Guest Column: Concerns about how GRF Board is making its decisions

After reading the Golden Rain Foundation President’s comment in the Leisure World Weekly (Government, May 4, 2017), I am very concerned about how the GRF Board makes decisions.

1. Quote “The Board…felt the old agreement was financially, by comparison to rates charged for carports, very one-sided in favor of the club.”

2. I thought Leisure World is first and foremost a retirement community for safe, active, and affordable retirement living. When the Board makes decisions based on monetary and financial basis, it goes against the interest of the shareholders and turns this community into a for-profit corporation.  If the Boards’ decision is based on financial interest, does this mean all the clubs will be treated with the same rule, based on how much revenue they bring to the GRF? I hope not. What about the Golf course, the Garden Club, and others. Will they be calculated and charged for the use of the land and resource in the same manner?

To be clear, I am not a member of the RV club, nor have any interest in owning one, now or in the future. But I am a member of this community and I implore the Board to reconsider the basis of the decision. I agree that some of the RV Club’s existing rules and practices should be changed (same person renting multiple spaces, non-resident renting the space, etc.). If this is true, I urge the RV Club to make these changes. It promotes fairness and best practice.

1. When the president compares the number of “Usage” (“the pool was used by 49,901 members, the exercise room 87,365”) to the actual members, it is misleading.

There are 6,608 shareholders. How does that translate to 49,901 and 87,365 members using the pool and exercise room? As such, the RV club, with 240 members, using the space 365 days, should translate to 87,600 members. Then the RV club should receive the same if not greater consideration by the Board.

1. Regardless of the numbers, I believe all the clubs should be treated and receive the same consideration whether there are two-members or 6,000. We all have a constitutional right for “the pursuit of happiness,” and it is for the best interest of the community to be open-minded and fair to all members. No club should be treated favorably based on the revenue they bring to the GFR.

2. If the RV Club is managed by the GRF/The Board, who will pay for the personnel salary, employer taxes, benefit, maintenance, liabilities/bond, including error and omissions and insurance? If the Board plans to pay these expenses from rate increases, then other clubs should also be charged in the same manner, to be fair