Pinehurst Village Committee Minutes

September 1, 2004-FINAL

Regular Monthly Committee Meeting

 

Call to Order

 

            Tom Pellegrino called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.  Those in attendance were:  Guy Reese, Sasha Raab, Dottie Ward, Jim Reis, Tom Pellegrino, Mike Smith and Mary Patil.  Quorum was confirmed and the meeting proceeded. 

 

Approval of March 3, 2004 Regular Monthly Committee Meeting Minutes

 

            The meeting minutes of the April 7, 2004 meeting were distributed in advance to all attendees via email prior to this meeting.  Tom Pellegrino motioned to accept the minutes with no corrections.  Sasha Raab seconded the motion.  The minutes were approved unanimously by the attendees. 

 

Review of each Action Item Status

 

The Secretary (Mary Patil) forgot to bring a most recent copy of the Action Item report, so we had to go off of memory.  As suggested at the last meeting, Sasha Raab had prepared a report for Joy Gurley on the scope and purpose of the Pinehurst Website proposal.  Tom agreed with the content and supported the idea of Sasha working with Joy on this.  The rest of the attendees agreed as well with no changes to the document.  Sasha will now provide this report to Joy and will report back what the response is and the next step in this project.

 

 

New Business

 

Tom commented that he felt it was time for the committee to take a new direction and reassess our goals and what we want to accomplish.  He suggested that we have a roundtable discussion on ideas.  Tom suggested that we focus on projects that are optimistic and idealistic such as the enhancement of all of Pinehurst in some way.  Tom suggested that committee members could come to the October meeting with at least 5 ideas of things we can do as a committee and then we could discuss them all and choose the best ones to move forward with.  Another example Tom mentioned was the effort to get signature on the proposal to make the area reserved for the Pinehurst Pool into a play/basketball area for the residents to enjoy; especially since it is a universal opinion that the pool will never be built due to the lack of funds and planning according to the deadline the county set.   Tom felt that we should pick one major project and do it really well.   Everyone present agreed with Tom’s sentiments and opinions.  Dottie Ward suggested that we move ahead with an idea NOW rather than wait for the next meeting.  Dottie and Sasha suggested that we do a FALLFEST and if we wait till the next meeting to plan (October) it will be too late to actually hold the event.   Everyone present agreed.  Dottie suggested that the FallFest be held the first weekend in November; November 6th.   Mary Patil asked “Where?”.  Dottie responded that the spoon was the easiest and most central area (location where proposed Pinehurst Pool is to be built on entrance to Pinehurst East).  Dottie felt that the ‘bowl’ area was too difficult to work with due to the steep hills.

 

Dottie and Sasha had a number of ideas for the activities that could be included in the FallFest; including a cookout, bob for apples, scarecrow making and a 5K walk/run.  Sasha stated that resident Mark Balls should be able to assist with the 5K run/walk and could lead up that effort for them (including the path for the walk to take in Pinehurst).  Everyone present agreed that a walk/run through Pinehurst would be fun and challenging with our natural hills.  Mike Smith commented that the kids could even ride the bikes if desired.  Tom suggested that we have some games for the kids.  Sasha and Dottie suggested that a bake sale could be included along with prizes for the Walk/Run and other games.  Tom commented that he only needed a task list and he and his wife would be ready and willing to help in anyway to make the event happen.  Dottie suggested that he could communicate with Joy/LLA office to determine if we could get tables and chairs like we did for the Eggstravaganza in the Spring and get the Pinehurst Officer (NAME?) involved as well.  Tom agreed and said he would also call Joy about the big grill that was used at the end of Summer Hop to see if we could acquire that for the cookout portion.  Sasha suggested that they contact resident Dan Burke to see if he could assist with Hay Rides.  

 

Guy Reese commented that we will probably need to meet more than once to plan this event and be ready to go by November 6th, especially if we plan to advertise the event in Lake Talk.  Everyone present agreed.  Tom suggested that Dottie and Sasha work on the scope of activities they’d like to incorporate and we could set a follow up meeting for mid-month to work on the task list.  Dottie commented that the deadline for the Lake Talk is the 15th of each month making it impossible to wait for the next meeting to decide how to advertise the event in Lake Talk.  After some brief discussion, it was agreed that Dottie would send a general announcement to Joy immediately following the meeting in order to make the October edition.  The announcement would tell readers to “stay tuned for further details” in the next edition of Lake Talk.  That would give us the ability to advertise the event in both October and November issues. 

 

Guy Reese inquired what the ‘rain date’ would be.  The group discussed briefly and decided that Sunday the 7th would be best since so many food items would have been purchased for the event on Saturday.  Guy inquired about the starting time.  Dottie threw out the idea of starting at noon with the Walk/Run which would end at the spoon for the rest of the festivities.  Mike Smith commented that they might want to consider that some people will be coming from church if it gets moved to Sunday.  Guy clarified that the starting time was more dependant on the scope of the activities including the 5K run/walk, and how long it is predicted to take to complete.  He clarified his point by commenting that it might take 1 hour with mostly adult runners, but perhaps 1.5 hours or more if the kids are along.  Dottie suggested that the race start earlier such as 11 and the entire event run till about 3 or 4 pm.  Guy suggested that the race be arranged so that it flows into everything else and consider that most participants will not be experienced runners.  Sasha clarified that if Mark Balls could not assist them with the 5K race portion, they would not be able to handle that themselves.  Tom suggested that they call Mark as soon as possible to ascertain his ability to handle it and report back to the group to decide on the scope and timing of the remaining events.

 

Sasha confirmed that Joy should be able to squeeze in an announcement if she receives something by the 15th.  Guy inquired whether the FallFest was only for Pinehurst residents.  Dottie and Sasha responded with a resounding no!  Ultimately their goal was to include ALL of Lake Linganore and all were welcome to participate.  Tom commented that the End of Summer Hop reflected a good sense of community and was well attended.  Tom felt that other residents in the other villages will want to be involved.  Sasha responded by stating that her opinion was that these kinds of things are for ALL of Lake Linganore to show what kind of community we are as a whole.  Sasha and Dottie suggested we all meet again on September 15th to report back on results with different proposed facets of the event and go over the scope and task list.  Sasha stated that she would work on a draft of the scope and send it via email in advance of the meeting.  Mike Smith asked if they plan to put flyers around in the bulletin boards at the mailboxes as well.  Dottie and Sasha responded “absolutely!”.

 

Mike Smith commented that the resident that was present at a meeting over the summer (John LeClair) offered to do the Pinehurst website and suggested that he could do it in ‘no time’.   Sasha clarified that Joy had wanted to know more information about our purpose for the website and email and that is why she wrote the report that we all received via email prior to the meeting.  Tom expressed his concern that we all know what we are doing and when.  Guy commented that unfortunately we always seem to do something and then stop the flow of energy (ex the Eggstravaganza was a success but then we did nothing to follow up with it).  Guy suggested that we plan events so that one flows into the next and we can keep the energy and enthusiasm up.  Guy gave an example of the website and his suggestion of promoting it at the FallFest to residents so that they know it is coming.  Then the website can be used to promote future events.   If we don’t work towards this, then suddenly we are just an events committee.  Sasha agreed that it doesn’t flow well to just appear for events.  Tom agreed that we’ve got good ideas, but we’ve only had agreement on the Eggstavaganza and the FallFest.  But we do need to find some project to benefit Pinehurst as a whole, agree on it and then work on accomplishing something.   Guy suggested that we focus on tackling smaller things; not the roads, not the dredging project.  Guy suggested that we work with the trails committee on helping work on the eroding trails; they’ll love the help and then we can say “look what we did as a committee!”.  Tom agreed clarifying that we pick something proportional to what we can handle.  However, he reminded us that we do need to have a consensus on the idea first, get group agreement and then we all need to get behind the effort.  Dottie mentioned the clean up/beautification project as an example in that they had no publicity for the project, they didn’t advertise in Lake Talk , they had a pitiful showing of residents but it still made a difference because they (Dottie and Sasha and the few residents that joined them) got behind the idea.  Guy said that hopefully people will see that we are a community group and then join in the effort.  Sasha commented that if you overwhelm people; you’ll lose them.  She suggested using the email loop to let people know we’re doing some things differently.  Guy suggested that we look at the people we’re trying to entice in.  Guy said that concrete, tangible things are needed; such as FallFest followed by a Pinehurst cleanup 3 weeks later. The hope is that they’ll put it on their calendars and just show up.   Guy clarified that as long as the members of the committee can agree to disagree and get a consensus, that is all we need.  100% agreement is not necessary, and we only meet 1x a month, so it is difficult to get things accomplished if we don’t work in this manner.  Sasha commented that she thought that Jim Reis had set out a rule at the beginning that we will all work for consensus but accept that sometimes we have to agree to disagree for the good of the group.  Jim Reis clarified that normally there are few circumstances that won’t automatically meet this criteria.  Jim stated that we can continue to brainstorm in real time or table this discussion at this time and move forward with the agenda.   Guy suggested that a Fall clean up would be a good follow up event.  Dottie commented that decorating for Christmas would be the next event after that. 

 

A discussion ensued briefly, with Guy asking for clarification of what the next event would be following FallFest.  Sasha reminded the group that so many residents attended the Eggstravaganza but unfortunately we don’t have anyway to contact any of them and we should definitely make sure that we don’t let that happen again.  Tom suggested that we all take the 2 weeks to come up with 5 ideas each.  Mike Smith suggested that we could work on the surface drains that flood with every rain or melted snow in winter.  Dottie suggested that we could do another clean up effort and call it “Pinehurst Pride”.  Tom responded that it was certainly a great way to teach our kids values.  Guy agreed commenting that it was key to our success.  Dottie suggested that whatever event we do in the future, that we ensure that the concept ties back to this theme; “Pinehurst Pride”.   Guy commented that it should be our committee’s Motto! Mike Smith agreed it was a good title for the website, but reminded us that John (proposed resident/webmaster) will need the scope of what we want to do with the site.  Guy inquired whether you get to the other village websites by going through the LLA site.  Sasha responded that she tried it and only Westwinds had any content on their site.  But Sasha commented that we may need to use the LLA website to link to the Pinehurst site.  Mike Smith commented that it would be the better option as we would not have to pay the monthly fee in that scenario.  Sasha inquired how email would be handled and whether it too would go through the LLA.  Tom responded that he understood it was Joy’s concern that if we did we might receive urgent LLA related emails which is what they want to avoid.  Tom suggested that we invite Joy and John (proposed webmaster) to meet with a few members of the committee to discuss the project further.  Sasha agreed to contact Joy and get the parameters.  Mike suggested that she also get the mg bytes of available space on the site.   Sasha asked the group if everyone had looked at her report and whether there were any proposed changes or additions before she provided it to Joy.  Jim Reis commented that ultimately it was all changeable and that what she proposed was really an acceptable start.  Sasha commented that perhaps we could even let Real Estate Agents list houses on the site.  Mary Patil commented that there might be legal issues with that.  Guy agreed and suggested that there were other ways for residents and interested buyers to access the information separately.  All present agreed that Sasha report was fine with no changes. 

 

Mary asked if we are going to use the money raised at the Eggstravaganza to fund the FallFest event.  Dottie responded yes and that we got $150 from LLA to start with to which we can add the $90 we raised at Eggstravaganza; giving us at least $240 for the event.

 

Tom Pellegrino suggested that we had hit all the important points and suggested we adjourn the meeting.

 

Adjournment

 

            Tom Pellegrino made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  The motion was seconded by Guy Reese.  The attendees unanimously agreed.  The meeting was adjourned at 7:27 pm.