News from Sea Pines - November 2019
Welcome to the Winter 2019 edition of the Sea Pines e-newsletter! The newsletter and website aim to keep you up-to-date on all the Sea Pines news you'll need. All e-newsletters are posted on the website and printed copies are maintained at the Club House.
We welcome your comments to the editor at the email address below.
Sea Pines Survey Results - your voices have been heard!
The Facilities Management Board (FMB) extends a big thank you to the Sea Pines community for its enthusiastic response to the owner opinion survey distributed in September. One hundred forty unit owners participated in the survey, more than double the number heard from in response to the inaugural poll that took place in 2014. All four condominium phases and approximately 80% of total households were represented.
The purpose of the survey was to provide the FMB with non-anecdotal insight into homeowner priorities and concerns across a broad range of topics. Intelligence from the survey has already been used to inform policy, procedures, governance and budgeting and will continue to guide the FMB over the next several years. The complete survey results will be presented and discussed at the 2020 Sea Pines annual meeting on Memorial Day weekend.
Get to know your FMB representatives
Phase II (Grove Lane)
With this issue we begin a series of short profiles of members of the Facilities Management Board. These hardworking volunteers devote countless hours in service to the Sea Pines community. They want to know their constituents and hear their opinions and concerns – so step up and introduce yourself!
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Tom McGrail
Tom, his wife Ann, and their college-age daughter have been part of the community since 2011. Like many other Sea Pines owners they’ve moved within the property, starting out on Landing Lane and then upsizing to a larger unit on Grove Lane. Tom cites this phenomenon as testament to people’s attachment to Sea Pines. He has served on the board as communications committee chair since 2017. Tom often finds his professional background helpful in FMB business; he spent 33 years as a tax attorney in the financial services and public accounting arena. He lives in Pinehills, Plymouth where among other things, he reads mysteries and collects political memorabilia. Tom’s most treasured artifacts are 1840s-era ballots.
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Peter Smiledge
Peter joined the FMB in 2013, five years after purchasing at Sea Pines in 2008. He serves as vice-president and clerk of the board. Along with others on the FMB, Peter has taken a special interest in communications, board finances and reserve planning. He is a UConn graduate and began his professional life as a pharmacist but devoted most of his career to sales and general management in the field of health care information technology. A Red Sox fan, Peter counts cooking, wine, and crossword puzzles among his passions and volunteers as a docent at two of Boston’s most important institutions, Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library. He and his wife Lynn and meticulously well-behaved (?) French Bulldog Winnie live in Boston.
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Terry Milligan
Gardener, bird watcher, fisherman, chemist, Italophile and fado music fan, Terry Milligan is a familiar face year-round at Sea Pines. Terry purchased a unit on Landing Lane in 1995 and at his retirement, moved a stone’s throw away to Grove Lane and established fulltime residency. Terry has been actively engaged in the life of Sea Pines as a member of the FMB since 1997, serving as president, interim president and vice president. He is widely respected for his pragmatism, sense of humor, and ability to run an ultra-efficient meeting. Terry holds a PhD in organic chemistry and began and ended his 41-year working life at Polaroid, where he led the effort to develop color film for the Polaroid camera as manager of the color photography research lab. See the Spring 2019 issue of the Sea Pines Newsletter for a complete profile of Terry.
Winterization musts!
To prevent costly disasters from frozen pipes, it is essential that all homeowners turn off the water in their unit when it is not occupied and set the thermostat to a minimum of 55 degrees. If you’ve forgotten or are unable to do this during the winter months, submit a maintenance request through Mercantile.
Store dog food and seeds of any kind only in tightly sealed containers in your garage. These foodstuffs attract rodents that have spread throughout garage banks at Sea Pines and necessitated budgeting additional money for pest control.
Questions or comments about this e-newsletter should be directed to Lynn Smiledge [Email ]