsletter was published, we received word that Steve Peters had sold his condo and had resigned his position as our Board President. Steve brought the perspective of a Phase III owner to the board. He guided us through a tumultous year last year; he found and secured Elite Management Services to replace Ridgepine when they cancelled our contract. You will be happy to know that he and Kathy have purchased another home in Sunriver, and so will continue to be members of our extended community. We appreciate his dedicated service to the Association, and we wish him every happiness in his new Sunriver home.

As provided in our bylaws, the remaining two board members, Ray Cook and Ron Wise, appointed a replacement to fill Steve's unexpired term. We were fortunate to have three owners who were willing to serve. From among those candidates we chose Ed Vignoul, Unit #61. Ed will represent the interests of the Phase III owners, he is dedicated to the interests of the Association, and as a recent retiree, he will be able to devote time to Association management. Ron and I are pleased to be able to work with Ed.

Our contractor completed the pilot installation of pavers on Unit #65 steps. The pavers are set in a frame of Trex boards, on a bed of sand installed over the old steps. The steps look great as you can see in the picture at left. (Click on the image to see several enlarged views of the installation). We did run into a small problem with sand washing out between the trex boards and the old concrete stairs. This allowed the pavers to rock somewhat. The contractor will modify this installation using a special construction cloth to retain the sand. Mel will test the modified installation by flooding the steps with a hose. If the sand stays and all looks good, I have given Mel permission to go ahead with letting a contract to reconstruct all of the Phase III steps in this manner.

Betty and I were in Sunriver over Thanksgiving, when a large tree dropped onto Unit #35 (gently, thank goodness!). When I left Sunriver, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, it didn't look like there had been any damage, a fact that Mel confirmed the next day. The net result is that our Association is responsible for removal of one large dead tree.

Mel continues to trim trees, rake pine needles, clean garbage sheds, blow walks and parking areas, etc. He is very close to having us well on our way to looking like a high-class national park. Furthermore, he is really giving our accounting/billing methodology a very close scrutiny. Here are two of his findings:

• His investigation of chimney sweeping shows that the Association provides this service biennially, which is all that is needed. However, Sunriver Lodge also contracts for annual chimney cleaning for units in their rental program. Some owners must have exceptionally clean chimneys!
• In another instance, we find that the Association is paying for trash collection for all units, whether or not it is being used.

We would propose to reduce overall costs to Association Owners in these areas by modifying the method of payment for these services:

• If Mel were to contract to have the chimney cleaning service provided, but send statements to individual owners for payment, those owners whose chimneys are also being cleaned by the Lodge could use their statement to request that the Lodge omit the duplicate service.
• We are investigating a similar solution to the trash collection issue. If each owner were to arrange his/her own trash collection, only those units who actually used weekly trash collection service would be required to pay for it. Infrequent visitors might arrange to start collection timed with their visits. This proposal does require some further consideration. If we decide to implement it we also may require modification to the trash enclosures to secure them against misuse.

The financial analysis is underway. We hope to be able to report to the ownership on its outcome within a month or two. One early comment of our reviewer is worth passing on to you: he suggests that we change our fiscal year so that it ends concurrent with our Annual Meeting. He sensibly points out that this would allow us to review the entire fiscal year at the time of the meeting, rather than having to project three more months. Incidentally, this would also allow board member terms to coincide with the fiscal calendar.

We are working on drafts of the Associations' Vision, Mission and Goals. We hope to have those submitted to you for comment soon.

All in all, things are looking great, and it is with optimism that we look forward to the New Year, while extending to you our very best wishes for the Holiday Season.