Sherwood Glen Update - December 20, 2014

Families in Need – Thanks to Deb Albee for taking point with Raymond Welfare to adopt needy families for the holidays. While Deb took the lead, it is the generosity of all who fulfilled the wishes of the children and spread the spirit of the season. Thanks to everyone!

Holiday Tree Pick-up – If you have a live tree for the holidays, be aware that they are not picked up as part of our trash collection.  However, each year the association arranges to have trees picked up.  Tree pick up will be on January 5.  Sometime before the 5^th you should drop off your tree near the beginning of the access road for the electric lines next to the clubhouse.  Please make sure the tree is free of all decorations and stands.  If you miss the pickup, you can
dispose of the tree yourself at the Raymond Transfer Station on Prescott Road. 

Clubhouse Capacity – The certificate of occupancy stated that maximum capacity for the clubhouse was 50 people, but a different furniture arrangement could change that level.  After having to turn folks away from our last two events, I visited the Raymond Fire Dept. to seek clarification of that number.  Since the certificate had expired, they revisited the site. After discussions, the new certificate was issued to allow for 60 people in the main room, 20 people in the TV room, and 20 people in the gym, which should allow us to include anyone who wants to attend future events.

Committees – Last month I asked for volunteers to form a number of committees.  The response was less than enthusiastic.  As a result, the board will continue to assume the roles of Rules and Finance committees.  However, we would still like to seek additional volunteers for The Clubhouse, as well as Buildings and Grounds committee.  Since there will be areas of overlap between Social, Clubhouse, Conservation, and Buildings and Grounds, the board would like to invite anyone interested in any of the committees to attend a meeting sometime in January, to discuss committee situation in more detail.  Attending the meeting will in no way obligate anyone to participate.  Watch the website and bulletin board for more information.

Beaver Update – Over the past four years, our work with the beavers has resulted in a significant increase in pond life and improvements to the ecosystem. It has also resulted in a rise in the pond level. A continued rise could threaten the road.

Last night, the board voted to have a pond leveling device installed at the pond.  More details will be forthcoming in a presentation at the January18 board meeting.  If you attend, I promise, I won't follow it with a septic presentation.

Open Board Meeting -  You are invited to attend the January 18^th board meeting at 6:30 in the clubhouse.

Have a happy holiday and a wonderful New Year!

AmbitEnergy, and a New Twist to an Old Concept

Yesterday, I became aware of an email from our management company, about AmbitEnergy.  Had the email come directly from AmbitEnergy, you might not be reading this today.  It would have been just one of many such emails I have received about switching energy providers, and it is a topic I have covered in other posts.  I would have simply trashed it as I do the others.

However, coming from our management company, many residents thought this was something the board has acted upon or at least discussed.  Neither is the case.  We got this the same time you did. Additionally, AmbitEnergy, is not your typical energy supplier.  It uses a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) business model that made the matter more concerning. (More on this later.)

It is at this point where I want to take a moment to clarify that this post is coming partly on behalf of the board and partly on behalf of Art Wolinsky, school teacher, technlology consultant, Educational Technology Director of WiredSafety.org AND Sherwood Glenn community member.

From The Board

The board feels the mailing is inappropriate and may be a conflict of interest on the part of management company.  We in NO WAY endorse the mailing or AmbitEnergy.  We have contacted the management company and expressed our concern about marketing directly to residents.  The email of clarification from them came shortly after that. 

Please be aware that any information or offers of this type which have been acted upon by the board, will clearly be indicated in the message.  If it is not clearly stated or obvious that it comes from, or on behalf of the board, cavaet emptor!

From Art Wolinsky, Sherwood Resident

Let me begin by says during my five years at Sherwood Glen, I have had nothing but praise for our property managers.  The incident in no way changes that view and I look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with them.  I feel this is a learning opportunity for everyone.

A Little Background

I was a technology teacher and consulted for many years.  I served as the education technology director and online non-profits, and still volunteer as the educational technology director of the WiredSafety.org , an online charity devoted to protecting people and privacy online.  It provides me with a unique perspective.  WiredSafety is run by Parry Aftab, one of the top Internet privacy lawyers in the country.  I've watched Parry testify and work  with Congress on every issue that has involved the Internet, privacy and protection online.  I've had the pain of personally working with a congressional committee in the writing of at least one of those bills and dealing with the belt line BS.  It was a real eyeopener for me, but that a subject for another day.

Additionally, I have been involved with and done some consulting for friends and family successfully involved in MLM, I have a fair grasp of that concept as well.

It have NO ax to grind with ANYONE, but I think there are some lessons to be learned here and my 35 years in education want to make that happen. 

Multi-Level Marketing

You are all familiar with the chain letter concept.  It has been around as long as people learned to write.  You know what I'm talking about. Put your name at the bottom, send this to ten friends and and you will receive a flood of whatever the letter or email is promoting.  Depending on what they are promoting it can an annoyance or down right illegal.

As time passed, the MLM business model evolved.  You are probably familiar with this concept through Amway or Mary Kay cosmetics.  Many people make pocket money from these pursuits, many more get disillusioned as the promise of riches never materializes. Only those who really hustle can make money and only those who get in early AND hustle reap the big rewards.

With the advent of the Internet, things took a quantum leap and gave birth to technology infused MLM.  Before the Interent, people in MLM were limited by time and money needed to make the phone calls, send the letters and present their product.  With email, YouTube, Twitter and other online tools, individuals now had global outreach.  The money making potential skyrocketed and many new businesses were born. 

Some MLMs are fly-by-night scams in which the vast majority of folks suffer. Others are based on products or services that are less than top notch. Others are based on good products and have a clear plan for future growth.  In the vast amount of cases, these pyramids eventually collapse, sometimes over night with the resulting fall out.

Switching to AmbitEnergy

Ambit, from my research, is not a fly-by-night company and they do seem to have a plan, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.  There are just too many variables involved there are too many variables involved for me to make the switch to them..

Their ultimate success depends on their ability to sign customers and keep buying electricity from the big guy at a price that will support their business model and how efficient they are.   This is true of all alternative energy suppliers.  However, Ambit's MLM model is unusual among energy suppliers and for me, is at best an untested model and at worst,  leads to deceptive sales practices by AmbitEnergy Consultants at the bottom of the chain.

AmbitEnergy Consultants

Aside from offering an initial period of electricity at a lower price than the big providers, Ambit allows customers to further reduce their bills by getting others to sign up and/or getting others to become consultants, thereby making it a MLM company.  In many ways it is an opening technology frontier, and it IS an opportunity for a HUSTLER to make a killing (at the eventual expense of others).  The earlier you get in and the more people you can enlist under you, the more you can make.

I was a technology consultant, I taught teachers, school districts, students, parents, and community members how to us technology as a tool for learning. Before I became a consultant I had honed my skills over many years of work and education. As a technology consultant, I got my reward when I help others learn and grow. I made a living, but there was no way I was going to get rich.

It that different than being an Ambit Consultant?  Well let me put it this way. 

You probably won't be surprised if I tell you Ambit consultants don't teach you how to use electricity.  Unless you live in a cave, you know how to do that.  What do they teach you?  What is their expertise?  IMHO, they are simply salespeople with one objective, make money by getting others to do what they did, and many are very good at it.

Some Position Statements

Let's start with the board position.  Since anyone in NH can switch electric service providers, the board has no say in that matter and no position as to whether individual residents should switch. Cavaet emptor is the order of the day.

The only reason you were reading this is because the offer came through our management company and the board feels it was at inappropriate and possibly a conflict of interest.  We have hired them to be property managers. We have entrusted them with resident information and don't appreciate them using it for direct marketing purposes

My Personal Opinion

Since moving here, I have received dozens of emails and postal mailings from companies seeking to get me to change.  I have taken none of those offers and will not be taking Ambit's.  Taking it means saving money in the hopes that rates won't rise on renewal.   Sure, if they rise, you can always switch back to to another provider.  However, what do you do if you sign up and a consultant made and error or misled you?  If you think it will be easy to resolve, you have another think coming.  Just do some research into complaints about products or services in ANY MLM business, not just Anbit.

There is much much more to this whole topic and if some of my Sherwood residents would like to delve deeper, give me a shout.  As  a fellow resident (not a board member), we can get together at the clubhouse over a bottle of wine and have a good time discussing the ins and outs of technology and marketing, online privacy or technology in general.

A Change in Direction

I've rewritten this post at least a dozen times.  Each time I write it, I try to explain things based on our history, the economy, our drawn out construction timeline, and the learning curve attached to running a condo association. The result was an article that would put the average reader to sleep after the first three paragraphs.  So rather than to dwell on the past in this and upcoming blogs, I'll spend a little time there and try to explain why things are going to be changing, where we are, where I see us going, and how we can get there.

If I were to characterize the nature of the changes I would like to see at Sherwood, it would be systemic change.  We have lacked a systems approach to management and functioning as a community.  Interestingly, as a teacher and trainer for 35 years, I was trained in systems thinking and trained hundreds of administrators to use Peter Senge's approach in education administration, but never actually had the opportunity to practice what I taught until now.

In 1990, Peter Senge changed the face of business and learning in this country with the publishing of The 5th Discipline.  If you are interested, you can read this short summary.  If that interests you, the book, which is just a valid today as it was in the 90's, can be read in this PDF.


Up to this point, the Sherwood Glen Board, and particularly the President, was very hands on. The economy, our size, the drawn out construction timelines, and the inexperience and learning curve of boards were just a few of the factors. It is the details of these factors that I will leave out in hopes that you stay awake through the rest of this post.  Suffice it to say, we had owners, contractors, vendors, management, and board.  All were compartmentalized and fragmented without really realizing it.

The volunteer board was often forced into the role of a paid property manager.  Rather than focusing on the big picture of long range planning, budgeting, and putting association wide systems in place, the boards were dealing with individual home owner issues that should have  been the purview of the property manager.  This took a serious toll on board members, and is the first thing that will change.

For a better understanding of the differences between the duties of board members and the management company visit this page.  

Great North will now be the first point of contact for all individual owner issues.  The board will continue to communicate closely with the property manager, but the responsibility for handling the issue from initiation to completion will be in the hands of Great North. 

When you have an issue, rather than sending a message to me or another board member, contact Great North.  I know there will be gray areas and issues you may want the board to be aware of.  In these cases, feel free to cc. me or a board member on the email to Great North.  That will serve as an FYI to us, create a paper trail, make sure everyone is on the same page, and allow us to step in or give advice to the property manager if we feel it is appropriate.  The fact is that the management company will be communicating regularly with the president and the overall result should be IMPROVED communications, which will allow the board to focus on the big picture, while allowing the management firm to do the job for which they are trained and being paid.

Some Animal Life Pictures and Video from May 2014

Here's a video are a few pictures of animal life around Sherwood Glen. Bill H. offers us some wildlife from the International Dinner.

   

Here are two shots from Ed P. A robin took a liking to a porch decoration and build its nest there. Using a mirror, he took a shot of the egg. The second is a green heron that was fishing along the bank in back of his house.

 

Here's a short video I took of a groundhog walking across the beaver dam, followed by a shot of a beaver contemplating our culvert protection cage, now in it's third year keeping our culverts undammed.

New Treadmill Quick Start Guide

The new treadmill was installed on April 18th and is ready to rock and roll.  Here's a short quick start video to get you familiar with it.

Mardi Gras at Sherwood Glen

On Feb. 22, Mardi Gras came to the Sherwood Glen clubhouse.  Residents came from near and far (well mostly near), streaming down Arrow, Sherwood and Locksley Lane flanked on each side, by 8 foot snow banks.  The balmy 50 degree weather was unexpected, but very welcome.

The clubhouse was decked out in purple, green, and gold, as guests filed in bringing their favorite New England renditions of Cajun dishes. As always, there was good food, good drink, and good company!

Kris and Gary won the end of the night raffle and Ed and Beryl reigned as King and Queen of the Sherwood Glen Mardi Gras.

A big thanks is in order to all of the ladies of the social committees, led by Judy Mars.

Mark March 22 on your calendars for next month's function.  The wine flowed at Mardi Gras, and the social committee and Mary Mac are setting the stage for a wine tasting party that promises to be an event to remember (or at least try to remember).  Plan on bringing your favorite wine and a designated walker.

A Visit to Bilbiotech - Tom K.

On January 22 of this year, I had a wonderful visit to the first "bookless" library, located in San Antonio, TX.  One important goal was for Bexar County to improve it's less than 50% literacy rate among adults.  Adults are permitted to take out readers that speak.  They use chirldren's books that allow the user to hear individual words or complete sentences.  I was told that an elderly man was brought to tears as he began for the first time to see himself learning English!

Here are more images from the visit.

Read more here....

Tom K.