by Buz Whelan

The Emerald Lakes Directors Alumni Society used their Sept 8^th meeting to close out their second year and begin their third. In his final meeting as moderator, Buz Whelan thanked the members for their contributions and support. The Society members reviewed the recommendations to the board and events of the past year and began planning the next.

Society founder Pat Galderisi read a long list of recommendations made to the board, including CAI assisted orientation for new directors and establishing a septic policy, and concluded that the board had acted on approximately 75% of these. Asked to cite those she thought most significant, Pat listed these 10:

1. Educating the membership on the pros and cons of mail-in voting.

2. Branding the EL HOA with our website and the Emerald News.

3. Informing the membership of all aspects of our new quarterly billing.

4. Having the Emerald News editorial reflect the association’s opinion and providing an op-ed page for alternate points of view.

5. Providing all information regarding the bylaw revisions with the Call to Meeting.

6. To start investigating and creating a policy/procedure for membership septic systems.

7. Ensuring that our membership roster reflects bonafide members according to the definition of same per our bylaws, especially with regard to voting, billing and usage of our amenities.

8. Ensuring that our association knows how to handle companies, corporations and trusts with regard to voting.

9. Allowing members to dedicate a park bench and have it erected within the common grounds of our association.

10. Allowing a pro and con discussion of the bylaw revisions at the Annual Meeting.

The above recommendations were acted upon by the Emerald Lakes Board of Directors.

The Welcome New Members and Volunteer Appreciation party was judged to be more than a little successful with new volunteers for virtually every association committee.

This meeting was the final one for Buz Whelan as Moderator of the Society. David Pope is expected to take the reins for the coming year.  Among the Society’s recommendations for the next year are the vigorous enforcement of Quality Assurance in executing contracts and a possible recasting and reconsideration of the bylaw revisions that failed to pass by wide margins at the Annual Meeting. (Quality Assurance is the close monitoring by qualified professionals of any work being done for the association under contract.) There was also a recommendation favored by the majority of the Society members that the names of delinquent members be published in the Emerald News. As for the meeting schedule the Society will meet on the second Saturday of every other month commencing with the November meeting.