An important post for every Winston Trails homeowner...Winston Trails HOA

Just last week, the Winston Trails board, and the individual voting members, had a meeting at the swim and racquet club. Other than the board and voting members there were only THREE residents there...myself and one other couple from Indianwood I believe. I don't know how many of you were aware that this meeting was happening, but I didn't know until someone told me just a few days prior. In the past, big, white signs were displayed by each entry/exit gate informing the residents of any meeting...but someone has recently decided to change this; no more big white, highly visible signs, but small signage (small and obscure enough that I haven't seen them yet) supposedly hanging on something near the entrances. The question is; why make it MORE difficult for the residents to become aware of meetings at which business affecting all homeowners is discussed and voted on?

Especially now, as the economic climate is unstable at best, and housing is one of the weakest links in the entire economic chain, we, as homeowners here in Winston Trails, need to know what our board and voting members are discussing, proposing and implementing.

I know that in my section, our voting member has never asked for input regarding any vote...and we (sometimes) find out about changes AFTER they have been made.

If it is the same in your section, I suggest that you call your voting member (usually your village president), and ask how the village residents can become better involved in the decision-making process...or at least how, in the future, you will be canvassed regarding the items being proposed.

I have proposed that our residents should be timely informed of ALL subjects discussed, proposed, passed, voted on, defeated, etc. And there are a couple of ways that this information can be very easily and quickly disseminated:

1. Have a member of each neighborhood board go to every owner individually and ask for an email address to be utilized ONLY for board business with a strict privacy policy. Then, any time there is an upcoming meeting, proposal, news item, problem, etc...everyone can be quickly made aware of it and be able to quickly give their input...this notice and response ability is lacking right now.
2. There is a community-run site, http://www.winstontrails.org/ that can be used to keep all residents aware of all community-related issues, meetings, news, etc. and can have minutes of all meeting and proposals uploaded and available for review by everyone.

If you'd like to know what is going on, or have any suggestions or information that I should post, email me or call on my direct line at 561-602-1258.

Thanks for reading,

Steve Jackson