Sherwood Sprinklers 101

Welcome to Sherwood Sprinklers 101. If you are reading this it is because you saw a news letter, my Facebook post pointing you here, or you reported sprinklers not working and were referred to it me or our management company.

From time to time, I'll get a call about a sprinkler head spraying the driveway instead of the lawn. That person observed the problem, reported it, and a fix can be scheduled.

From time to time, I get a call about a sprinkler head that looks like Old Faithful. That too, is an observed problem that can be addressed

On the other hand, the most frequent and most frustrating calls I get are the ones that say with great conviction, their sprinklers are not working.  I've been working with our sprinklers since 2010 and during that time I would estimate that the people who said their sprinklers weren't working were wrong 9 times out of 10, and I knew it when they called.

Unlike the first two examples, which are based on what they person saw, the report of sprinklers not working are based upon what they have not seen.

When I was teaching, I would hand back assignments marked incomplete, only to have a student say, "You never told us to ______."  My usual response was to ask them to tell me some things I DID say. After failing to do that, I would say, "If you can't remember any of the things I did say, how can you remember all the things I didn't say?"

My sprinklers are not working fall into that same category.  Sprinklers not on every day and are on for only 20 minutes. On top of that, the majority of the development is watered between 10PM and 6AM. This is only one small part of the complicated system.  Here's the rest of the story.

At Sherwood Glen, we have about 1500 sprinkler heads divided into about 100 zones, and controlled by seven different timers that begin at different times ranging from 6:00 PM to 11:30 PM.
Additionally, starting times and days change during the summer depending on conditions.

Things like power outages can put one or more controller out of sync, if the controller's battery back up is down.

To complicate matters even more, when controller are schedule for every other day. Different controllers handle that differently. With 7 days in a week, it's actually three days on one week and four on the next.

If your neighbor's sprinklers are on and yours are not, you probably don't have a problem, because you may be on a completely different controller and your lawn will be watered about five hours after your neighbor.

If your one part of your unit is active, but another is not, it is probably in a different zone or on a different controller.  For example clubhouse zone 1 is in the front and zone 16 is in the back.

Oh, and somewhere along the line, people have gotten the idea that placing a stone on top of a sprinkler is a good test. It's not. If the sprinkler head was installed properly, the stone will still be there the next morning. At best, it's an indicator that the head is not perpendicular to the ground.

If the irrigation company is called out because of a false alarm, it may cost all of us a $50 charge. So before reporting that sprinklers are not working, please make sure you have done what you can to confirm that to be true.

Scary Stuff from the Harvest Festival

What Does the Resignation Mean for the Annual Meeting?

I've been contacted by at least a half dozen people since receiving word of Bob Moorehead's resignation, about what will happen on Thursday. I'm not on the board, so I have no idea of what they might do, but based on everything I know, there is only one thing they can legitimately do; namely nothing.

The by-laws make it clear that when a vacancy occurs, the board shall assign someone to fill that position until the next annual meeting. The timing of Bob's resignation would lead some people to think that meeting is on Thursday, but I don’t believe that is the case.

Off the top of my head, we have had no less than six board members resign since I've come to Sherwood Glen. Resignations happen with all boards and any board can function if there are enough members to make a quorum. We all know that especially here at Sherwood, with some board members being snow birds, meetings are often held without board members present.  

NH law HR-353 makes it clear that all board decisions must be made a properly advertised and conducted meetings. The only exception is emergencies. Being a member down is certainly not an emergency situation. Therefore, there is no time to do this before Thursday. 

All previous resignations were handled in basically the same way.

1. ·        The board put out a call to the community asking for applicants interested in filling the seat.
2. ·        The board reviews the applications and in many cases, interviews the applicants.
3. ·        The board appoints someone to fill the vacancy.

All of this must be done during properly advertised and conducted meetings.

There are at least a half-dozen other reasons involving the advertisement of the election in the annual meeting package, the printing of ballots, the disenfranchisement of people who submitted proxies based on three seats being filled, and the inability of other candidates to come forth. 

Finally, can ANYONE tell me how having the board throw out past practice and proper procedure to select someone to fill a vacancy for one meeting serves the community interest?

The vacancy can only properly be filled by new board. Anything other than that will at best, result in more animosity and confusion, and at worst, it could result in the invalidation of the entire election.

Facebook and Website Changes

As of September November 14, 2017 board meeting, mysherwoodglen.com and the Sherwood Glen Facebook group were no longer have any official affiliation with the Sherwood Glen Board, or the Sherwood Glen Condominium Association. All content on the website will represent the views of the owner/webmaster, Art Wolinsky, and those of you who contribute..

On September 20, 2017, I resigned from the Communications Committee, in order eliminate any confusion between personal and board related postings and to begin to facilitate discussion within the community in forums where everyone sees everything that is posted. 

Great North Connect is and should be the site of record for the community.  Some of you may remember that back in 2013, as president, I attempted to get people to utilize as the official business site and to use MySherwoodGlen as a community site, but simply wishing it, does not make it so.

MySherwoodGlen was the first and only online access to information from the board. Training and information was provided to the community about its use. It was created well before Great North Connect was introduced to the public. Unlike the necessary one size fits all Great North Connect, MySherwoodGlen was custom designed with our residents in mind. As a result it was, and still is the site of choice for residents.

If you have any questions and concerns about Association business, please direct them to Great North. Great North Connect will be the official site for minutes, financials, correspondence with the board, maintenance requests and other business.

Mysherwoodglen.com will remain much the same, but there will be some subtle, but significant changes, some of which will revolve around this blog.  While it is titled MySherwoodGlen, I want you to think of it as OUR-SherwoodGlen.

The Facebook group will also be changing. There is where there will be significant change. I will open the group to discussions on community topics, guided by community standards which will be posted.  

I was a teacher for 40 years, and as such, I set the same standards for Facebook Group as I did for my classroom.  My classroom was focused on problem solving and communication. There was only one rule. USE COMMON SENSE AND COMMON COURTESY. There will be no personal attacks or bitching.  If you have a question or a problem that you need addressed, let's come answers and come up with a win-win solution for the community.

I realize people are often hesitant to post things in public. Keep in mind, the Facebook page is a closed community and only members can view the items there, unless a member of the groups shares it outside the group.

If you are not already a member, I urge you to visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/SherwoodGlenRaymond/ and request membership in the group. I'm looking forward to moving forward!