August 3, 2007

Dear Neighbors,

The FMB met on July 28. I was not able to attend but this newsletter has been prepared with input from Frank Pease. Incidentally, our Clerk, Vera Fields, provides useful information to me every month when she prepares the minutes after the FMB meeting.

Financials: Treasurer Frank Fiorentino reported that we continue on budget for most categories. High legal expenses, which the Board anticipated, have prevented us from making monthly deposits to some of our reserve accounts. The FMB will have to grapple with this matter and resolve it in the next couple of months.

Grounds and Maintenance Committee: This group and our on-site maintenance staff are coping with the usual, for this time of year, long list of owner requests. However, some owners have demanded that problems be addressed at once, rather than wait for the request to be handled in order of receipt. As noted in a recent newsletter, the G&M Committee will honor requests out of sequence only in the case of an emergency.

As with all committees at Sea Pines, members are owners who volunteer their time and expertise. The G&M Committee is the busiest group at Sea Pines but the members are not 24/7 employees. Any owner willing to serve on a committee need only inform Dave Sullivan, FMB President, of this willingness and that wish will be granted.

Bluff Committee: Pruning resumed in the early days of August, in accordance with our Order of Conditions as issued by the Brewster Conservation Commission. This second pruning began early in July but was aborted immediately by the CC's agent due to problems involved with interpreting the CC's language in the OOC. The Bluff Committee has already submitted language to the CC in order to clear up the confusion caused by the language in the OOC for Sea Pines.

Pool Committee: This group requested approval of an additional $500 for our pool designer's contract for redesign work. The change would create a single broad center stairway to the pool from the clubhouse; the original proposal calls for two narrower staircases, one at each side of the wall facing the clubhouse. The new stairway would provide a much-improved sight line from the clubhouse to the pool.

Insurance Committee: Good news! John Phelan reported that Traveler's has agreed to renew our policy for an annual premium of $108,751, an increase of about $4,000 over our current policy. This increase is well below the 30+% increases in recent years. Travelers also increased our blanket-building-limit coverage to $22,337,000 vs. $19,035,000 for the expiring policy. There are other plusses and minuses with the new policy, and John has some factors concerning owners' own insurance coverage of which he wants homeowners to be reminded. These issues will be detailed at a later date in a letter from the managing agent.

Miscellaneous Item: Unit owners present at the meeting raised concerns over road safety, particularly with children without helmets riding bikes, and adults and children walking on Sea Pines Drive with, not facing, traffic. Massachusetts state law requires bicycles to travel with traffic and pedestrians must travel against traffic. I remember reading that Will Rogers opined that "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." And Rogers also stated "Never miss a good chance to shut up." On that note....

For the FMB,

Jim Dalton