Our yearly Regular Membership Meeting will be held on December 1, at 9:00 a.m. This business Meeting is held on the first Monday in December and nominations are made for the upcoming Board of Directors election in January. The quorum requirement is thirty-five (35) voting members, including proxies for any business to be conducted.
The item of Clubhouse Surveillance Cameras is up for consideration and voting at this meeting. The voting will be by secret ballot. We want as many members as possible over our quorum requirements to be represented in person or by their proxy. The Proxy Authorization is online at sebringfalls.org and available for downloading or contact our Secretary Ricky Miller at 937-654-2603 (rickymillerdayton@gmail.com) or Dee LeMay at 864-328-9723 (president@sebringfalls.org) for assistance. After completing Proxy Authorization, scan and email, fax or U.S. Mail. It must be received by 11/28.
While all our meetings are important this one is paramount because the security of our facilities should be important to everyone! If you will be on site on the 1st you can vote in person or by proxy, if not you can use a proxy to represent you.
Because we are a transient community notifying everyone is a challenge, so I’m asking each of you to help get the word out. Contact your friends to find out if they will be here on the 1st; if not, notify them of the proxy voting and assist them if necessary. You can contact Ricky or me to help you. You can also ask any Board Director for assistance.
Background for Security at Sebring Falls
The Clubhouse that SFPOA currently owns is essentially an unmanned, unsecured public building where anyone who has ever had a key can come into it at any time and do anything they wish to do. The cheapest and easiest way to protect our property is with surveillance cameras. Most businesses and many residences have added this level of security to theirs.
This summer there was much discussion about how to protect our property. Over the years the cost has come down and the cameras have become better and easier to operate. But there have been mixed reviews on surveillance equipment – from “I don’t know why we haven’t had them sooner” to “it’s an invasion of my privacy”!
In the past, there have been thefts and suspicious events reported at our Clubhouse without any evidence to prosecute. As a result of these malicious events, some of our concerned residents urged me to put in Surveillance Cameras and also donated the money for their purchase.
Some of the malicious events which have been ongoing are:
- The Dining Room and Kitchen doors are left open causing the air conditioners to run unnecessarily. At times the shades were even drawn back from the sliding doors, letting the sun shine in and heating up the room. Energy efficiency has been highly discussed so that the folks who are doing these tricks know that leaving the doors open is extremely energy inefficient and costly.
- Reports have been made of food stolen that was stored in the refrigerators prior to a ticketed event, causing the cooks and planners to have less food available for our members who attended.
- There have been at least three times that someone deliberately put a foreign object in the men’s room toilet causing it to be so severely clogged that it was necessary to call a plumber to remove the object. The first two times we paid almost $500.00 in plumbing bills. The last time we were able to remove the clog – a messy job but someone had to do it!
- Someone damaged the ceiling fan in front of the double doors. It was obvious that someone had twisted the fan blades out of position. The Building Manager was able to reposition the blades and no further problems with that fan have occurred. However, a second ceiling fan had a burnt-out motor which couldn’t be repaired, and a new fan was purchased and installed.
There have been other unexplained events, but the biggest reason that Surveillance Cameras are needed is that someone stole the cameras which were purchased with donated money, wasting about $150.00 of our generous member’s money. As a result of this theft, we sought the advice of a security camera specialist and a new, more sophisticated system has been installed. If there is any theft of the new cameras, the backup equipment records and downloads it.
It’s been reported that a man in a hoodie robbed the Dollar General and used our community for his escape route. Maybe even hid out in an absent member’s shed while the Sheriff’s Department was looking for him.
Because of the mixed reviews on surveillance equipment, rather than making it a Board decision, we want our members to participate in the decision whether to keep the cameras. Please come in person to vote or send your representative. Discussion using our meeting rules will precede the vote. Let’s not “wait until the horse is stolen to lock the barn door”!
Dee LeMay, President
Sebring Falls Property Owners Association