January 29, 2016
Dear Everyone:
Meetings, meetings, meetings!
How can I have so many meetings in one week when I’m technically
retired?
The first meeting was last Monday evening.
ARMA Board Meeting.
According to the By-Laws, the Board is required to meet at least three
times per year. Usually, we
meet every month for a brief time after the Chapter Meeting.
Because we get to together almost every month, there’s less on
the Agenda to cover; so the meetings typically take less than an hour.
But we’ve been having a bit of a problem:
We keep scheduling monthly Chapter Meetings, but virtually no one
signs up to attend them.
We’ve had to cancel every meeting since last September.
When the January Meeting fizzled, I decided it was time to hold a
Board Meeting even if we didn’t have a “regular” Chapter Meeting.
The Board members agreed, via
email, to meet at the
same restaurant where we usually have our Chapter Meetings; everyone
knows how to find the place and an evening meeting was a better fit with
so many busy schedules. We
had a lot to cover, naturally, including some consternation about the
fact that no-one-is-coming-to-the-meetings.
This was a particular concern to our Immediate Past President, “Clancy”,
who keeps telling us all that we need to “revitalize” the Chapter.
Let’s see: We have
over three dozen current Members, so we’re nowhere near the threshold
that might “demote” the Chapter to a status of “dormant”.
In fact, I contacted the people at the International Headquarters
and they assured me that “going dormant” would be at the discretion of
the Chapter Members, based on a majority vote.
We can’t even get them to come to the meetings.
What do you think are the odds that any of them would bother to
vote to shut the Chapter down?
We also have over $9000 in the treasury, so the Chapter is not likely to
slide into the red anytime soon.
Nevertheless, “Clancy” is clamoring that we need more Members and
should be shouting from the rooftops about how grand and special it is
to be an ARMA Member.
So that was one meeting.
On Tuesday, my
Homeowner
Association had its every-other-month meeting.
This entailed the usual
Somebody-Isn’t-Happy-About-The-Landscaping Free-For-All, plus appointing
Board positions because-we-didn’t-get-a-forum-again (we never do).
We have a new Board member, “Phoebe”, who will replace “Riley”,
who sold his unit to his tenant, but agreed to “stay on as a consultant”
because he has a lot of experience in the construction business and
still feels a sense of responsibility from his days as the HOA president
back when I first bought my place.
And a Good Thing because there’s a real question about how much
it should cost to replace all the roofs.
On Wednesday I got a break.
Then yesterday, two more meetings.
The first, another ARMA meeting, this time a teleconference facilitated
by none other than “Clancy” in his capacity as the
Pacific Region Advisor for
Marketing and Membership.
This, of course, provides a Great Big Clue as to why “Clancy” thinks we
need to “revitalize” the Mt
Diablo Chapter. He gets
graded on how many members each of the 14 Chapters in the Pacific Region
can claim. Which is why I
take “Clancy’s” concerns about the relative health of our own little
Chapter with a large grain of salt.
“Clancy” has been a bit of a thorn in my side since he played that
little “trick” with our website, involving giving me the wrong password,
then ridiculing my attempts to get the mess straightened out.
However. We just got word
that Someone On High informed “Clancy” that he’s not allowed to be both
the Pacific Region Advisor for Marketing and Membership AND a Board
Member for a local Chapter.
He sent us (all three of us left) a “sorry” message that he won’t be on
the Board anymore. I
managed, with some difficulty, to refrain from dancing around the room
singing, “Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead!”
The second meeting was another Homeowners Association meeting, this one
for the “umbrella” Association for the four Communities of which mine is
one. However, this time
there was a difference: I am
no longer the Official Representative for my Community.
Last time there was an election and someone called “Patty” got
more votes than I did. Or,
as “Jeannie” put it: “You
got voted out of office?
Lucky you!”
While I am no longer the Community Rep, I can still attend the meeting
if I want as a Concerned Homeowner.
It’s a useful way to find out what’s going on in the
neighborhood. As usual, it
began with a Somebody-Isn’t-Happy-About-The-Landscaping Free-For-All.
A Landscaping Committee is eminent.
I just smiled.
There’s a reason all of my plants are silk.
On the other hand, I did find out what color car the local
drug dealer
drives, plus intended clean-up operations involving the
tennis court.
Not that I’ve ever been to the tennis court in the nine years
I’ve lived here.
This evening I had a brief meeting with a homeowner who is renting the
Clubhouse for a Baby
Shower tomorrow. It only
took a few minutes since it consisted of “walking through” the Clubhouse
and accepting the deposit check in return for the key.
Tomorrow “Jeannie” and I will attend another meeting, this time of the
knitting and
crocheting kind.
There’s a group of people who meet in the basement of the
public library
in Martinez
every other Saturday. It’s a
great way to work on a project with people around who can help you get
back on track when (not if) you make a mistake.
Needless to say, this is one meeting I’m looking forward to.
Love, as always,
Pete
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