OPINIONS
Rooney: Good outweighs bad in RCSC board service in Sun City
Why in the world would I put myself through that?
This is what I hear while searching for 2023 Recreation Centers of Sun City board candidates. I totally understand after serving last year. It was rough. The downsides include a considerable time commitment, enduring abuse from a few misinformed members and following the corporate bylaws to a T. Fortunately, there is a new committee taking on the monumental task of bylaws review.
The board serves the corporation in a fiduciary capacity, calling for board members’ undivided loyalty to the corporation. A board member must remain neutral and fair to all RCSC cardholders, all sanctioned clubs, committees, recreations centers, sports and activities; not just those a board member favors.
Guess what? The good outweighs the bad!
If you are looking to meet new friends and work together for a common cause, this could work for you. I am thankful to know board members like Dale Lehrer, Sue Wilson, Mike Ege and Darla Akins, to name a few. They work hard and care about RCSC. We will always be friends after serving together!
It is great to see 99.9% of RCSC members enjoying their lives and appreciating RCSC! Why allow yourself to be dragged into the muck and the mud! Life is too short!
RCSC senior management and employees are dedicated and hard working. They keep things nice for all of us, don’t they? As a board member, you will become familiar with all facets RCSC, find new clubs to join and meet tons of great people!
If you decide to run for the board, you won’t be sorry.
You will have many projects to focus on and be involved with. RCSC needs positive collaborators to run for the 2023 board!
Make a positive impact in the community you live in!
Sheila Rooney
Sun City
Subscribers make this story possible.
Make a positive impact in the community you live in!
Sheila Rooney
Sun City
Subscribers make this story possible.
Posted Thursday, June 9, 2022 11:00 am
Sun City Independent
9 comments:
Official RCSC Installation of Directors Oath as provided by Marcia Johnson. See “loyalty to the corporation?” Neither do I. “Members”and “community?” Why, yes I do!
“INSTALLATION OF NEW DIRECTORS
Members of the Board of Directors, Ladies and Gentlemen and Directors-Elect.
On behalf of the RCSC Board of Directors, I congratulate you on your election.
By electing you, , RCSC members have placed their trust in your leadership, expertise and judgment - and gratefully acknowledge your willingness to accept the responsibility of conducting the affairs of the Recreation Centers of Sun City, Inc. for the next three years. As volunteers with no monetary compensation, you will be devoting much of your time to the benefit of your fellow members.
The policies the Board adopts, and the authority you delegate to the Senior Management of the Corporation, must not only reflect keeping all RCSCproperties in superb condition, but also concern for the welfare and safety of the employees, and for the quality of life of RCSC members.
During your Board tenure, you will be required to serve numerous, varying, and conflicting interests. Know from the start that you will never satisfy all those interests, despite your best efforts. Do your best and be content, knowing confidently, that you are helping us all to continue to be proud of Sun City.
Directors Elect, : Do you pledge to uphold the Articles of Incorporation, the Corporation’s Bylaws and the Board Policies to the best of your ability, and to work for the benefit of our community as a whole?
Candidates should answer “I do”
On behalf of all of us, I wish you success in this undertaking.”
So what is your point other than you do not understand how board of directors for corporations, either for profit or not-for-profit operate. The directors in either instance have a fiduciary responsibility to work in the best interest of corporation for the benefit of the stockholders or members. My guess is you have no problem with your representatives or senators be it State or Federal taking an oath to protect and defend the respective Constitutions even though the people are not mentioned in the oath. They represent you but swear to the respective documents.
Just something to think about.
Hmm, the Articles of Incorporation say otherwise:
“RECREATION CENTERS OF SUN CITY, INC. REV. 12/90 RESTATED ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
ARTICLE III
The general nature of the business in which the Corporation is engaged is as follows:
To do anything and everything lawfully necessary in the interest of the Members of the Corporation“
Well said anon, never let those darned Articles of Incorporation get in your way. Dave/CdP lived in that environment where loyalty to the gm was the same as loyalty to the corporation. At one one point he found the balls to challenge it and told them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
All of which begs the question Dave? Why the change of heart. You know as well as i do they crammed that crap down your throat till you could no longer stomach it.
Bill, I am not sure how you are portraying me here, some late blooming seeing the light individual? If so you are wrong. Unlike you and where you are coming from, I am sticking with areas I know best and work for change there. True that it is not recognizable or just a touch on the esoteric side but I have spoken out when the Board tries some funny business.
A case in point was maybe late 90’s or early 2000’s when the Board had the great idea to futz with the golf courses and change the by-laws to allow them to sell a course to developers or some such nonsense. I was not living here at the time but owned property and my mother-in-law showed me an article in the paper regarding this topic. Since I was at the height of my career, I saw an absolute minefield in this idea. Fortunately, there was a Board meeting and I spoke pointing out how this could be tied up in litigation foe years and just over standing. The Board did not pass this and a gentleman in the audience as me if I was an attorney and I told him no. His response was you could have fooled me.
Since retiring I have made it my mission to improve the quality of our financial statements which two CPAs agree with me that they are crap, both the monthly and the annual CPA report. When I was first on the Board I met with Jan and told here my reservations. After talking awhile she conceded that my issues were spot on but I was .1% of the population here that understood this and saw no need for a change. Currently, we have what we called in my old paralegal days the shuck and jive response mixed with Prego sauce. I am referring to the cash carry forward on the balance sheet. The CFO has said it is a rainy day fund but also then for capital improvements. This is BS on the highest level because one figure can’t be both. There are other issues which I have mentioned to you previously. I believe I have some sympathetic ears on the Board, but we shall see. By the way, I have not seen these 990’s you talk about but rather than wait around for those, the CPA report should be out in late October, early November. It has an exhibit in the back showing everything you want to know financially on each business unit and yes golf is broken out and easy to read. Ask for it because you are entitles to it as a member.
The policy on bids and contractors when I first reviewed it in early 2009 I found absolutely appalling. I thought the policy had been written on the back of a napkin at George’s Cafe. So one afternoon while serving on the Board I rewrote the entire policy conforming what I was familiar with from my thirty years in construction bond underwriting. Took it to management and they reviewed it, we got together and tweaked a few minor points and the Board passed it. That is what we use now.
This is how I work and how I contribute to the community. Maybe they don’t notice like a pool or 600 new pickleball courts but it is just as vital.
Not looking for credit or 30 Vestal Virgins throws rose petals in my path as I attend a Board meeting, just showing I have been fighting the good fight since ever before I retired here.
Sorry if i miss portrayed you Dave. In spite of your denials, i have read several of your responses here and it appears you have no problem being critical of what others have to say. In fact, you are quite quick to tell us they are wrong and you are right. Might be true, might not.
Over the years i have found you to be an anomaly. If you recall, we sat and had a lengthy coffee before you ran for the board and i was encouraged by the diversity of opinion you were bringing; as well as your skill sets. Once you got there, i failed to see it in action. That is until you finally had enough and at that night meeting at Fairway, told them to stick the job where the sun doesn't shine.
You knew all along their books and accounting practices sucked. You told us so. Much like me, you tried to do it internally by confronting the general manager. She was always open to those behind closed doors discussions, but it never changed a thing.
With all of that out of the way, we still are respectful when we meet and chat. We don't agree on many things. Perhaps the one we can agree on is Sun City can be run better than it has been or currently is now.
Bill, I really do not want to get caught up in some sort of tit for tat. I admit that I am not a perennial poster such as yourself, probably because somehow I was no longer welcome at TOSC, so I do my best here.
You are correct that I have been critical of posters on this site, but it is always on subjects that I am quite familiar and responding because the other party has a real lack of knowledge. Case in point was Jean Totten who stated that she knew nothing of financial analysis and then proceeded to pass off some gibberish as financial analysis. Sorry but I had to call her on it. Just to show you I am not the jerk I am perceived, I signed her petition to run for the Board. The flip side is I hope she will be well versed enough to answer any questions I might throw at her during the candidate forums.
Then there is John Fast, he is a tax attorney during an epistle on construction. Aside from setting up tax shelters for developers and taxpayers with large real estate holdings, what does he know about building anything? His comments about his dog, vet bills and outsiders at the dog park actually had me felling sorry for his situation and wanted to give a basic legal remedy to his situation with the caveat that he really needed to consult with an attorney as I was not. It was not until the next meeting I find out he is an attorney who seemed not to know anything about tort law, assumption of risk and negligence or chose not to show his hand. The real takeaway from his piece on MV was another moratorium and more studies. How many more studies do we need and to what end? Also, I have some doubts that he wrote that himself as it has a lot of flavor from a current board member, but that’s me.
Although I could not speak publicly about the lawsuit because it was discussed in executive session, in January, 2017 at the first meeting our legal counsel and the outside counsel discussed the lawsuit and how they saw and strategy. After their presentation I asked why all these machinations they were discussing. They could make this thing go away early by attacking the class as over half the plaintiffs had no standing and the others were questionable. I advised them I worked on class actions for four years at legal aid but since I was not an attorney what did I know. So $600,000 later of which $100,000 was RCSC money, an ex post facto from the legislature, policies incorporated into by-laws and increased insurance premiums for the D&O coverage, here we are. The lawsuit was dismissed ultimately because the class was dismissed. Well played by all the parties.
I even argued with Jan over gays married legally in other States but not recognized by RCSC because Jan said we follow State law. I told her that we could be on the correct side of history or part of the landscape. Guess what she did.
Like I said I fight my battles outside the purview of the public but I consider it important to the membership and the corporation just as much as I do yours. BTW, I also did community organizing around housing issues in my legal aid days or as I called it herding cats.
Someday we will have to discuss sense of community transparency. How do we know when we have and what will it look like?
P.S. My condolences on having to attend Catholic schools. I grew up one of two Protestant families in a Catholic neighborhood, not a pleasant experience from the mid 50’s to the mid 60’s.
I only have one comment regarding your remarks Dave. I hope you aren't suggesting i wrote John Fast's letter. If you have never spent any time with John, you should. He is very much his own man and is more than capable to hold his own. BTW, he has specifically stated, he is not a member of the Sun City Advocates. His primary objective is he thinks we should be nicer.
Bill, I was not pointing a finger at you, rather I believe it to be a recent member.
I was not stating that was with SCA, rather sentence structure and language has my rabbit ears up. How will we know when we are nicer according to him? Kind of subjective like border security, fair elections, etc.
Post a Comment