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This is Stephen, Board Prez. I’ll start off the discussion with listing major changes, improvements, and repairs made at the pool in the past 8 years. Why so much? Partly, it’s an aging facility; partly, problems were just not addressed. At this point, there are no big looming liabilities that we know of. There’s now a Board position for planning so hopefully the club will continue maintenance and improvements on a regular basis. I think new Bylaws should mandate that future Boards have— and can be held accountable for following— policies about best operating practices.
MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL: new heaters; pool and chemical pumps; valves; electrical wiring
STRUCTURAL: complete resurfacing including repairs to gutter walls and new light; new diving boards
IMPROVEMENTS: bathroom plumbing, floor, tile; fencing and digital access system; new pool furniture
INFRASTRUCTURE: adoption of standard accounting practices (the accounting ledger had devovled to an Excel spreadsheet, now QuickBooks); adoption of membership management software (also devolved to Excel, now MemberSplash); restructured dues so members pay based on number of users, a standard practice that distributes costs more fairly; created website and email communications (yup, it was all snail mail and word-of-mouth); development of a manager program
LEGAL: The title was clarified to fix errors in the corporate renewal, and helped put to rest the myth that membership did not own the property
MAINTENANCE: Keeping up with repairs: new lane lines and reels; new water fountain
There are many people to thank for doing all this work: Kim and Alejandro have been extraordinary and there have been big lifts by Jen, Ian, Jon, and I could go on but it’ll sound like an award ceremony. The point is not fishing for compliments, but rather background for discussions about where we’re going and what we should be doing.
Board Prez here again. Big effort now to finally tackle Bylaws. I’ve served on lots of Boards but never really had to do much with Bylaws beyond understand and follow them, occasionally add minor updates. Past newsletters have provided a deep dive into how the current Bylaws were originally developed for a HOA and are no longer relevant to what is essentially a co-op tasked with nuts-and-bolts operation of a seasonal pool. Happy to re-post here if anyone is interested.
What I haven’t mentioned before, and some of you might not be aware of, is the history of efforts to change the Bylaws over the past several years. One was focused on a single issue, something about swim team. Didn’t pass. Another tried to just clarify the messed up membership provisions. A change passed to allow online voting, but it wasn’t functional because the terms and who set them weren’t clearly defined. The person in charge of the most recent proposed change ended up voting against the motion.
Wise advice was dispensed from a longtime member at one of these meetings: Altering Bylaws shouldn’t be a regular activity, like cutting your hair. My perspective is that Bylaw reform became a regular activity because members were trying to make incremental progress on a fundamentally unclear set of rules. It was always finger in the dike. At the same time, the Board was primarily focused on other, more urgent issues (see above).
With a major repair out of the way and management improvements, the Board has time to push new Bylaws to the finish line. The committee’s approach is more comprehensive and starts with a fresh template. There’s a discussion in Google Docs if anyone wants to chime in there: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k0lN-_EavJQ6pfDMDQPupJHPLoZXEBZHVovonnS51NA/edit?usp=sharing
Updated Bylaws are finally done and the voting process has begun.