Lack of Information? Communication ?

Here is just a small portion of a recent post in Talk of Sun City that 3 Advocates took part in ..... and one other. To read the entire post, check out the Thread entitled, "Shortsighted, a way of life."

..........That is indeed a "sad story" and one told and retold. There is virtually no effort or energy into welcoming new comers, or helping them understand. This idea the once a year event in Jan or Feb covers the bases is wholly inadequate. Mike Wendell has repeatedly told them about their failure in communication. Alas, it falls on deaf ears. This community could be so much much more. Basic education on our history, what we have here and where it all is should be boiler plate simple. Of course, if you don't care, stay the course.  The RCSC doesn't see or feel a need for any of that. Thinking the Focus video is good enough is what? 

There are a variety of avenues through which information is available.  Perhaps we might be better served if we directed people to where such information is located. An alternative approach for the woman looking for Aqua Fitness TIBYBI could have been to direct her to the Clubs Office while she was at Lakeview Center, rather than sending her off to Bell (a location which has never had Aqua Fitness classes). This would have enabled her the opportunity to learn where this information can be found - in SunViews or on the RCSC website at www.suncityaz.org, where there's also a link directly to the club's own website which has this information along with contact information - https://aquafitnesssuncity.com/



Information is also available and provided to residents in person at Cardholder Servicers, Chartered Clubs and directly from the Sun City Visitors Center who invites all new members to their offices at Bell to learn about what RCSC and Sun City has to offer (a process that has been ongoing for many years). Facilities Attendants, too, provide much information and assistance. Let's help people locate where the information can be found and stop saying it is not available.


......Do you know, for as long as i have lived here, the answer from the RCSC has always been, we do enough. Of course back in those earlier days there were far more meetings, the paper edition of the Sun Views was readily available, the Visitor Center was a wholly different free standing entity that at one point bought a bus and gave tours. The Sun Views also every month included articles by and from the clubs. Even back then, i argued we could do better.



Every time the argument was made, the solution was to make the resident come to us (the RCSC). Let's do a recap; 27,500 rooftops in Sun City. An average number of home sold over the past 15 years, somewhere between 1700 and 2000. Just for discussion purposes, let's use 1700 Let's multiply that 15 years by 17,000 and we come up with a tasty little total of more than 25,000 homes.



Then let's pretend the RCSC took a real interest in communicating and educating every new buyer. A couple of new buyer monthly coffee's, introductions to clubs and what they offered, still doing bus tours so new members knew what stuff was at each facility. With each orientation, we taught those new buyers the history of the community and why we were unique, special and along with it the importance of self-governance and the role they could each play. How about if everyone that attended supplied their email addresses to enhance our base of emails. How about if we video recorded the coffee session's for playback for those who couldn't attend in person. Best of all, how about if we polled everyone of them about what they wanted and why they chose Sun City. Now the rumor is they want to spend a boatload on a survey from ASU.



Imagine what a different world Sun City would be today. What a novel approach, engaging people from the very beginning, make them feel welcomed and appreciated for buying into the first active age restricted community in the nation. But the expense you say; here's the numbers at the point of sale: $4000 PIF, $300 transfer fee and $496 dollars lot assessment. Nearly $5000 each and every sale. Not maybe, pay it or you don't get in. Nope, not arguing that it would be cheap to do it right, but it would change the entire dynamic in the community. Those moving here would come armed with knowledge and an appreciation of just how good it is. More importantly, why they needed to be involved.



Would everyone take advantage? Of course not, it would be foolish to argue they would. However, it would be infinitely different. The angst wouldn't be there. New owners would understand the importance of volunteering and where they could do it. From the outset we would know what their interests were and data accumulation would be on a wholly different tract. Welcoming new owners would become a priority, not a second thought once a year where they are buried with information.



We can't fix where we have been. We can address where we are going forward. These are simply the lessons we learned from Sun City's beginning. John Meeker got it, building a sense of community took hard work and a commitment. It wasn't left to chance. It was a priority and one i would argue, the current RCSC doesn't give two shits about. So i am clear, i have been saying these things for years and what i saw from the past 15 was the RCSC running from our history, not towards it.



The one thing i know for certain about Sun City is way too few members know far too little about how Sun City works. It doesn't have to be that way.


.......I asked you above to imagine what Sun City would look like today if 10 or 15 years ago we had centered on an inclusive ever engaging role with new home owners. If we had made membership education an investment in our future, would we be in a different place? Would it be better? We'll never know. If they hadn't been afraid of the answers they would have gotten, they (the RCSC) would have just asked them. Clearly, they weren't interested. Are they now?