February 3, 2022
Howdy Fellow Owners,
I was humbled and honored to be elected not just to the Board of Directors, but as your President as well. We are nearing the six month mark in the current term and there is still a lot of work to be done! My vision for our community--beyond fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of the Association--is to encourage more engagement among the owners and to seek updates and improvements to the Covenants which regulate our subdivision--based on as much of a consensus as possible of the views and desires of our current owners. ALL owners matter. Our Community matters.
At the first full Board of Directors meeting after I took office, the Board moved immediately to (re)charter a number of Committees to help serve our community and the responsibilities of our Association. You can find more information about the Committees under the "Committees" tab above. Some of our Committees are not yet to full strength, so we need your help! Are you willing to serve on a Committee? Is there a Committee that handles an issue for which you have great passion? Drop me an email and I am happy to appoint you! If you are an owner, that's all it takes--just put your hand up! If you are a non-owner, I will need to submit your request to the Board of Directors for confirmation before the appointment can be confirmed.
Transparency matters, too! All of our regular meetings of the Board of Directors are not only open to be attended in person, but owners may now also log in remotely via the BlueJeans video conferencing system. One of my companies donate the cast, so the ULWSA can benefit from this powerful platform at no cost to the owners. I encourage all owners to attend. We have also established an "Owner Forum" agenda item for all regular meetings of the Board--where any owner may address the Board, uninterrupted, for up to three minutes each. Then, we also established an "Owner Questions" agenda item for all regular meetings of the Board where any attending owner (in person or via video conference) may ask the Board questions to help them understand anything that happened during the Board meeting.
Another transparency initiative that is in progress is the scanning and posting of all available records of the Association. Owners have always had the right to examine the records of the Association, upon request. But it always seemed onerous to me in my past Association memberships, so I took it upon myself to scan everything that would be available to an owner upon request--thus over-fulfilling the requirement to make our records available. Related to this effort, I thank Matt Neuerburg for lending the Association a high-speed document scanner to aid in this endeavor.
The roads in our subdivision vary in their condition and I am pleased to report that in addition to the road work performed by the previous Board, we were able to undertake some pretty extensive repairs to Bachelor Creek Ct. During the January Board meeting, the Board formally asked that the Roads Committee review the condition of bridges and signage for roads within the responsibility of the Association to maintain and we look forward to making sure that everything is in great shape! I especially thank both Chris Rodke and Mark Hinschberger for their efforts towards addressing road conditions and repairs.
For many owners, horses are among their passions and we have many owners with horses here in the community. I thank Gail Bertagnolli Rae for her unending support for making sure that the ULWSCS is a horse-friendly community. Towards that end, we are looking into new road signage to caution drivers of horses on the road. But more importantly, we have reached out to the Warm Springs Water District to gain their permission to encroach slightly on the corner of one of their lots so that we can build a horse gate next to the cattle guard at the upper entrance to the Forest Service land. The need for the horse gate is truly obvious when one realizes that owners in our community have to trailer their horses across the cattle guard in order to go riding on the Forest Service roads beyond the upper entrance. Among the Board members, we have already secured the volunteer labor and donated materials to make this happen at no cost to the owners.
Towards the goal of Covenant and Bylaw updates, I will soon be calling together the owners for an informal community forum to discuss what everyone believes to be the priorities--and what should be left just the way it is. I would assume that the existing character and nature of our community is why the mast majority of us bought lots in the ULWSCS and I can tell you that my husband and I are definitely among those who moved here "on purpose" to be a part of such a wonderful community as ours.
The Board approved my offer to donate and develop a CiviCRM-based web site for the Association (the one you are looking at) and I have been working on an ongoing basis to get it up and running. There are MANY features and capabilities which are not yet live, but soon will be. Do you have web developer skills, or are you a good writer? Please reach out to me if you are willing to help develop our web site. Soon, we will be able to submit ACC applications online and have centralized tracking of them; same goes for issue tracking for owners who are requesting things or who are complaining about anything.
I know that many folks in positions of leadership or claim to have an "open door" policy, but I really mean it. If you have concerns, ideas, initiatives or anything else that you would like to discuss with me in my role as the current President, please reach out to me! I'm happy to meet up for coffee, schedule a call, hold a video conference, or whatever is mutually convenient. I take constructive criticism exceedingly well and I will always act in ways which represent the best interests of my fellow owners and our Association, both of whom I am privileged to serve. The best way to initiate contact is to email me at [ president at ulwsa dot org ], or you may even use my personal address at [ eriks at wyoming dot com ]. Please be patient for a reply as I cannot always check my email daily. If you prefer written correspondence, you may reach me and the Board at: PO Box 692, Dubois WY 82513 or if you prefer to write to me directly: PO Box 7, Dubois WY 82513.
Happy Trails!
Eriks Goodwin
President, ULWSA