Letter to the Board
The mere fact that our association members have no direct contact with our board of directors outside of board meetings is a problem.
A problem magnified by the current coronavirus 'stay at home' order. Given the communication tools we have at our disposal, this
is inexcusable.
A major reason I created this site in the first place, years ago, was as a response to the insular nature of the then sitting board,
leading to the perception that our board was more concerned with their own personal interests and stake in our association than
the interests of the association members at large.
I've been lobbying for a while now to improve the responsiveness of our official web site. Our web site is good as far as it goes, but
it can and should be improved further to respond more effectively to current events. It's a valuable tool that is being underutilized.
We live in the information age. Park Tower is larger than many small towns. We've spent a lot of money to improve our emergency response
system. We can improve our communication facilities at a fraction of that cost with inexpensive enhancements to our existing web site that
may ultimately prove more valuable for emergency responsiveness than the system we have in place today.
We live in a rapidly changing world where timely responsiveness can be a matter of life or death. Thankfully, the following issue
is not a major crisis affecting our survival but it illustrates my concerns.
I'm not a rabid Cub's fan. I was very disappointed with the recent surprise RCN cable fee increase. Granted it's not a lot of money, but our contract with RCN should have
excluded any unanticipated increases at the outset. I have no interest in watching live Cub's home games and resent having my cable (or any other recurring) charges
raised without even being informed in advance. This is an essential protection that I expect our association to provide.
As mentioned
elsewhere, I've never been very enamored with our legal team.
A more open contract review process, inviting all association members, some of whom might even be attorneys themselves or have relevant background,
to review their terms might have helped us write a cable contract that would better protect and serve our mutual interests.
This line of thinking applies to all contracts we sign.
Let's not waste a perfectly good crisis.