Beginning where the last post left off, it seems that the Association has become completely immersed in the trademark business. With twenty six registrations and/or pending applications filed with the USPTO, where is the end?
It can not be forgotten that leadership spent $578k in 2025 to purchase six trademarks and logos from Big Canoe Brokerage with each carrying a usage limited to “real estate brokerage, management and development” and yet the 2025 board believed it to be critical in order to protect the geographical identity and name of our community.
The wisdom of that $578k decision will be recorded in the history books as a matter of legal interpretation. Particularly now that twenty additional trademark applications have sought to vastly expand the trademarked usage of the Big Canoe name and logo which might have been pursued, if even necessary, without the $578k purchase.
Included in the ongoing absurdity are four applications now filed by the General Manager to trademark “Big Canoe POA” in various layouts or arrangements.
And as noted in the previous post, (1) https://bcmatters.org/whitewashed-part-one/ each application costs a minimum of $350 plus attorney fees to file and attorney fees to defend. Legal expenses included in the 2025 purchase price totaled $178k with an additional $10k spent to defend.
Unfortunately, the amount of legal fees accrued in 2026 related to the trademarks can not be documented as management has failed to respond to this writer’s AskThePOA Ticket#20124 (2)
Pleading the fifth . . .
In fact, questions regarding legal fees are not the only Ask the POA questions submitted by this writer that remain unanswered. For example, addditional questions regarding the merchandise write-offs; the Chimneys write-off; write-off of the engineering fees for the now defunct postal facility and even a follow up status check all remain unanswered. These questions can be viewed here by clicking on AskThePOA Ticket#20125 ; AskThePOA Ticket#20162 ; AskThePOA Ticket#20163; and AskThePOA Ticket#20224.
Perhaps the community could give this writer a little help by also asking management these same questions.
Regardless, management’s refusal to provide answers to these simple but profoundly important questions is akin to pleading the fifth and clearly gives rise to even more serious questions.
Not a good look and not okay.
Disposal of POA Property . . .
And while we are left wondering about the details of those write-offs, other Association assets have been sold or disposed of without any record of the transaction found in the board minutes.
For example, the General Manager executed a warranty deed last year reflecting the sale of an Association owned lot for a purchase price of $13k. And yet, there is no record of any board approval as required by Board Procedure 107.2 . (3) Further, it is unknown when and if leadership granted the General Manager authority to execute legal documents such as this.
Once again. Details matter.
With no questions asked . . .
Also noted in the previous post on this site, (1) the exiting 2025 board voted 7-0 on four revisions to the governing documents (Board procedures 300.1, 300.4, 152.1, 152.2), write-off of the Chimneys as an asset as well as the approval of an $8 million plus spillway construction contract. Remarkably, with each of those 7-0 votes, absolutely no questions were even asked indicative of a typical rehearsed dog and pony show.
But wait. Where were these votes rehearsed?
Given that there is not any mention of discussion in the posted minutes of any closed session meetings, one must certainly wonder.
Or has our board instead been programmed to irresponsibly nod yes in approval of every proposal put before them without question, discussion or debate?
In perfect alignment . . .
As announced by the POA President at the December annual meeting, a confidential agreement was reached with the developer regarding trademark usage. (4) https://bcmatters.org/unbeknownst/
This writer has continued to emphasize that the content of the agreement to include all terms and conditions must be made available to the property owners immediately.
Obviously, that has not happened.
Instead, while lauding his achievements at the February board meeting, the exiting President proclaimed that “a trademark license agreement with Big Canoe Company [ensures] future development aligns with [our] brand” . (5)
It seems that the President forgot that any and all of the developer’s rights pertaining to future development are codified in the Big Canoe covenants rather than some private agreement between members of the board.
Note: Three days later the developer announced the purchase of 45 acres to be annexed into Big Canoe as authorized by the covenants. Without access to that trademark license agreement, it is unknown if any additional, unauthorized conditions or concessions have been attributed to this development.
Changing times . . .
With the posting of the January 2026 financial statement, comes a new layout reflective of the deceptive format found in the 2026 budget. This change was discussed in detail in a previous post on this site (6) https://bcmatters.org/budgetgate/ and will not be revisited here other than to emphasize that capital assessments and capital contribution fees are not forms of operating revenue and should not be denoted as such on the income statements.
For those who may disagree, it should be noted that these fees are segregated and clearly defined on the Association’s cash flow statements as restricted designated fund income. (7a)
Note: Without the inclusion of those, net income from operations would have actually been a loss of $72k rather than the positive $164k reported.
Other notes: In addition, this change in reporting required adjustment to prior year totals which are not carried out consistently throughout various reports and/or slides.
One thing that hasn’t changed is losses at the clubhouse . . .
Even though the General Manager eagerly declared that revenues exceeded budget, the food and beverage losses at the shiny, new clubhouse have once again climbed with losses for January 2026 totaling $53k. (7b)
As has become customary, much of this loss can be attributed to uncontrolled labor costs all at the expense of the property owners.
For the record, it would be impossible for any property owner to determine that there was any loss whatsoever in the F&B operation by listening to management’s presentation of the financial results at the February open board meeting.
Instead, the property owner must log into the POA website in order to review the posted financial reports for this information or perhaps read this blog.
A distant light at the end of the tunnel . . .
At long last, discussions now taking place in the Georgia legislature may finally afford the members of community associations such as Big Canoe some protections and relief along with a mechanism for airing complaints outside the filing of a law suit. A draft bill has recently passed the Senate and will hopefully be discussed and passed by the House now in session.
It’s a wait and see, but it’s a hope.
. . . . .
Should you believe the information found in these posts is important, please continue to share with your friends and neighbors wherever possible. As for those who wish to see additional articles posted in the future, please subscribe for an email notification or check back frequently. And as always, feel free to contact me directly at thepcrosses@gmail.com for questions or further discussion. Meanwhile, take care and thank you for your readership.
Patricia Cross
10438 Big Canoe
References:
1) “Whitewashed: Part one”, March 4th, 2026, bcmatters.org, https://bcmatters.org/whitewashed-part-one/
4) “Unbeknownst”, January 6th, 2026, bcmatters.org, https://bcmatters.org/unbeknownst/
5) Big Canoe POA board meeting, February 26th, 2026, video on youtube at: 1:33:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1tahh5PdY4
6) “Budgetgate”, December 1st, 2026, bcmatters.org, https://bcmatters.org/budgetgate/
7) January 2026 Financial Package, a) Statement of Cash Flows, pg. 3, b) Income from Operations, pg. 7; (POAwebsite>login>POA>financials>2026>January)