With a stated goal of being “more communicative with our neighbors”, (1) the Board of Directors just unveiled it’s first notification in a glitzy, multi page periodical titled “Board Update” prepared with the help of the Marketing Department and their $428k budget.
However, leadership’s pledge of being more communicative quickly rings hollow when one realizes that all evidence of any property owner discussion (Q&A) has been deleted and censored from the “Clubhouse Rendering Review” presentation as well as the April 25th open board meeting.
Further, it seems our leadership has also moved the goal post by redefining what constitutes a valid Ask the POA question versus a request for actual accounting records subject to a list of additional requirements and conditions.
Our governance . . .
Using the same methodology of governance that some of us may remember being cautioned of in elementary school, we unfortunately now find ourselves represented by a leadership utilizing a carefully controlled, programmed and scripted narrative to both inform and govern the community.
The missing 21 minutes . . .
As for the April board meeting, anyone unable to attend or listen to the meeting live would have completely missed out on the lively discussion regarding the violation letters being sent out by the Assistant Manager of the Architectural Control Department that were described by several as rude, litigious and aggressive. It was even noted that several property owners were considering putting their home on the market due to the threatening nature of the correspondence.
Without taking any responsibility for the debacle and instead referencing a computer software program as the culprit, (2) the General Manager (GM) advised the audience that management was aware of the issue and would be tweaking the language. Excuse me. If the GM and AECD were aware of the issue why did they continue to click the send button on these aggressive violation letters?
Note: Unfortunately, a time stamp to those discussions can not be referenced here as approximately 21 minutes of Q&A discussion has been deleted (3) and is no longer there. (4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEDZJ9923ak
In addition, as there was no opportunity to view the Clubhouse Rendering Review presentation live, there is no record of what important discussion may have taken place during the Q&A session of that meeting.
One must seriously wonder if the April Q&A discussions were censored due to the lively and negative discussion regarding the AECD letters or if the censorship was in reaction to the GM being put on the spot in the March board meeting regarding $100k in food and beverage inventory adjustments. (5) https://bcmatters.org/circling-the-wagons-part-one/
One can only imagine.
And now, not only has our “communicative” board omitted any evidence of member discussion and interaction at our few open meetings, they have chosen to utilize similar tactics in response to this writer’s recent Ask the POA questions.
Another shut down of information . . .
While pointing to the significant variances in administration/operating expense in a previous post on this site (5), a number of questions as to the cause of that variance were posed by this writer. Subsequently, absent any explanation and based on inquiries from several other property owners, this writer submitted an Ask the POA inquiry regarding the variance. (6) AskThePOA Ticket #13063
Refusing to answer the questions, the POA Treasurer instead responded by redefining those questions as a request for accounting records. (7) AskThePOA Response#13063 And rather than simply quoting the Georgia Code section, the Treasurer cited a March 2023 litigious letter from the POA legal counsel to this writer dealing with different subject matter such as this writer’s private letter to the board outlining a variety of financial reporting irregularities. Interesting. (8) https://bcmatters.org/unfinished-business/
Perhaps the Treasurer hoped that reference to previous correspondence from the Association’s legal counsel (9) would make this writer quake in fear.
However, the unlikelihood of that should be apparent from this writer’s response to the counsel and the board of directors which interestingly remains unanswered till this day. (10) Still waiting.
Note: One might also wonder if those recipients of the threatening AECD letters will relate and identify with the aggressiveness displayed in the legal counsel’s March 2023 correspondence (9) as well as the Treasurer’s citation to same in her response to this writer’s requests for information regarding the unexplained $188k variance to budget in administration/operating expenses during the month of December 2023.
That said, anyone familiar with this site recognizes that this writer often uses the Ask the POA platform to inquire about various financial matters as demonstrated in reference (11) below. Further, to ensure fairness and accuracy, those responses are routinely referenced in articles posted to this site.
So exactly what is it about that $188k variance to budget that our leadership doesn’t want us to know?
The real source of information . . .
After touting themselves as the only true source of the real facts, (5) leadership has chosen to refuse to answer some of the most basic of financial questions.
In order to more succinctly outline the reason for the questions, this writer emailed the POA President (12) while also pointing out that numerous responses had been provided in the past to questions and requests for financial information.
Responding by not only citing but also remarkably agreeing with the threatening and litigious March 2023 correspondence from legal counsel as support for his position, the POA President stated that since “the information that you are asking for can only be derived from specific accounting records” the submission of a request for specific accounting records would be required. (13)
This is ridiculous.
And this is your board . . .
Perhaps the President does not understand that virtually any response to a property owner question pertaining to the financial affairs of the Association would necessarily be derived from the accounting records. Does this now mean that all future Ask the POA questions regarding the financials will be off limits?
Or perhaps the President just simply wants to make it difficult by mandating that a property owner search records for the answer to a question that is already known by both the board and management.
Obviously, the 2024 Board of Directors does not intend to be more communicative with their neighbors.
Ridiculous or not . . . it is what it is . . .
There must be something seriously significant that the Big Canoe leadership does not want the community to know regarding the 2023 year end financial statements. It’s that simple. And given management’s failure to account for $100k in food and beverage inventory, one can only imagine what that might be.
But regardless, a request for specific accounting records (14) is being submitted as required by leadership. Information regarding that request will be shared with the community.
Meanwhile . . .
So what is a property owner to do? Are there any calls for action? Or do we all just continue to succumb to the outrageous autocratic display of governance from our leadership and simply turn our heads?
Unfortunately that appears to be the current trajectory, and our leadership is most likely emboldened by that fact as they move forward to spend the $15 million on Renew Big Canoe projects with constantly changing and evolving costs, revised plans and designs and sometimes even locations all without any revote of the property owners. All the while, assuring the community that they will do what is best for the community.
And although this writer could continue to put words on these pages, if no one ever steps forward to demand change and lead the charge, the status quo will continue.
Ponder please.
. . . . .
If you believe the information contained on this site is important, please continue to share and pass it on. And as always, feel free to post comments or contact me privately at thepcrosses@gmail.com for questions or further discussion. Likewise, should you wish to see additional articles posted in the future, please subscribe for an email notification or check back frequently. Meanwhile, take care, stay safe and thank you for your readership.
Patricia Cross
References:
1) https://issuu.com/bigcanoeliving/docs/bc_board_update_newsletter_042024?fr=sNjQ4MzcyNzIwMDc at page one.
2) Computer software program
3) 1:28 minute screenshot of the original video
4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEDZJ9923ak edited down to 1:07.
5) https://bcmatters.org/circling-the-wagons-part-one/
8) https://bcmatters.org/unfinished-business/
9) March 6th, 2023 letter from Legal Counsel, Kimberly C. Gaddis Exhibit 7
10) March 10th, 2023 letter to Kimberly C. Gaddis, Esq. Exhibit 8
11) Links to recent Ask the POA responses regarding financial issues: AskthePOA Ticket#9784 AskThePOA Ticket#11424 AskThePOA Response&Followup#11424 AskThePOA#10824 and AskthePOA Ticket#12632
12) emailed the POA President – April 26th, 2024 Email to POA President, Terry Stewart
13) April 30th response from POA President , Terry Stewart
14) May 3rd, 2024 request for specific accounting records
Thank you wonderful Patricia, once again. Unfortunately as George Carlin once said, “It’s a big club & you ain’t in it.” About the only thing left to do is the good old torches & pitchforks at a board meeting. But then the powers that be would bring down lawfare crashing onto our heads. We peasants shall not be disruptive! After owning my sweet home here for 23 years I’m beat & throughly disappointed with the future of Big Canoe. It used to be “Civilized by Nature”, now it is “Let them eat cake!”