ElectEve

10/01/2021

Hello! New to Lake Forest? Alabama? A master gardener will be available from 1-3PM at Lake Forest CommUNITY Day to answer your questions on gardening in the South.

A free starter plant will be given to each new member who signs up on October 9th.

CommUNITY Day, 197 Country Club Drive, Swim/Racquet Club
noon - 4.

Join us for a day of fun and like our FB page: Lake Forest Garden Club

09/24/2021

Commemorative Plaque for Jesse Oswalt at The Back Deck

A memorial plaque for Jessie Oswalt, our Board of Directors member who passed away earlier this month, will be installed on the deck of The Back Deck.

My thanks to the Board for acting on this quickly.

I proposed the memorial plaque at the meeting Thursday night, and the Board embraced the idea and voted immediately to approve it.

Director Oswalt led volunteer teams that put in hundreds of hours repairing and renovating the deck and its furnishings.

It just felt right to honor him for his dedication, and I’m thrilled the Board agreed.

08/04/2021

Ever watch those old movies where the heroine is out of control screaming and writhing to free herself from John Wayne? He is only trying to keep her from hurting herself until she calms down. He finally slaps her out of her hysteria. She looks at him as if she had awakened from a dream.

I sometimes believe that this is our BOD and the Lake Forest Homeowners group. For years the homeowners permitted the BOD to have free reign on spending, making up their own rules, voting the homeowners out of the picture. Homeowners complacently let that happen. Just don’t raise the dues.

Fast forward 20 years and there has been a turnover in the neighborhood. New owners with higher expectations are calling for accountability.

The BOD approved raising dues in 2018 with two back to back increases without a real explanation of how dire our circumstances were. Rumors flew in the hysteria of debt, rumored back door deals, and favoritism. From the outside the BOD appeared out of control.

The Lake Forest Homeowners Group was formed and slapped the BOD with questions, statements and demands of communication and accountability.

It is my wish that the BOD recognize that we are not the enemy, just John Wayne trying to get your attention.

08/04/2021

Lake Forest Yacht Club
We have missed two great PR opportunities in a month. Today the YC opened and we didn't tell anyone. If it weren't for Director Cathie Marx posting it on social media, we still may not know. Where was the F&B committee with all these grand plans? They couldn't even announce the re-opening? The same committee missed the moment for the Fourth of July publicity. It promoted free burgers, which caused social media to blow up with accusations that the Board was funding free meals. They had an chance to promote the club and the vendor with a clear, straightforward message that the vendor was donating the burgers. With more than a $1M on the line, and no positive cash flow in sight, we cannot afford to lose any chance to promote our biggest asset.

07/31/2021

I encourage you not to drink the $10 Kool-aid!
I’m sure we are all grateful hearing about a possible dues decrease of $10 per month.
But let’s not swallow the hook for a temporary reprieve. Homeowners deserve more. We need to freeze dues.
Three years? Five years? That should be up to you. When the board wants to increase dues or impose an assessment, it should be prepared to detail the need over a series of public meetings. Then, let members vote.
Every politician knows it’s good policy to cut taxes in an election year – even if you raise them the next year.
We have an election in March, and it is pivotal because it has the ability to change the board majority and return association control to the homeowners: dues, bylaws, communication, transparency and accountability. The next five years of the association – and how it treats its homeowners (taxpayers) -- is at stake in March.
So embrace the proposed dues decrease. But don’t be lulled into complacency by a board that suddenly wants to appear friendlier by dropping dues and responding to members’ questions at a couple of meetings.
Sure, we liked actually getting responses, even if they were vague. But I fear we are like the beaten cur who is just tail-wagging happy to go a day without being kicked or beaten.
Make no mistake: this board majority has an agenda that most likely is in conflict with yours.
It sidelined a board member on bogus charges so it could obtain a majority in naming an interim director to replace Gary Gray. An interim director who placed next to last in a field of nine when he last ran for the board.
And by the way, it achieved that majority by unduly influencing another board member with promises it couldn’t fulfill.
Don’t see this board action as anything but a desperate attempt to hold power come March and keep its favorites in positions on undue influence on policy and spending.
Speaking of spending, let’s parse this dues decrease.
Since the first dues increase in 2017, homeowners have paid an additional $1,030 in fees, netting out the $50 assessment that was allowed to lapse in 2020. An offer of $120 seems insufficient.
I say it seems that way because this board has never provided a full accounting – even when you go to the office and look at the books.
But it hasn’t even had the courtesy to keep members updated on its tax filings. Its latest report to the IRS – called a 990 – was in 2019, which makes it in violation of federal law (the 990 “must be filed by the 15th day of the 5th month after the end of your organization's accounting period.” – IRS rules).
This has to stop.
Freeze dues until you have a board willing to work for you.
Resist the insincere overtures of a self-absorbed board interested only in justifying bad decisions. Vote to achieve a new, honest majority in March that puts homeowners first.

07/25/2021

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a software expert.
However, as a small business owner, I had to learn to do my own research before buying every piece of latest and greatest software that came in my email. Some sell on price. Others on overhyped performance. Few actually do exactly what you need without customization – which, of course, costs extra.
So as I listened to the Lake Forest Board of Directors talk last week about buying new point-of-sale software for the Yacht Club, I thought about my software experiences and the lessons I learned: compare at least three solutions, don’t settle for the “sure, it does that” answer without seeing a demo, and talk with other users.
By most accounts, the Jonas country club management software used by ICON, our management company, needed to be replaced at the Yacht Club.
Rather, the issue is why the board had to fast-track buying into the TOAST food and beverage restaurant solution when it could have started looking at a POS replacement more than two years ago in the renovation budget. (Don’t fall for the red herring argument about the FEMA cap on improvements; it wouldn’t have counted.)
At the July 15 work session, Icon Vice President Simon Coulls opposed changing the POS system.
So the board – in a single meeting with little public discussion -- took the Yacht Club management from Icon, and voted to buy TOAST.
What was the hurry?
This is the same board that took three months of discussion to authorize the purchase of a skid steer to replace one that was old enough to vote.
We got more information about the skid steer than we did on the TOAST purchase.
It’s fair to hope that the board got a more detailed TOAST presentation from the vendor in private, but the membership only got 10 minutes of hyperventilation from acting Director Wesley Wright and a brief Q&A.
Ten minutes.
To decide on a POS system, a right-thinking corporation would have named a task force of IT, finance and restaurant people. Instead, the board relied on acting Director Wright’s representations, and voted to buy the TOAST solution without public discussion or offering proof points that the system was the right choice.
A candid, transparent board would have prepared a PowerPoint at least, and allotted more time for discussion.
Compare that time to what we are about to hear on the lake project.
Director John Lake has a proposed lake renovation document of more than 500 pages that he carries in three sections. He wants to present it to the board. He said a rehearsal presentation took three hours.
That’s an 18X factor compared with the TOAST discussion.
We’ve already put a $1M into the Yacht Club, and the backbone of its operational ability gets 5.6 percent of the presentation time Director Lake wants for the lake renovation.
Acting Director Wright said TOAST was the #1 ranked POS application for restaurants. He didn’t say whose rating that was.
If he was talking about the G2 ranking, I quote from the G2 website: “To encourage reviewers to participate, some users are compensated by G2 Crowd with gift cards, contest rewards and reputation points on the website.”
Objectivity might be a problem there.
So let’s look at a more objective site, like Merchant Maverick (“Our unbiased reviews…adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.”), which ranks TOAST 4th.


Of course, user reviews can be useful, but you have to be careful about their validity. A lot of people make a living posting positive reviews for companies.
So, here’s the pros and cons on TOAST from softwareadvice.com.

I’ve got to say the red flags worry me a lot more than the “amazing” comments. Losses of $40,000 because of a troublesome install? Weekly duplicated credit charges on customer accounts? Slow or no customer service?
My enthusiasm is falling like a deflating soufflé.

We've helped 833823 buyers find the right software.

09/21/2020

As we drove through Lake Forest yesterday the residents’ resilience was on full display as piles of debris already lined the streets, tarps protected damaged structures and neighbors helped each other clean up after this surreal event. Sally was my first hurricane and probably not my last, but I am proud of my neighbors’ fortitude and desire to get back to as normal as quickly as possible. Thanks to those who operated chainsaws, hauled broken limbs and raked the millions of small leaves and pine ones into piles for removal. I love this neighborhood.

09/21/2020

This post has gotten some interest but not nearly enough to catch the Board’s attention. I think the timing is perfect and a chance for a new attitude. Posted yesterday:

Since the sign to the Yacht club has fallen, let’s take this opportunity to change the name. I think Yacht Club is a misnomer tho I know it has a long history along the shore. We do not own yachts, so what if we present a request to the board to rename the yacht club before they have a chance to replace the sign?
The renovation is happening in spite of certain opposition. Let’s move forward with a positive outlook and begin with a new name.
I suggest something like “Sunset at Lake Forest Marina.” Or “The Cove at Lake Forest Marina.” Yeah I know we don’t have a working marina...YET!
We have lots of creative people ...let’s put it in front of the board. Please respond kindly.