Idea's on how to keep the momentum going...

Cheryl,

I like the direction of your ideas. Publlishing usage statistics helps members understand how we are using our facilities. Using apps to communicate with members is right on point. I would also like to see a member satisfaction survey with no more than 10 questions to determine how members view our performance in relation to our mission, vision and values. For example, some questions might be: On a scale of 1 (absolutely not) to 10 (absolutely yes)

Would you recommend Sun City as a great place to rent or own?
Do you feel your input is valued by Sun City?
Do you feel Sun City is headed in the right direction?
Do you feel RCSC staff are friendly, welcoming and helpful?
etc.

I would do a similar survey of employees to gauge their satisfaction.

In this way we could have a benchmark measuring stick by which to measure progress over time.

John

 

Great ideas guys and the more online efforts we make to show all Sun City is would be awesome. I know surveys can and should post live results, imagine if we created that app/web site and then turned the clubs loose and ran contests for door prizes as incentives.

Everything we are talking about is just breaking out of the rut we are caught in and creating the online presence we have been missing.

 

The RCSC has a website dedicated to the community. I don’t know if there is a dedicated website manager, but this could be a quick way to engage members, expand the visibility of the community, and utilize the website as a community page.
So, I don’t know if the RCSC has a dedicated website manager, but think of how quickly the current site could be expanded to include its own chat room? This would mean using a monitor to keep the conversation going and free from unacceptable language as well as maintaining firewalls for the safety of the users.
From there, start building in apps. Think about the unlimited uses apps can be utilized within the community. Each club could have their own app and use it to create membership drives, publicize their club and upcoming events, advertise their hours, you name it.
As long as we are expanding the scope of the site, use it to highlight upcoming events and activities, use it to promote Sun City and the visitors center, highlight the board in motion and post the video content to the site.
This will take some money and someone who understands what is needed to make the site work and expand its content and capabilities.
This isn’t something that takes years to implement, (I think it shouldn’t) but rather a quick way to make the RCSC more responsive and engaging to those users that are already online.
The suggested changes require additional software and possibly some additional plugins for the expansion suggested. The main concern is the ability to expand the content of the current site to handle additional software development. I am not familiar with current hardware and software design, but in today’s plug and play environment, expansion is doable.
It cannot be sustained or successful without a permanent, full time dedicated individual extremely experienced in expanding the current network to accommodate the desired needs. This is not a once a month view from afar operation. It’s doable, scaleable and an effective solution to start to invite and build member interaction.

 

It does. It used to work fine for minimal searching, but last Spring the GM had his IT team re-do it to be more user friendly. That resulted in broken links and a myriad of other issues, so a company was hired to fix and re-design for $300k to be completed by end of Summer 2024. Then the completion date was end of March 2025. I recently asked about this issue, however people choose to 'ignore' me. Believe it or not I do pay attention. This is a result of an issue between Bill and myself that he thinks was because of my dog. That was in 2008/9 and I have not seen him since. I will tell my side of the rift soon. It's all about politics, period.

It has always amazed me how loyal people are to Bill, not giving anyone else a chance if he says not to, or admonishes them in any way. Kind of like Jim Jones freaky.

"I'd welcome you to the site Josie, but that would be disingenuous on my part. For a happy hippie, you really need to work on your whole smiley face thing. By the way, i never gave you authorization to post my materials from this site on a Facebook page. You might want to check with those attorneys you've hired to sue the RCSC on whether you can legally do that without permission.
Oh wait, you're moving out of SC because you hate it here. Oh wait some more; how can you be the happy hippie when you are so busy hating on stuff?
Life's mysteries.
BPearson, Dec 6, 2023"

I joined Dec 5 2023

 

Right now RCSC can’t supply any data to members because they don’t collect it. It’s ridiculous how far behind the IT department remains. That needs to be a huge priority. Start collecting accurate data on current space usage and share the information with members. Prove to members we need more space instead of telling us. As mentioned, make the website interactive and become active on social media. Again, communicate with the members. Board members should be more accessible for Q and A’s. Not everything has to be face to face.

 

My question is why can SCW collect data, have zoom meetings all residents can call in to and we can't? I have participated in zoom meetings with people over several states.

 

Larry,
My experience with configuring computer systems is from a time when building a network meant physically changing the structure of a physical location to meet the needs of the desired users and physically altering the building or space to accommodate the additional capacity needed. Today, existing infrastructure can be made scalable by using software linked to outside sources. The days of needing to physically build a framework on site has been minimized to key components expanded via connectivity to a network source that can be accessed electronically. Expanding the infrastructure bandwidth may be an issue, but it is doable with the right tools and technology.
That’s why I emphasized a need for a dedicated network infrastructure individual to help build and maintain such an expansion of the current system. It will not happen overnight, but if a software development company were contracted to perform these duties, it could be a quick turnaround.

 

I would think that RCSC could potentially obtain an intern to help develop this concept. As an incentive it would be a huge value add to their resume to hit te ground running in their career. I believe most of this idea would be cloud based and other than a dedicated manager, if a team of interns were utilized, it could keep costs low.

 

I believe a dedicated manager strictly for IT needs and assessment is a requirement. If this person also has connections with a local IT college or university, that would be a plus. In my opinion, to get an intern hired to perform the work, one needs to be able to build an RFP, present it to the school and request the type of intern one seeks. It’s reciprocal, we get a student with strong skills looking to add to the resume and we move forward with a workable network. The internship program needs to be able to validate time spent on the job and evaluate how well the student performed.
If we hire someone who has the skills and experience to validate the needs the RCSC has, review what is currently in place, and what hardware and software is needed, the process can be fairly smooth and very approachable. The process of finding someone who meets our requirements is going to be daunting if there is not a current job description composed with all of the qualifications and skills needed to be successful. Just adds to the time it will take to get this off the ground.

 

Because SCW has continually invested in their IT systems and SC hasn’t.

 

SC has always been behind in technology and will never catch up.
The new web site should have the capability to conduct polls but I'll bet it does not.
Once Mountain View is underway, technology and security cameras should be number one
on projects undetaken in SC.

 

They collect some Larry, but clearly not enough. We have been behind the 8-ball for the past 15-20 years with our technology and the GM simply pretended it didn't matter. Many of us knew it did, but her decisions were God-like for some board members. There was zero accountability; ZERO.

We've made inroads, but it is far too little and far too late. We've been held hostage to a flawed golf booking system, that allowed the RCSC to advance scheduling tee times while crippling us across the rest of the platforms so badly in need of fixing. It was folly at its finest and did i mention? There was zero accountability; ZERO.

Who does business like that? And then we were told when we build new buildings or rebuild old ones, the newest, brightest and best technology available would be built into those structures. That would include the new Grand Ave Rec Center; someone please tell me how that worked out for us? BTW, i know, but it would be great if someone in authority would speak up and share their knowledge of yet another technological failure. In looking back, was there any oversight or ultimately anyone held accountable for missing the mark so badly on this 8th rec center?

You can see where this is going. The mistakes of the past 15 plus years with the single goal to be the cheapest are coming back to haunt us. We know the wiring and capabilities of expanding our technology across the full spectrum of amenities is hampered (i'm being really kind here). We know it's almost impossible to fix anything the way it should be fixed. To do so will cost us millions of dollars.

In 2012, when elected to the board, i begged the GM to build an interactive website where members could ask us questions. We were in the throws of creating one at that exact moment and she was concerned (feared) the idea members could ask questions on our website. My response to her was the same when others told me they hated two-way communication on such platforms: "If we were asked a question by a member and we could not articulate clearly why we were doing it, perhaps we shouldn't be doing it at all." The answer shocked her, but not enough to build anything more than a static site with little reason to return more than occasionally.

I suspect we are on that same path as we near the release of the new and improved website. It might be spectacular, it might be more of the same. We'll see. I thought many of the suggestions above by Cheryl, John and others were spectacular. We need to recreate that ideology that those buying and moving here want to experience that "new active way of life," and not just looking for a cheap place to live. With planed and structured social media presence and an interactive site, it would be fairly easy and not all that expensive.

The tragedy in our failures is, they will haunt us for years to come. We need to be abundantly honest with members those mistakes have to stop. Nope not about blaming anyone, but until members understand how deep the hole we are in, it's really challenging to get them to understand why we need to get out of it and just how expensive it will be.

We simply have to break the mold we spent the past 15 plus years casting. Half measures will avail us nothing.

 

Half measures have availed us nothing so far. It is time to stand up to those who would bully us into believing it is wise to invest $6M to renovate a nine-hole golf course and then have the nerve to ask for $18M more to start renovating South Golf course. Or to spend $1,5M on an indoor dog facility. IMHO those that believe a master plan is essential to our survival share a common understanding that our leadership has no idea where we are headed and that we continue to follow the downward spiral of leading with ego and not intellect. There is a good deal of disagreement over whether to invest millions more in a special purpose theater at Mountain View or, instead, build a multipurpose facility that can accommodate performances and other activities (dances, banquets, smaller Bingo games and the like.) While on the SAC I heard loud and clear that the only group that would commit to using a theater building was the Players Club and the data on the amount of usage by the community was very low in comparison to the expenditure involved. I would encourage all concerned to look at the numbers. The BFDC request for a special purpose building should also be examined using only the usage by RCSC members (excluding guests). The benefit of using data is it speaks for itself.

 

Is the South course at 18 million dollars now John? The last i heard it was around 12 million. We have no plan to recapture any of that money spent on our golf courses, hell, we don't even have a director of golf. Personally, i'd love to see the RCSC hold a town ball session late in October and invite Sun City golfers to attend and have a "come to Jesus" meeting, where they talk openly about the future of golf.

Our structure has been antiquated and outdated for years. Nope, not my job to figure it out, i've long argued involve the golfers to show up and wrestle through what needs to happen over the next 10 years. If you look at the PIF projections, there is roughly another 50 million dollars being invested in golf courses and golf outbuildings. The scary piece of the puzzle is Generation X are not big time golf enthusiasts like boomers and the greatest generation were.

It would be fascinating to see what an expert looking at Sun City and tasked with creating a master plan had to say about the future of golf?

 

Included in the expectation of the Master Plan, Bill. As well as getting an accurate trend on golf and the new generation.

 

Exceptional.

 

We just met some relatives for lunch at Grand today. They have closed one of their 18 hole golf courses to redo the water system. Or so I was told. It was just closed yesterday. Grass has gone completely brown and large equipment is evident. I think they said they have three other 18 hole golf courses to play. Unfortunately they didn't know the cost of the redo. The course already has desert landscaped roughs so it would likely be less than at South.

 

Interesting the irrigation has gone down already. They started building those courses in the late 90's. By then water distribution was already a huge issue on golf courses, while Sun City's sucked. We had courses where there was only 60% of the green space getting coverage. We literally had no choice. Plus, when they converted they put in computerized systems far more efficient with better individual targeting areas. I know the first time i saw the systyem in 20012 i was impressed by its capability.

I wonder if Grand is trying to stay ahead of the 2025 water management plan from ADWR. Not sure if just because they already have desert landscaping they avoid the 25% decrease in water?

 

Now we are talking. The plan as it exists for the golf courses and the ADWR ought to be spelled out for the membership of Sun City. What is the complete plan? What is being negotiated with ADWR? We have a right to know, if only because of the projected expenditures.