February Issue
VGHOA President
Dave Malara Elected President for 2011 Board of Directors
The Annual Meeting of the Village Green Homeowners Association was held on Monday, January 17, 2011 at St. Andrews Parish United Methodist Church. Proper notice of the meeting was verified and more than a quorum of the membership was present allowing business to be conducted.
Community Manager Chad Hammond provided information about the two fountains and why they are currently not working. The VGHOA is awaiting the approval of a city encroachment permit that will allow contractors to pull an engineering permit to run new electrical lines under West Bridge Road and to the pumps. The current lines have broken somewhere underground and must be replaced. The new work will be done according to current code and standard practices which will mean having to bore and place conduit under the road for the new wires. The work is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
A heated debate took up a majority of the open discussion time while ballots were being counted. Homeowner and former VGHOA board member John Hayes tried to convince those present that home values in our subdivision were going to drop considerably between 2013 and 2016. He was met with several calls for his proof and other suggestions to which he quickly responded fueling the discussion even more. A call for a Point of Order to stop any further discussion and continue with the agenda was accepted by President Ed Delaney and applauded by the full house.
Three new members were elected to the Board of Directors. They are Bob Borregard, Matt Dawson and Kent Weikel. Following the adjournment of the Annual Meeting, the new board members met with the current board to elect officers.
Mystery, Other Volunteers Sought
In the August issue of The Village Voice, a call went out for volunteers who may have been interested in becoming the Editor and Publisher of this newsletter. A similar plea was issued for someone with website design and management skills who would be willing to donate their time and talent to the association as the new Webmaster. The current volunteer in both positions “retired” with the completion of this issue after serving in those capacities for several years.
In the transition of information and human error (on the part of the Editor) the names of the two young ladies who stepped up to the challenge have been misplaced. If the two of you – and you know who you are – are still interested, please contact Community Manager Chad Hammond as soon as possible. His telephone number and email address are listed below. Also, anyone interested in serving on a committee is encouraged to do the same.
Underwriters Needed
Each time this newsletter goes out it obviously costs money to produce and mail it. As is the case with everything these days, those costs have risen.
You may have seen what looks like advertising in past issues. It is a form of advertising, but defined as such because of the laws governing not-for-profits.
The VGHOA, Inc. is such an organization. Therefore, it seeks UNDERWRITERS to help defray the cost associated with this publication allowing the association’s budget to be used for things that are necessary to sustain our common areas.
In turn, the underwriters are given space in the newsletter as a way to “advertise” their business or service as a token of appreciation for their financial support. Think of it this way. You have seen South Carolina Public Television or may have listened to a local Christian radio station. Just like the VGHOA, Inc., they are supported by “viewers like you,” listeners and businesses that underwrite their programming. Also like the association, they run “ads” that mention their respective services or products.
If you have ever wired a lamp, it is recommended that you tie an Underwriters’ Knot like the one pictured above. The purpose of the knot is to keep the wire from being pulled back through the conduit causing a short in the lamp. The wires remain snuggly attached to the socket screws without the fear of them falling off if the wire is accidently pulled.
With that picture in mind, the concept of underwriting for our newsletter is very much the same as the knot. If you own a business or have products or services you would like to make available for sale to a select audience within the six hundred thirty-nine (639) homes in Village Green, this newsletter is the perfect place to do it.
The levels of underwriting are based on the size of the “ad” you would like to place. We encourage underwriters to make a commitment for a full year which translates into four issues…one in February and others in May, August and November. Of course, you may provide financial support on an issue by issue basis as well. Currently, the levels are as follows:
FULL PAGE “AD” – $105.00
HALF PAGE “AD” – $80.00
QUARTER PAGE “AD” – $50.00
If this is of interest to you as a business owner or you have a favorite place to shop or do business, please contact Community Manager Chad Hammond. His contact information is at the bottom of the front page of this newsletter. This issue was produced using allocated funds from the association’s approved 2011 Budget. Please contact Chad as soon as possible so the remaining issues for this year may be underwritten in cost.
Remember the knot? Your underwriting keeps the budget from “shorting out” when its pulled on from every angle. The newsletter will remain “snuggly attached” as one of our lines of communication to our membership. Please consider becoming an underwriter.
You’ve Come a Long Way
That headline was actually an advertising campaign slogan in the late 1960’s that has been used since to indicate progress and innovation. We have, in fact, come a long way especially in this age of electronic media and the use of the Internet to disseminate information.
In the underwriter’s story above, we wrote about this publication and what it takes to produce it. Not only is it printed for mailing, it is also available electronically on the association’s website. Normally, it is available online as soon as the board president approves its content (subject to new Webmaster’s abilities and available time) even before its sent to the printer. That means you can be “in-the-know” about ten days before it reaches your neighbor’s mailbox.
During the Annual Meeting, a homeowner suggested more people utilize the electronic version of The Village Voice and save the association money for printing and mailing of the same publication. A previous board had set a goal of fifty percent (50%) of the homeowners in our association to receive the newsletter electronically thus reducing the publication costs by half. That goal was almost met.
If you would like to be conservation minded and/or interested in saving the VGHOA some money, please consider logging on to www.vghoa.info and clicking on the NEWS page where you will find this newsletter. In fact, another benefit of reading it online is doing so in color. The printed version is in black and white. Contact the Community Manager if you would like to OPT OUT of the mailed version and read it online.
It’s City Code and Thats No Load So When They’r Done Just Have Some Fun For It’s So Sweet It’s Not On My Feet
OKAY! POETRY IS NOT OUR STRONG SUIT. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOGS. IT’S NOT ONLY THE LAW, IT’S JUST THE GOOD NEIGHBORLY THING TO DO. THE JOGGERS AND WALKERS WILL THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF THEIR HEARTS. (AND SHOES, TOO!)
WATCH THOSE STOP SIGNS
You may have noticed an increase in police presence in the neighborhood especially at the four-way intersection at West Bridge Road and Forest Glen Drive at Dartmouth. That is in response to numerous complaints that drivers are failing to stop at posted signs at that location, the three-way stop at West Bridge and Stockbridge and at the end of West Bridge at Laurelwood.
Please avoid being stopped by the police because you failed to stop at the stop sign. How many times can you use the word “stop” in a sentence? The complaints were voiced at the Annual Meeting and directly to police following repeated incidents of near-misses due to a vehicles not stoping.
POLICE START NEW PROGRAM
Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen announced the formulation of a new program to better connect the city’s neighborhood directly with the police department. Each of the neighborhood or homeowners association will select one person from its membership to be a part of the Community Leadership Corps (CLC) and act as a conduit to provide information or voice concerns to the chief’s office on behalf of the community. Likewise, the corps member will be able to gain valuable knowledge and understanding of the police department which can be shared with their respective neighborhoods.
The VGHOA is looking for someone interested in representing Village Green. The process will be outlined in a meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 6:00 PM. The meeting will be held in the Training Room at the Charleston Police Department located at 180 Lockwood Boulevard across from Joe Riley Stadium. If you would like to join with others from the one hundred twelve recognized neighborhood or homeowners associations in Charleston and be the CLC member for Village Green, please contact the Community Manager as soon as possible. You will also want to make plans to attend the introduction meeting at the police department.
If you want more information on what becoming a CLC member involves, please call the department’s CLC Coordinator at (843) 991-3030. This program’s mission is to better connect the community directly with the Chief of Police so it may share information to and from the department.
Village Green Home Owners Association Information
PRESIDENT: Dave Malara VICE PRESIDENT: Mark Mandel
TREASURER: Matt Dawson, CPA SECRETARY: Bob Borregard
MEMBERS: Buck Taylor, Ed Delaney, Kent Weikel and Donna Quinn
VGHOA and VGRA MANAGED BY: RAVENEL ASSOCIATES, INC.
Chad Hammond, CMCA Association Manager
(843) 266-3919 - chammond@ravenelassociates.com
www.vghoa.info
