Suggestions for next annual meeting

Discussion in 'Sun City General Discussions' started by Emily Litella, Mar 25, 2017.

  1. Emily Litella

    Emily Litella Well-Known Member

    Deleted.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2022
  2. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Interesting comments E. At our first annual meetings we ran full days with great speakers and live entertainment. It just proved to be too long a day and splintered from a cohesive meeting. Perhaps a great free show at 3 pm followed by free pizza and a 5:30 to 7 pm annual membership meeting could get the job done.
     
  3. IndependentCynic

    IndependentCynic Active Member

    The old adage in SC is if you want to have people show up for a meeting, serve food.

    We've all heard zillions of excuses members give as to why they don't attend the member meetings -- food or not.

    What is more telling is to try to list the reasons why a member should attend. Well, there's the "it's your civic duty" and "it's nice to meet your neighbor" items. Then what? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?

    IMHO, the crux of the attendance problem is that there, essentially, is little if any reason to attend. There's no significant business to be conducted at the member meeting -- even if a quorum did attend. Conveniently the Board has tweaked and interpreted the By-Laws to, essentially, obviate ever needing members to approve/vote on anything. The only business possible at a member meeting today would be some sort of member proposal the Board doesn't support -- but raising the quorum stopped that (and likely became the catalyst for the current lawsuit).

    I attended numerous member meetings back in the quorum=100 days (a quorum was never present at any of them). At those meetings I observed an aloof Board and many members complaining about some inane thing and/or just rambling on and on and on about trivia. For me, a member meeting should be a place to conduct RCSC business, not a place to ramble on about things like (hypothetically) why doesn't the RCSC buy higher quality toilet paper. I don't mean TP isn't important, but really, shouldn't things like that be brought up in other meetings or via a suggestion box? The meetings were frustrating and boring and lacked purpose. No wonder no one wants to attend.

    My suggestion would be, first and foremost, give the members a reason to attend -- restore some of their powers that requires them to attend and vote. Next, minimize excuses for not attending -- eg, hold the meeting on a non-holiday weekend day that is set a year in advance with no other RCSC activities allowed that day -- no concerts, no bus trips, etc. -- this reduces conflicts with work schedules, doctor's appointments, competing events, etc. Close the Clubs, pools, golf courses, bowling alleys, etc. during the meetings so there's no distractions. Advertise the crap out of it -- no I forgot excuses. Get volunteers to run golf cart transportation much like is done during the Fall Craft Fair at Sundial -- this makes it easier for the less able to deal with parking issues. Spend some money to get comfortable chairs and a sound system so everyone can readily hear. Publish an agenda in advance, then facilitate the meeting to be crisp and to the point. Have a social hour after the meeting -- maybe entertainment -- and definitely SERVE FOOD.
     

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