IronOaks HOA Presidents Message, July 2015

What is going on during the summer months? Some of us are in other parts of the country missing out on a somewhat mild summer, at least so far. We have not realized the traditional heat levels, and have not been inundated with major monsoon storms. Let's hope this continues!

The milder weather has saved the Association in many ways. In past years, our extreme weather conditions have caused washout and tree damage from the storms. The clean up costs can be upwards of $20,000 dollars per storm.  

Our Lakes Course update project has not been subjected to delays due to the weather. We want to complete this project on time or possibly in advance of the end date. The good weather will allow this to happen.  

Your Board has been busy working on the generation of a revised Board of Directors Policy Manual. We are in the final stages of review, and should have the new policies released within a 30 to 60 day period.  

We have two major projects that are in motion, our Oakwood Sunsets Bar and Restaurant and the Outdoor Activity Area. We have hired an Architect for the Sunsets project. The Team has met with him multiple times to review the proposed improvements. Our objective has been to create an environment that our Community will want to come to on a regular basis, and a welcoming comfortable place to be. We will have a rendering to bring to the Community by sometime in August.

The Outdoors Activity Area proposals are due to be in by the first week of August. We do not anticipate any action on this until the research is complete on the placement of the activities in the area, specifically, Pickle Ball!

Your HOA Food and Beverage Staff have done and excellent job presenting new fare and service at our Sunsets Restaurant. The Sunday Buffet and the Thursday evening Buffet are hits with our community. We are seeing the results in the turnout and the improved financials.  

We are listening. The community has expressed concern over the uncontrolled speed of vehicles on some of our internal streets. Our Patrol Staff has been monitoring this over the past year with the radar Speed Minder. Most recently, we have tested speed humps on a major through street that was found not to be in compliance. The results have been extremely favorable. Faye Stone will be reporting on the results. We anticipate continuing to implement these control devices in areas that we have violations of our vehicle traffic laws.

In an effort to improve the Communication from your Board to the Community, we have outlined a project associated with our Community Comment process focused on the Board. Our intent is to ensure that all comments to the Board get a response. In a cursory review we can see many similarities in the comments our homeowners send in. We receive these in three major forms; electronic, hand written comment cards and letters directed to the Board of Directors. Frank Gould and Phil Tollefson have been assigned to perform an analysis of the community's comments over the next months. We will be discussing this at our Board Workshops over the next few months.

There continues to be discussion concerning how our Association develops and manages change. As a community, Staff and Board we struggle to put an organized plan/program in place. We have in good faith attempted to glean direction from many sources.  

The list consists of: our Homeowners through comments and controlled surveys, our Staff, the Board and Committees. Factors from outside our community: Realtors, our surrounding Communities of Sun Lakes, the general economic climate and known outside activities/amenities, and/or conditions that drive our communities future value. Internally, we have essentially one driver, the Master Plan. Most recently the Master Planning Committee has worked on redefining the purpose and scope of the Plan itself. The intent was to take out the tactical direction and replace this with a global path, more abstract, for the vision and mission of the Association.

A Strategic Plan will give us the opportunity to develop more defined objectives. These will evolve over the course of the planning time line and give our General Manager the ability to prepare for the actions necessary to carry out the plan.

How might we accomplish this?

1. Continue to improve the Master Plan.
2. Form a collaborative group. The group should be made up of Homeowners, Committee Members, General Manager and associated Staff, the Board of Directors and external professionals associated with our objectives.
3. Develop the format for executing the preparation of the plan, i.e., data needed based on objectives, time horizon of the planning document, etc..
4. Consider our Members needs. For example: will the objective add current and future value. Our financial position. Opportunities and Risks, etc.
5. Measure the value of the plan and the actions undertaken.

I am not attempting with the 5 items above to define the very detailed process of creating a successful plan. I am an advocate of this process and there are many methods that exist to accomplish the objective: "Setting our Goals, determine the actions to achieve the goals and putting our resources in line to achieve our goals".

I will continue to promote this process in our Association! 

Respectfully,

John Porter

IronOaks President, Board of Directors

Completed Projects in the last 30 days:

 Tripping Hazards at Oakwood: Tripping hazards along the walking path have all been corrected.

 Speed Humps at Oakwood: Speed humps have been installed and tested on Nacoma, see attached result sheet.

 Oakwood North Wall that Borders Intel: We worked with Intel to create a plan for addressing and maintaining the area on their property that our homeowners are illegally dumping onto. We have sent letters and citations to those homeowners who are dumping and will continue to monitor on a weekly basis.

 New Phone Extensions for Oakwood: Additional phones were installed in the restaurant/bar. Every incoming call will be answered by a live person during normal restaurant hours.

 Ballroom Chairs at Oakwood: The ballroom chairs were steam cleaned at the end of June.

 Halley Pool Fencing at Ironwood: We completed installing the fencing between the pool and the tennis courts per the revised code standards for 2015.

 Pool Chairs at Ironwood: New lounge chairs have been installed at all the Ironwood pools.

 Audio Amplifier System at Oakwood: A Resolution was approved in May for replacement of the audio amplifier system in the Oakwood ballroom. We have completed installation of the new system.

Current Projects:

 Halley & Voax Pools at Ironwood: The gas line for the Voax pool has now been completed, however we are awaiting inspection by the county before the meter can be placed. We have yet to receive a date from the county as to when work will begin on the Halley pool as the lines will be coming from the west side of Alma School.

 F&B Menus & Staff Training: New menus and pricing for banquets will be completed by the end of July. A employee training program will begin in the next month for current and future staff.

 2014 Financial Audit: The external CPA firm has completed the draft audit of the 2014 financials. Once the tax returns have been completed a final copy will be provided within the next month.

 Lakes Golf Course at Oakwood: The Lakes golf course renovation project was approved at the March BOD meeting. Construction began May 11th and weekly review meeting are held, at this time we are ahead of schedule.

 New Activities Calendar: We are currently working on the new calendar of activities for the upcoming 2015-2016 season. This will help us provide our homeowners with a larger number of social events throughout the year.

 Equipment Inventory for Banquets at Oakwood: We are doing an inventory count of all our silverware, plates and glassware for the banquets department. We plan to have a full inventory completed by the end of July.

 F&B Renovations: A resolution was approved by BOD in June to hire a architect to create plans and designs for the Oakwood bar and restaurant, which will then be presented to the homeowners at a workshop to be scheduled. The architect is working on plans and has met with us several times to review.

 Block Fence and Gate Painting at Oakwood: A resolution was approved at the May BOD meeting. We began working on the areas and are about 50% complete.

 Seal Coating of Roads: A resolution was approved at the May BOD meeting, we will now begin work on August 4th. Please see the upcoming SITL for dates and locations.

 Monument Signs at Oakwood: A resolution was approved in May to replace the four major monument signs at Oakwood. Work began on the first monument sign at Arts and Crafts building.

 Paper Newsletter: We planned to release our first paper copy of an additional newsletter on July 1st, however there were issues with the printing company. We will have the August newsletter placed in the white weather proof stands around the property, copies at the clubhouse and gate houses within the next week. The full cost of this project is funded through advertising space sold within the newsletter. We will continue emailing the Stay in the loop (SITL).

 Informational Monitors: We are currently working on our new information monitor system to be placed around the clubhouses. We have installed one monitor in the communications office and are working on the information.

 Halley Tennis Courts at Ironwood: The BOD approved the conversation of the clay tennis courts to post tension, replacement of all light fixtures and fencing at the May BOD meeting. Work began on the 22nd of June., we are also converting to LED lights and the cost after the rebates will be less than $250 total for all lights.

 Work Order and Preventative Maintenance Systems: We are looking at a work order system and preventative maintenance system. We have narrowed it down to two choices and should have a decision by the end of July.

 Dishwasher Station in Oakwood: We are working on purchasing a new dishwashing machine and replacing the existing walls surrounding the dish area. We have temporary storage containers for items in the banquet storage room that shares a wall with the dish area.

 Quality Assurance Program: All departments are currently working on their quality assurance program.

 Palm Tree Pruning: The palm tree pruning should be completed by the end of July.

 Oakwood Kiddy Pool: Increase wall height around kiddy pool due to revised code standards for 2015 has begun and will be completed by the end of July.

 TV's at Ironwood: We began installing the new TV's at Ironwood in July and should have everything completed within the next few weeks and be ready for football season to begin.

Future Projects:

 AT&T Cell Tower: We have been informed the cell tower project has been moved to the 2016 build schedule but have not been given an exact date yet. The merging of AT&T and Dish has slowed all construction progress.

 Ballroom Dance Floor at Oakwood: The dance floor in the ballroom is scheduled to be stripped and waxed in October.

 Clay Tennis Courts at Oakwood: New clay will be ordered to use on the tennis courts at Oakwood.

 F&B: We are working on setting up a cake ordering service with Basha's. We are also looking at offering curbside pick up for To-Go ordering.

 Speed Monitoring of IronOaks: We will be working on a plan to address other areas of speeding concerns.

 Advisory Group: We would like to add a Patrol & Gates advisory group, if you are interested please see the Communications department to add your name to the list.

 Carpet Cleaning at Oakwood: We will be scheduling the carpet cleaning for all the carpeted rooms in all the clubhouses.

Please come join us for the upcoming events in F&B:

            Sunday Buffet at Oakwood ($10 all you can eat every Sunday)

            Team Trivia at Ironwood (every Wednesday night)

            Thursday Buffet at Oakwood ($12 all you can eat every Thursday)

            Hold Em Poker at Ironwood (every Friday night)

            Pancakes at Poolside ($2.99 all you can eat everyday)

            August 17th Paint & Wine Party at Ironwood (3rd Monday of every month)

My next meet and greet will be Friday, July 24th at 1:00pm in Oakwood with the Fitness & Racquets.

SPEED HUMP RESULTS

The speed limit on Nacoma has been monitored by our SPEED MINDER with the

following results:

                        Eastbound Traffic Count = 5569 vehicles       Time period = 7 days

                        Number of vehicles between 1MPH and 25 MPH = 4475 vehicles (80%)

                        Number of vehicles between 26MPH and 29MPH = 814 vehicles (14.6%)

                        Number of vehicles between 30MPH and 39MPH = 280 vehicles (0.05%)

                        Westbound Traffic Count = 6571 vehicles     Time period = 11 days

                        Number of vehicles between 1MPH and 25MPH = 5591 vehicles (85%)

                        Number of vehicles between 26MPH and 29MPH = 980 vehicles (14.9%)

                        Number of vehicles between 30MPH and 39MPH = 345 vehicles (0.052%)

The results show that 82.9% of the vehicles on Nacoma are traveling at or below the speed limit, which is a 30 % increase over the monitored speeds prior to the installation of the

speed hump.