THE FIRST DECADE-- 1980 -- 1990

 

          The administrative needs of the original campground were radically different from the little community that O.R. has become.  Originally there was little development or commercial activity and few condominiums on the island.  What evolved into the administrative offices was mostly a good old campground store, site rental agency and, until all lots were sold, a sales office.  The evolving cooperative operated originally under a 5 member Board of Directors with 3 of the positions, including the President, occupied by Bryn Mawr officials.  This continued until March 1981 after all the lots were sold, when the Board was composed purely of shareholders and expanded to 7.  At that time the new Ocean Resorts logo was adopted and the initial committees were formed.  They were Beautification and Maintenance, Communications and Grievance, and Newsletter.

          The store had a refrigerated unit that occupied nearly a quarter of what is now the office building.  The store handled anything from milk to charcoal plus served as a rental agency for camp sites.  They also sold propane.  In early years there was a resident manager who lived in an elevated octagonal house just northwest of the current office building (old store).  What eventually became the Post Office was originally Comfort Station #1 and all resident's mail was processed through the main office.  Both unit sales and rentals were handled by the CO-OP.

          There was little stability in OR management and administration in the 1980's.  Managers were hired and fired.  Board members were removed or resigned.  At one point the President, Vice President, and Secretary resigned in mass.  At another point the President resigned and the Vice President called a special Board meeting and told them they could make him president of have nominations.  They had nominations and someone else was elected so he resigned.  The Boards, in the early years, got into much or the day to day management.  The greatest problems were controlling lot lines, maintenance of all sorts, managing the finances, providing for security/entry control (gate guard), and handling people issues.  There were security issues, the store was robbed several times, and in 1983 the company providing guard service was dismissed.   It appears that committees came and went or had purposes altered without Board action.  By spring of 1986 there were  14 committees; those being Activities, Beautification and Planning, By-Laws, Elections, Finance, Grievances, Lot Lines, Maintenance, Marina, Policies and Procedures, Pool, Security and Traffic, Store, and Tennis.  It is noteworthy that several of the very active early unit owners are still very active in 2011.  Ida Smith was into Activities matters, (See navigation button COMMITTEES - "subhead" Activities) recovered from a heart attack, was on the Board in the mid 1980' and remains active in 2011.  Likewise Alex Rabitaille was into tennis and park maintenance matters (including trimming palm trees in the early years), was on the Board, and remains active and supportive of O.R. in 2011.  (See MEMBER'S WRITINGS - "My Fun at Ocean Resorts") 

 

In addition to lot line issues, the elevation of units that entered on wheels and became permanently fixed became a point of contention.  This initiated the first work toward what ended up in the By-Laws regarding elevations.  In the fall of 1986 there were rules that wheels and tires must be retained affixed to the vehicle or unit and the tires could not be elevated more than 4 inches above the pad.  Screen room add-ons were entering the picture and their regulation was a challenge.  The first speed bumps in the park were installed in 1986. Speed bumps were installed and removed several times over the years.  In 1987 the county Real Estate taxes were assigned by the county to the individual lot leasers rather than in bulk to the cooperative.  This allowed shareholders to take advantage of the tax relief for residents called "Homesteading". 

          By the fall of 1987 the Board decided to search for and hire a management company.  This resulted in the hiring of OMNISERV at the beginning of 1988 and Norton Field, Jr. entered the picture as their on site manager.  By the fall of that year CPM replaced OMNISERV on a management support contract, but Norton remained with O.R. as an O.R. employee.

          When Norton Field arrived on the scene there were 14 employees including the manager. The management and administrative side ran the store, kept the books, managed the rental operation, did all secretarial work, helped assure the park was operated in accord with laws and rules, handled share sale/transfers, sited the placement of new units, and partially controlled park entry.  The maintenance staff maintained the water, sewer and electrical utilities operations, cut the grass and trees, collected trash and brush, did the building housekeeping, operated the pool, maintained streets (and paths) and their lighting as well as all building lighting, and many other essential services too numerous to mention.  The manager frequently did double duty in both administrative and maintenance areas.  He could be seen out digging ditches if needed there.  In those days all record keeping was by the good old paper and pencil.  There were adding machines to aid the math area and manual typewriters to deal with formal documents.  You can even find some old thermo-fax copies of documents in the archives.  Maintenance did not have the modern tools and problem detection devices they use today, nor did they travel to/from their work sites in golf cart/tool carriers.

          By the end of the 1980s, store usage and campsite rentals were on a decline and causing financial strain.  A special Reality Committee was formed to try to increase the rental traffic.  It was decided to reduce the size of the store and the cooler and add an office in the space gained.  Also the park's electrical system was experience many outages, mostly from being underpowered, so it was decided to upgrade it on a phased basis.  There was also some commotion about the election process.  This was caused by misunderstanding of the By-Laws.  Shirley Burlingham was commissioned to acquire a computer for the CO-OP to help with administrative tasks.  The decade ended with a massive freeze for Christmas Eve in 1989.  It is recorded that Daren Meyers, Norton Field, Alex Rabitaille, and Ray Smith worked very hard (to near exhaustion) both Christmas eve and Christmas day to repair frozen and broken water lines.  Both Ray and Alex supported O.R. on many other key occasions.  Incidentally, this was the first mention in minutes of Daren Meyers being employed at O.R.

 

THE THIRD DECADE  2000-2010

 

          Y2K (2000) saw the store closed and the building remodeled with more office space, a game room and the cooler reduced to an 8 feet square space for committees to store food temporarily for their events.  Even then its capacity was not used extensively and it was expensive to operate. Only the sale of propane and commercial ice would continue.  In April the Lintons left the newspaper editorship and Bob and Marcia Staib took over.  The gate/guard house was eliminated and it was announced that there would be no more "live guard" after July.  Many thought the guard was merely a high priced gate opener anyway!  Ray Breur got the COP (Civilian Observation Patrol) program started at O.R. with 13 people and by fall there were 17 involved.

          The sewers were gaining attention in 2001 because of leakage issues as well as clogging propensity.  Once again Lee Edwards, the engineer in residence, was commissioned to gain engineering proposals to resolve the problems.  Also the Corporate Documents Committee, which had been dormant for some time, was reformed under Shirley Burlingham to address several festering issues.  (For more information on the "Corporate Documents committee" see navigation button COMMITTEES.) The deck boards of the boardwalk were replaced during this year.

          Early in 2002, shortly before his term as President of the Board expired, John Egger led a town hall meeting attended by more than a hundred to address Shareholder desires for the South Recreational Complex.  Once again, just like in 1995, upgrading and enlarging the Rec Hall was the number one desire.  Later in the year the Pool Committee, which had been dormant for some time, was re-established, headed by Nancy Hunter.  They would have many issues to address, like pool and deck resurfacing, pool temperature maintenance, pool covers, pool use rules, etc.  It was determined that the pool would be closed for resurfacing and repair in June/July.  The Special Event Committee sponsored and paid for the roof extension over the deck at the south end of the Rec Hall. 

          In 2003, six (6) changes to the By-Laws were proposed to the Board by the Corporate Documents Committee and all six were accepted by the Board, forwarded to shareholders for vote, and approved.  These provided for all voting by mailed secret ballot, setback specifics by lot number being added to the By-Laws, permitting on site construction, removing unnecessary building limitations, clarifying ramp/deck/step encroachment conditions, and restricting church and school activities.  It was decided to schedule the pool shut down for major overhaul during June and July.  On April 17^th an out of order demonstration was staged at the Board meeting regarding what the demonstrators had found out about several employees working part time at another park as Able Property Management and Maintenance.  To fully evaluate the matter, an emergency Board meeting was called for the ensuing Saturday, April 19^th, to determine what to do.  It was decided to take a two team approach on the following Monday, with one team of Board members getting legal council, and the other team searching the CO-OP offices to detect any impropriety.  No improprieties were found and the employees did not have exclusive contracts to work only with O.R.  The Board did formulate a statement which the employees ultimately signed.  It obligated them to get board permission for future outside employment.

           In July a new Finance Committee was chartered under Ralph Chrisey to draft the operating budget for the next budget year.  There had been a Finance Committee at times in the past but they had all dissolved and management had been drafting the budget for the Board.  It was hoped that with the new shareholder committee, some of the antagonism regarding the budget would subside.  See click for more on the Finance Committee.

  An Information Systems Committee was formed.    The URL “address for a WEB site” was acquired, and the front end WEB site design was accomplished by a Shareholder who was a professional WEB site designer.  However, Ocean Resorts was not ready to move forward in the information age so the committee dissolved and the effort died.  Another Shareholder created an Email exchange site (sometimes called a chat room) for Ocean Resorts residents.  This was not an official Ocean Resorts activity and Ocean Resorts had no control of its operation.   It was administered by the Shareholder who created it and who admittedly was not neutral on submissions he permitted on the site.

 

          2004 started with the need to recover from the affects of much dissension stirred by a group of shareholders.  Also a shareholder had found that a phrase had been left out of the 1996 revision of the By-Laws and reported this to the state.  It seems that the phrase “3 years staggered terms” was left out of the Bylaws compilation done in 1996 and nobody had noticed it to the extent that the 3 years staggered terms continued unabated. The Shareholders had not voted to make the change. The compilation had been processed by the attorney.  Nonetheless, when the discrepancy was revealed the attorney advised to follow the revised Bylaws even though the prior practice had been followed for years and the Bylaws had not been knowingly revised by the Shareholders.

 

          The Board election resulted in 86% of unit owners voting, the highest on record.  The new Board decided immediately to send the 7 proposed By-Law changes to shareholders for approval.  They also adopted a Code of Conduct for Board Members and all signed it. A special shareholder meeting was called in March to addressed the proposed By-Law amendments to be voted on thereafter.  The voting that closed in April resulted in all passing comfortably.  Thus the Board terms reverted to the 3 years staggered terms as before, stucco and cement board being approved siding,  steel and all county approved roofing but tile being acceptable, electricity greater than 100  amps being permissible at owners installation expense with special management approval, and budgeting process being clarified.  The Board abolished the "3 on 3 at 3" meetings that had been in use for nearly a year because participation was minimal and they were serving no useful purpose.  This had been an effort to improve direct board member/shareholder communications.   Reference books for Board Members were established to provide all background information for their responsibilities.  Also, the Board voted to proceed with the purchase of a new trash truck.

          In April a law suit was filed against the President, the Manager, and the Administrative Manager by 4 unit owners.  The defense was handled through the CO-OP's insurance against such matters and the Board voted to give the employees paid time off for defense preparations and reimbursement for any expenses incurred.

          Things were reasonably quiet until fall when the twin canes caused destruction in Ocean Resorts that heretofore had never been seen.  (See "Hurricanes under Navigation button (Continuing Activities & Developments for more on these monsters.)  The Board gave the Manager the authority to proceed with essential recovery actions without prior Board approval.  Management and shareholders pulled together like "superstars" to effect a recovery beyond imagination.  The Board voted to send a proposition to shareholders to replace the destroyed fence along A1A with a very attractive white vinyl one.  By December the shareholders had voted 296 to 7 to do so.  Jim Dittmar led a team of able bodied installers that produced the very attractive fence.  There were also actions taken to better withstand such an attack should such an event occur again.  Generators were acquired for essential operations, Norfolk pines were eliminated because of their javelin like limbs, letters went to the condos to the north regarding destruction they caused from their materials raining on Ocean Resorts, and letters went to elected officials regarding removal of hurricane destruction. 

          Early in 2005 the law suit of 4 shareholders against the president and management was dismissed with prejudice (cannot be re-initiated) when the plaintiffs failed to provide sworn statements regarding their allegations.  Nonetheless the lawsuit cost the CO-OP shareholders thousands because of the insurance deductible and raised insurance rates the following year.

 

          The existing Board was re-elected automatically without ballot when no one else submitted resumes.  They voted to eliminate the walk-in cooler in the office building and acquire a new commercial refrigerator for the Rec Hall.  By mid-year they had voted to start the use of Email for those who wanted it to receive management bulletins and assessment statements that way, to replace pool heaters with heat pumps to facilitate water cooling in the summer time, to go with ADT to install a security system with camera surveillance, and to do away with the lending closet (baby/young child items and medical items (crutches, walkers, wheelchairs) based on attorney advice.  Also, approval was provided for the Special Events Committee to install an extended roof over the south Rec Hall deck.  Late in the year the newsletter was reinitiated under the control of Alyce Daino.

          In January 2006 the Board voted to take the Rec Hall expansion and remodeling to shareholders for vote, and it was rejected by a sizeable margin.  Later vinyl fencing for the storage area failed to gain shareholder approval.  The defibrillator for placement at the Post Office was ordered and later it was decided to also place one at the pool/Rec hall area.  Training courses were provided on CPR for those who wanted it. However the "defibs" can be operated without training because they are self instructing at time of use and newer guidelines on CPR make that technique very simple.  In November, 29 speed bumps were acquired to be placed at strategic places to reduce speeding.  Also the propane tank was eliminated because its use was dropping and it would have needed updating to comply with new laws.

          In 2007 golf cart inspection was initiated to combat improperly equipped carts.  Also the insurance requirement was enforced with proof of insurance being required at the office, just like for boats.  Many more golf carts were appearing in the park. Because of tripping concerns all speed bumps except the 2 at the entrances were removed. Also, an architect was to be acquired to draw up Rec hall renovation plans.  An Acquisition Committee was formed when the CO-OP faced the prospect of receiving a buy-out proposal.  The committee developed the process by which such a situation would be handled, but the recession ended the likelihood of receiving a proposal for many years.

          The pool vinyl fence was replaced in early 2008 with one that would not discolor from internal metal. The installation was handled by a group of volunteers under the tutelage of Jim Dittmar.  The election of board members resulted in the re-election or two members plus the addition of one new member.  During the year it was decided to do away with the security cameras because salt air was minimizing their reliability. Much time of board meetings was spent dealing with specifics of the impending Rec Hall modernization.

          Since the applicants for board positions were fewer than openings in 2009, two applicants automatically became members and one was appointed to fill out the board.  While work on the Rec Hall modernization was proceeding early in the year, the contractor submitted a proposal to concurrently redo the exterior with a cement based hardi-board.  The board not only liked that proposal but also thought it would be advisable to do the residing to the rest of the CO-OP buildings as reserve funds permitted.  The matter was put to shareholder vote in June and they provided a resounding approval 257 to 10.  By the time snow birds returned they had a new Rec Hall.  They also returned to be informed that O.R. had tripled in the size of land holdings.  More can be found on this at "Land Holdings" Navigation subhead button under BEGINNINGS.  During the year the trash collection schedule was revised to minimize labor requirements and assure brush elimination prior to grass cuttings.  Brush and recyclable collection remained at once per week but garbage was put on a thrice weekly schedule (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) as was customary for summertime.

          Throughout this decade the boards and management were dealing with much change as the park was evolving rapidly into a real community.  While change always involves consternation and resistance by some, one area of contention plagued the board and management throughout the decade.  Payroll and working hours issues were being raised throughout the decade and a few residents were filing complaints with state officials.  Fortunately no issues of substance were found, as was verified by state officials.  Nonetheless these activities cost the shareholders emotionally and financially.