The RCSC Annual Membership Meeting, Tuesday, March 12, 2024 fell short of the required quorum of 500 attendees and proxies. The officially announced combined count was 197. The business meeting was adjourned. The floor was then open to anyone to speak about RCSC matters. Twenty-two members participated speaking about a variety of topics. Video is available now: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdLy0Uy9sKWCJNLz37tn5ug Summary when available: https://suncityaz.org/rcsc/meeting-minutes-and-summaries/
Was really shocked to see the pathetically low turnout at our meeting yesterday. The board members graciously stayed anyway and turned it into an open forum to address anything we wanted to talk about. It was very sad to witness such a lack of interest and I can't understand why. The meeting was announced in The Independent edition tossed in our driveway, the monthly newsletter at all the Rec Centers, and the email blasts, so it can't be that people didn't know about it. Any ideas why such a low turnout?
Suncityjack, Yes, it was disappointing more members chose not to attend. It was foreboding when I arrived at 5:30pm and there was ample parking. Total attendance, 197, including only four proxies. What may have influenced members to forfeit their once a year responsibility and opportunity to meet at their/our Membership Meeting? Just a few thoughts: 1. Only 104 days since our last Annual Membership Meeting November 29, 2023 – March 12, 2024 2. Low membership interest in the three motions on the agenda 3. Last year’s poorly executed meeting discouraged members from participating this year The participation of the 22 members who spoke after the meeting was officially adjourned was EXCELLENT! There was a wonderful sense of community as each expressed an issue or concern, made suggestions, shared praises and a few jokes, too! Everyone who wanted to speak did. It was encouraging to see people lingering afterwards, visiting with speakers and others. Yes, we are, after all, neighbors in the Sun City we love. This was the real WIN of the evening…for all who were there and those who will view the video!!
While some have downplayed the efforts and size of the Sun City Advocates, it's pretty darn clear the role we all played in creating the inertia to change the malaise we were caught up in. Sun City's history tells us our documents, with the checks and balances, always provided for an ebb and flow. If the proverbial shit was hitting the fan, the members showed up and spoke out. If life as we knew it was good, they didn't. Think not? Until the fall of 2009, we had quarterly membership meetings with a quorum of 100 being the threshold. Often times it wasn't met and the meeting (scheduled before or after the monthly board meeting) was cancelled. It simply depended on whether there was a hot-button topic. Those guardrails were put in place to prevent foolish decisions and actions outside the norm. The GM understood this and the rewrite of our documents (with board approval) provided the escape from the controls that contained actions by decades of previous boards. It wasn't until the board lit the fire that flamed the revival when they fired Karen. The new GM made it all worse at the Sept 2021 quickly cancelled board meeting, threatening to have us all arrested. We were an organization forged from those stupid actions and once the covers were pulled back, we saw how far we had fallen. The revival to a community based on members' being involved became a thing. With the paradigm shift, the need for the Advocates (at least from my perspective), died. What we see monthly are members showing up and speaking out. Fan's in the fitness areas, 5 golf cars on a course (rather than 3), Duffeeland dog park, reopening the mini-golf at Mountain View and even this discussion over and indoor dog training are minimal in scope and all being discussed and debated. That's exactly how it is/was supposed to work, but didn't. Now it does. Even the long discussed MV renovation is being done right, with experts in actual costs providing the data. I for one am celebrating the "win" to a more normal existence. I never believed i had all the answers; i always believed the membership did/does. As long as the board and management listens to members before they make their decisions, gathering 500 members for a quorum isn't the end-all-be-all.
