Bob’s Blog

Several people have told me that they have registered on the website, but have not been sent passwords, or that the passwords they have been sent do not work.

 If this has happened to you, please let me know at bob@hawksnestowners.org, and I will make sure you get one that works.

 If you have been registered for a while and are not getting any emails from the group, please check to see that they are not being intercepted by your spam filter.

If you have any trouble with this, please let me know so we can fix the problem.

Bob

As you all know by now, Bill Allen resigned his position on the Hawks Nest Board of Directors effective February 15.  According to Marty Shapiro at the annual meeting, the board has three options with regard to this vacancy:   1. They could do nothing and leave the position vacant, 2. They could hold a special election to fill the balance of Bill’s term, or 3. They could appoint someone to fill out the term.

From my conversations with several of the board members, it is my belief that their intention is to appoint someone. The question is, “who?”.

The board maintains that they have the right to appoint any owner they choose, and the obligation to appoint the person they believe will be the most qualified and best suited for the job.  I agree with that as far as it goes.  If there is any disagreement, it is on whether or not the order of finish in the last election is an indication of qualification for the position. 

After all, the people who were elected obtained their positions solely by virtue of the number of votes they received.  The voters were the ones who made the determination as to those candidates’ qualification and suitability to hold the office. 

From where I sit, 700+ owners are at least as qualified to choose their next representative as is the board itself, and the directors would be wise to give the results of the election a great amount of weight in making their decision.

The long-awaited visit from the insurance company along with our private adjuster finally took place on Monday.  We should know about the settlement quite soon from what I’m told (keep your fingers crossed), but the good news is that we are now free to recommence repairs on the hurricane damage as well as the ongoing concrete repairs which were suspended by our “Stop Work” advice from our adjuster.  I’m told that everybody is ready to go, and that work will start this week, possibly today.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m going to be very glad to see these long overdue repairs getting under way.  I’ll be here through Week 14, so if anyone who is here later than that can report back to me on the progress, I’ll put it in the blog.

As I reported earlier, at the organizational meeting of the Board of Directors immediately following the annual owners meeting, Jim Barringer was elected Vice President.  What I did not report was that newly elected director, Bill Bergey was given the responsibility for managing the staff.

Bill has hit the ground running.  He met immediately with the staff, letting them all know just what was expected of them.  There is a lot of ground to make up, but it seems to me that some things are looking better already.  Time will tell, of course, but I am optimistic for the future.  Look for Bill’s report soon under his listing on the Board of Directors page.

This morning, one of the early board members, first association secretary and my mom, Mildred Hogg passed away in Marquette, Michigan after a long decline as a result of Alzheimer’s Disease.

She was last at the Hawks Nest in 2002 on her 85th birthday.  Those of you who knew Flash remember her as a tireless worker and advocate for the success of the Hawks Nest.

The funeral will be held Friday, May 4 in Marquette.

Well, another annual Hawks Nest Owners’ Meeting is history.  First off, I should say congratulations to Incumbent, Harriet Chase and newcomer Bill Bergey on their election to the board of directors.  Bill was the top vote getter followed by Harriet, Barbara Robinson, Lew Werth, Alden Corley and Nell Sander.  Also, Jim Barringer was elected by the board to be this year’s Vice President.

Most, but perhaps not all of the dust has settled.  It was a wild and wooly meeting with the board receiving a lot of heat over the condition of the property, both hurricane damage and general maintenance.  Several owners spoke up about both unrepaired damage but also just plain dirty conditions around the building.  Once again, President Marty Shapiro referred to the letter from the firm we have engaged to fight our insurance company for us, which instructs us to avoid repairs until after the insurance claim is resolved.

I’m not sure if I agree with the advice, but this was a more complete explanation than I had received previously.  Of course, if the adjuster is successful in obtaining a large settlement for us, the board will be heros.  I truly hope they are, otherwise, more special assessments will be forthcoming.

Actually, I have to say that outside, things looked pretty good, almost all of the pavers are down, most of the landscaping has been restored, and a fair amount of progress has been made on the concrete repairs.  The apartments and hallways are still very shabby, however.

Things got a little bit ugly when our friend from last year, Ed Spalding stood up.  If you remember, he’s the one who says he wants to totally renovate the Hawks Nest to the point that it would be like new, pretty much regardless of the cost.  $1,000 or even 2,000 per week assessments, and $900 per week maintenance fees would be fine, according to him.  Believe it or not, he had no support.

Actually, there was some discussion that modest increases in the weekly maintenance fee could produce substantially better results with regard to cleaning, routine maintenance, etc.  That’s a topic for another day.

I asked Marty to allow me to speak for a few minutes regarding the owners group, which he allowed me to do.  For those of you who have read my emails and earlier blog, this was nothing new to you.  I talked about the evolution of the group as well as the website.  I think I was pretty well received, even by the board.  I think they finally realize that I don’t have any hidden agenda.

I’m going to be down here for the next 5 weeks, so I’ll report any news that comes up, or anything about the meeting that I forgot in this post.  Keep your eyes open for the upcoming “Association Documents” page on the website for meeting minutes, by-laws, the audit, etc., the “For Sale and Wanted to Buy” page, and the “Local News” page.

Oh, yes.  And the question that I’m asked more than any other…             The old bridge to Pigeon Key is still open.  For now.

If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have a “Blog”, I’d have said they were crazy.  What a difference a year makes.

Since that time, several other Hawks Nest owners and I came to realize that the communication between the leadership and management of our association and the owners was abysmally poor.  Infrequent newsletters, no minutes of board meetings, months between website updates, etc.  Just about the only thing worse was the communication among the owners themselves.  Due to the very nature of a timeshare property, the owners are in residence for only a relatively short period of time, and probably do not know owners from other times of year.  For that matter, it is likely that the vast majority of owners don’t know any of the directors either.

Since that time, a few of us formed the Hawks Nest Owners Group, hopefully to enhance communication on all levels between the board, the manager, and the owners. We started out communicating by email among 15 or 20 owners.

Since that time, we have had some input to the board on several issues, most notably the revision of the voting procedures, including ending the requirement that we sign our ballots.  I believe that this change was a direct result of pressure from our group.  Some of the board members dispute this.

Since that time, mostly by word-of-mouth, our membership has grown to the point that we now represent more than ten percent of the unit-weeks of the Hawks Nest.  While this isn’t a monolithic group all thinking and voting the same way, it’s a group that the elected leadership had better listen to.

Since that time, I have, at my own expense, instituted a mailing to each unit each week announcing the formation of the group and inviting all owners to get involved.  The board seems to feel threatened by this.

Since that time, this site has gone up on the World Wide Web.  In keeping with the stated purpose of improving communication, every member of the board and every candidate have been offered space on this site.  As you can see, not a single member of the board has seen fit to address our membership.

What can I do? You ask.  How can I make a difference?

You can join the Hawks Nest Owners Group.  You can register on this site.  It’s all free and registering gives you the ability to add your own comments either to this blog, or to any of the other comments from the board or candidates.  The comments on this site will be moderated.  What this means is that all comments submitted are reviewed by the site administrator (me) and are subject to approval.  Approval does not depend on the ideas that are submitted, just that they are in good taste, are not personal attacks on other people, and that they are constructive in nature.

I will try on these pages, to bring you as much information as I can including local news of interest to our membership, board minutes, the by-laws, the annual audit of the Hawks Nest books and more.  But I can’t do it alone.  We all need to get involved, be interested in what is going on with our home-away-from-home, hold the leadership’s and management’s feet to the fire if we feel it’s necessary.

Please, post any comments or ideas that you have, or if you prefer, email me at  bob@hawksnestowners.org.  

Bob Hogg