Today, it takes very little time and effort to become well informed. All we have to do is pick up a newspaper, turn on cable television, listen to Sirius radio or log on to the internet and Google the subject matter that is of interest. We are inundated with news and information.

At Holliday Park, our volunteer Board of Directors takes seriously their responsibility of keeping the membership informed, too. They do this through a quarterly publication of a newsletter, called the STATUS QUO.

Getting the Status Quo ready takes a village! There are approximately 55 busy volunteers involved in the process of publishing the newsletter. These faithful volunteers are called the Status Quo Committee. The Issues are published quarterly – in the Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.

Before the Status Quo Committee can go to work, they need to be provided with informative articles. The responsibility for these articles belongs to the Board Members, Property Manager, Chairpersons of Committees and Coordinators of Social Clubs. There are certain pages that remain constant: a page of Announcements and Reminders; Important Telephone Numbers; a Monthly Financial Statement of Income/Expenses and Reserves; and a page for members to submit Unclassified Ads.

The Board Members write about what was discussed or decided at their Board Meeting; they explain the Budget items; distribute Policy revisions; recognize our over 300 volunteers; talk about marketability; announce the pool opening date, and other pertinent events which will be taking place in coming weeks and months.

The Property Manager explains the process that will be followed for pending major projects, such as: painting of the steel doors, the installation of new furnaces and some new carports; and keeps us informed of governmental housing regulations, and much more.

Committees Chairpersons relay relevant information dealing with their Committee work, for a particular season. For example: In the Winter Issue, the Traffic and Safety Committee will remind us of moving our vehicles from the street during snow emergencies. In the Summer Issue, the Building and Grounds Committee will motivate us to beautify our flower bed areas in compliance with our policies.

Club Coordinators have the most fun. They tell us about all the Social Events that are coming up, giving details as to time, place and event. The Fall Issue might describe the Children’s Halloween Party or the Walk-About Yard Sale; and the Summer Issue would announce the Pool Party with its many water-related games, and prizes. Certain topics are talked about year round, like the card games, bunco, dominoes, koffee klutch, traveling to new destinations, and the start up of even more clubs and activities.

Once the articles have been submitted, the “Assembly Line of Workers” begins the publishing process. These workers include a skilled typist who is very familiar with computer composition and file sharing; and 4 or 5 teams of people who duplicate the pages on a high-end, very efficient Duplicating Machine.

Then, a third group collates the pages of text, and gives them to a final group to staple the pages together. From there the paper finds its way to the volunteers who count the completed newsletters into stacks according to the numbers of residents in our 26 parking lots. The last job is done by the distributors who go door to door and deliver a Status Quo Issue to each of the 694 units in our housing complex.

The person who has all the “headaches”, is the Chairperson of the Status Quo Committee. The Chairperson must coordinate all of the above, and do it on a timely basis. No matter how much work there is, our current Chairperson’s smile and patience remain constant.

This entire process is completed by a very committed work group of individuals who believe that information, and keeping members informed, is vitally necessary to the success which this cooperative enjoys.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Holliday Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.