Dear Neighbors,

Unfortunately, our vaunted scribe Jim Dalton has had to resign from the FMB and his newsletter tasks due to health issues. He expects to be fine eventually but also expects to be unable to attend any more meetings until he is "repaired." Thus, we are looking for a replacement newsletter maven. Please contact David Sullivan or Terry Milligan if you would be willing to produce the newsletter. Lacking a consistent scribe, the frequency of newsletter publication (and jocularity thereof) will diminish and that would be a real shame, seeing as how it is considered by many as a vital method of important communication to Sea Pines owners.

We welcome John Phelan to the FMB! John filled the position vacated by Bob Orem, who sold his unit (although he and JoAnn are now renting at Sea Pines!)

Financials. We continue to be pretty much on target for 2008. The process of drafting the budget for 2009 is underway and is expected to be finalized and approved at the December 6 meeting. Substantial time and effort has also been spent on updating the 20 year plan for Reserve Expenditures. Many thanks to Bob Morse (especially his MS Excel spreadsheets and real-time budget planning updates during meetings), Frank Fiorentino and Craig McGowan for spearheading these challenging tasks and demystifying them to a very large extent.

Grounds. A request for a fireplace stove insert was approved after our insurance company approved the same, stipulating that it was subject to proper installation and approval by the Brewster Fire Department. A request to add a dormer was submitted and passed on to the FMB which denied it.

Residing Project. A contractor has been selected to re-shingle the 15 units involved in this project. It is hoped that the project will get underway this month and be completed by mid-May. Good news: the contract costs are in line with the lower end cost projections. Noblin Associates will oversee the work and general contractor.

Legal. As usual, the wheels of the legal system grind very slowly. There is no substantive news on the status of either the abutter's claim that our boats interfere with his granted non-exclusive easement to the portion of beach in front of his home, or of his efforts to persuade the Conservation Commission to have our boats moved because of alleged damage to the beach dune.

The adverse possession lawsuit, handled and funded solely by a few homeowners, has been resolved, partially in Sea Pines favor. The small area of grass that Sea Pines had been mowing and treating as its own for 20 years has been granted to Sea Pines, as well as the right to prune trees and shrubs which hang over from the abutter's property onto Sea Pines property.

Insurance. The effort to seek information on the costs to obtain insurance for flood damage to the units closest to the Bay has produced the anticipated results - it's extremely expensive. This will not be pursued.

Clubhouse. A new treadmill has been purchased for the exercise room. Details on it can be found on the web site at http://seapinesbrewster.com/exercise_room.html.

Etc. If you've lived at Sea Pines for many years and are interested in reminiscing or are a fairly new owner and interested in knowing Sea Pines history, check out the list of newsletters and other documents from 1974 on, posted on the web site at http://seapinesbrewster.com/newsletters.html.

Note that there's nothing from 1973 or 1975 and not much from 1974, 1976-1979. If you've got any missing newsletters from the FMB or the developer, sales brochures, other interesting documents or copies of any of the 1989 FMB minutes, please contact me at 508-533-4680 or . Thanks!

Back in the day, Sea Pines used to have some pretty good Christmas and New Year's parties in the Clubhouse. Details on these can be found in the copies of the Tidings from the early 80's. Hmmmm...

For the FMB, have a healthy, pleasant and warm Thanksgiving!

Christopher Wroten