President’s Corner – March 2013

Once again election season is upon us. The following is my view of what the current Board has accomplished:

1. This is the first time in 45 years that the leadership of the Association has an affordable, well thought out program for cleaning the lake. We have purchased land, spent money on engineering, applied for permits and have quotes for the equipment. Despite rumors to the contrary, the board of Directors plans NO INCREASE in dues and assessments for 2013 or 2014.
2. The majority of the Board are experienced managers and business owners. They have demonstrated that they can identify, analyze, and implement significant cost savings for the Association. Consider the following:

• The Board eliminated the position of General Manager at an annual savings of $72,000 per year. (Note: The recently hired Director of Maintenance has an annual salary of $47,000/yr. This still results in a current savings of $25,000 per year in salary savings).
• The Board also developed a cash flow report that enables the Board to anticipate and plan expenditures to stay within our budget. As an example, for the last two years our financial residual (money not spent during the fiscal year) has increased to over $52,000 as of January 1, 2013.

3. The Board members are involved in the daily running of the Association. Tim O’Donnell and Rick Rumbaugh traveled to Wisconsin this last year to pick up the new Weed Harvester. They didn’t have to do that. They did it to save the Association $5000 in shipping costs!
4. Al Rubosky has had his students at the Vocational school re-roof the Sunset Park Pavilion and they will be finishing this Spring on the rebuilding of the Beach 2 Pavilion. By accomplishing this, Al has saved the Association a minimum of $10,000, probably much more.
5. The Administrative Committee, consisting of Tim O’Donnell, Al Rubosky, Barry O’Connell and Rick Rumbaugh, analyzed the maintenance Department and recommended hiring a Director of Maintenance. The Board agreed and we hired Dan Mullins on February 4th. The output of work from the maintenance men has practically doubled! In addition to snow plowing, they have built six new umbrella tables for use at the pools, rebuilt the trailer used to haul the lawn mowers around, repaired the large dump truck’s transmission, and replaced one tractor’s fuel injector system. We have never had so much work done by the maintenance group in such a short period of time. The point is simply this: we currently have a group of directors that are making a difference, they are analyzing problems, and they are solving the problems. They are involved!
6. The three incumbents who are running for re-election are all professional managers: Tim is the owner of a janitorial service, Barry is a retired Chemical Engineer and past President of a $75,000,000 manufacturing firm, Al is a teacher at the local vocational school and operates a contracting and building company. Do we really want to lose this talent on the Board of Directors?
7. The Board’s Administrative Committee is currently working on two projects that will generate over $25,000 in annual savings to the Association and will be completed by July of this year. The two projects are a review of employee medical benefits and a revised salary structure (with job descriptions) for part time help.

This is your opportunity to decide the future of the Association. Please consider each of the candidate’s strengths. And please do it wisely.

Barry O’Connell, President
RRA Board of Directors