Constitution of phase 2 community

• Will he/she speak Spanish? There are other languages at La Canada as well as English and Spanish but, it would not be necessary to speak Spanish as the administrators would deal with all translation.

• Will all be treated equally regardless of their nationality or if they are full time residents or not? I am sure that there are no individuals at La Canada who would discriminate any person.

• How are people informed? And should phase 2 have their own web site? With every meeting that is held there is a legal requirement that the minutes should be taken which will then be sent out to all homeowners. There is already a website set up for La Canada so I don’t understand why two would need to be in place as it would be far easier for all to use the same one as it is assessable to all and most of what would be on the website would be duplicate.

• How would they ensure that no decisions would be made without home owners being informed? No decisions can be made without the community be consulted and being called to an EGM. If the individual can not attend then they give their proxy vote to either the administrator or another individual.

• How will they arrange meetings? All will be notified within a legal time frame about a meeting taking place and giving the individual the opportunity to attend or to give a proxy vote.

• Disputes or disagreements between community owners? Hopefully these will be resolved amicably but, if not then I am sure that the administrators would step in to help resolve the situation.

• Will all meetings be transparent? Meetings unless EGM/AGM such as with administrators, individual home owners are confidential and are not to be discussed with any other person/persons but, as stated above if it is a community meeting minutes will be taken for all concerned.

• Communal fees? Communal fees are collected by the administrator usually by direct debit and not by the president. If an individual does not pay then legal action would be taken to recover the monies owing.

In reply to Gazza's posting, no I do not have any experience whatsoever of being a president of a community or even being a member of a community, hence all the questions (and I have no intention of applying for the position). It appears that Gazza does have experience, and so I am assuming (perhaps wrongly) that he is on Phase 1 and has been through the experience of forming a community. I, and many others have never experienced it, and I think it is a very important time for Phase 2 and as such, I feel justified in asking questions.  I did not intend to be provocative, I just was looking for information, and yes, I am grateful to anyone who would put themselves up for this position, and that of vice president, as it will take up a lot of their time and energy.  I know that more than one person is considering these posts, and, much as everyone appreciates what a good neighbour Jean is, and what a lovely person she is, it is only fair to allow everyone the chance to tell us what they can offer. And I am still in the dark as to the background of Jean's potential vice president.

 I agree with Roo's reply to Gazza, this is a massively important time for our development and as most of us have zero experience with community set up etc it is obvious questions will be asked that require clear and polite answers - this is not an indication of candidate favoritism of vise versa just the collation of information to better understand the process, workings and people at the helm of the community - perfectly reasonable I feel. Clearly no bad feeling is ment as i would hope we are a friendly community who only have the interests of fellow residents/owners at heart.

I feel that the tone and content of Gazza's postings have attacked me for asking questions regarding the formation of the Phase 2 community and I now have to defend my actions. Firstly, at least I was showing an interest in the election, which makes a change from the apathy that normally greets an election in the UK!   I apologise to anyone who found my post 'worrying'.  Clearly the tone that I meant to convey, ie enquiring but friendly, was misinterpreted by some people, as is often the case with written material. I merely wanted to start a dialogue between the entire community of Phase 2, as many of us have not met each other and live far away from La Canada.  I don't consider that any of my questions could not be answered by potential candidates because anyone considering the post surely MUST have thought about how they would keep people informed. They MUST have researched the process of forming a community and know that meetings would take place and people would want to know how to make their opinions known. It is therefore reasonable to ask what conclusions they have reached. I did not ask what the community fee would be, I merely asked how they intended to ensure it would be collected from everyone? I felt it reasonable to ask how they would keep everyone infomed about issues affecting the community - the website was my suggestion, but perhaps they had a different idea and I wondered if they had - why is it  worrying to ask that?  And if they could not answer any of the questions, then what was wrong with them saying so? What was wrong with them saying, sorry, I just don't have the knowledge yet, but I am looking into it, or something like that? That was the kind of dialogue that I was attempting to get started, but Gazza's misinterpretation of my intentions will, I fear, do the exact opposite to what I hoped to achieve -  anyone else who has any questions to ask on this forum regarding the process of forming a community will, I am sure, now think twice for fear of being branded as acting in an intimidating manner.  This may have the effect of driving any transparency and openness that we could have hoped for within our community underground. For me,  this experience has soured the whole process so, I will leave you to it -  'que sera sera'.

As i do not know but It would appear that Gazza is on phase 1 and it also appears that Gazza is heavily involved in phase 1 community, this being the case may i respectfully ask why are you so interested in phase 2 community and correct me if i am wrong it has nothing to do with phase 1 community - why also may i ask are you so interested in who represents us as president on phase 2, now there may be a very good reason but as we are a seperate entity it should not be a concern of anyone not on phase 2 development.



This message was last edited by manion on 9/29/2008.

This message was last edited by manion on 9/30/2008.

This message was last edited by manion on 9/30/2008.

Having read the threads of the last week I am sure I am not alone in feeling this has got out of hand.  So perhaps it would be an idea to all start again.  
Jean Bevan has put herself up for President of Phase 2 with Charlie Lindsey as Vice President.  We all know from various threads how hard Jean has worked over the summer dealing with the condition of the pool etc.  
Is there anyone else who plans to stand?  I am sure most owners will be happy to see more than one applicant even if they plan on voting for Jean.
If someone from Phase 1 is interested in Phase 2 then surely we must use this to our advantage.  Phase 1 have already been through the business of voting for a president and dealing with administrators and therefore have a wealth of knowledge that we in Phase 2 could tap into.
Surely we do not want to create a "them and us" situation - i.e. Phase 1 and Phase 2.      We are all owners at La Canada, regardless of which phase.
I, for one, am thankful that Mrs Bevan is standing for President.  As Roo said previously, it is a thankless task.  And it does need someone who lives at La Canada permanently.
Perhaps Jean, or whoever is finally voted as President,  will be happy to receive any assistance and advice from the people on Phase 1? 
Unfortunately, when people make comments on a forum it is difficult to judge their tone.  It would be a shame for anyone to think that they cannot now put their point of view forward or ask reasonable questions, as for those of us who do not live at La Canada  this is our only way of keeping in touch.