Oct/Nov 2020 Where to Pay your HOA, POA, and Swim Team Dues

For now, homeowners must continue to make separate payments to three separate management firms:

Shavano Rogers Ranch Crosstimber HOA: The ‘Crosstimber HOA’ is managed by Diamond, and they will bill you 4 times/yr. 

Diamond Association Management & Consulting (DAMC)
14603 Huebner Rd., Building 40, San Antonio, TX 78230
Phone: (210) 561-0606 • www.damctx.com
Greg Heaton (Greg@damctx.com) Community Association Manager

Swim Club: The ‘Swim Club’ (not to be confused with Swim Team and not technically an HOA) runs the recreation area (pool (access cards), bball and tennis courts, and clubhouse) and is managed by Real Manage, who will bill you 2 times/year. 

RealManage Property Management
12500 San Pedro Ave, Suite 325, San Antonio, TX 78216
Phone: 866-473-2573 • www.realmanage.com
Steve Brown (SHAVSWIM@CiraMail.com) Community Association Manager

Rogers Ranch POA: The RR Pkwy POA (Property Owners Assoc) is managed by First Service and they will bill you annually. 

FirstService Residential - San Antonio Property Management
3424 Paesanos Pkwy, Ste 100, Shavano Park, TX 78231 
Phone: 210-829-7202 • www.fsresidentialsa.com
Mona Schneider (mona.schneider@fsresidential.com) Community Association Manager

Oct/Nov 2020 Election day is nearing: United We Stand, Divided We Fall

 It’s 60 days out from the national election and we are in the midst of our annual HOA board elections. A few days ago, a nearby neighbor replaced his American Flag with a rather prominent “Blue Lives Matter” banner flag. There are a lot of nextdoor.com postings about people stealing political signs mixed in with random comments like “Positivity, pass it on.” Sign stealing is a form of intolerance that has to stop because Hate should have no home in the Crosstimber Community. Otherwise, our children will learn to become intolerable adults. Frankly, I suspect that we are going to need to give each other a little breathing room during this 2020 election system. Let’s try to give each other a wide berth.

In closing, I believe the COVID-19 global pandemic and the resulting 200K death toll in the US is the universe saying the same thing twice: “What affects one of us directly, affects all of us indirectly.” - MLK. This is on all topics: Race, Religion, and Politics. Until we (all of us, not just Americans) start respecting points of view that differ from our own, political signs will keep getting stolen and home owners will squabble. Let’s keep it classy. It would be nice to be the one neighborhood that doesn’t have to post anything on Nextdoor about stealing each others signs this year because nobody decides to do it. It would be really nice if we just chatted with our families (husbands, wives and children) about what behavior we expect from them before someone else’s right to free speech gets trampled.

Oct/Nov 2020 Four Board Member best practices that will build a vibrant HOA community

“Back to basics” never gets anything done

This “back to basics mentality” is a toxic narrative that excuses laziness and defends incompetence. It is lazy to rationalize all of home owners requests down to “the basics”. It is incompetent to ignore the very prescriptive feedback gained from the thirty or forty members who attended the 2019 Annual Home Owner’s meeting. We asked them why they came and they shared their concerns as we cycled through the room. Their responses overwhelmingly indicated that they wanted the HOA to level up to solving problems that we have in 2020 rather than continuing to nurse problems that we have had since 1997. The homeowner wish list included an list of 8 major initiatives: 

1) Ensure our actions are ethical and transparent, 
2) Modernize HOA bylaws, 
3) Host virtual meetings, 
4) Replace our communication platform, 
5) Expand the number of board members
6) Increase our return on investment, 
7) Significantly lower our gate maintenance costs, and  

8) Enable electronic voting.

Competence matters most to home owners

Our team of 4 new Crosstimber HOA directors successfully with the exact same professional management advisors that other previous HOA leadership teams had for years. A realtor, an accountant, a doctor, and a computer engineer completed all 8 initiatives in only 9 months from January to September of 2020. This begs the question: How come prior board directors didn’t get any of this work done between September 1997 and September 2019? That is over 22 years of board leaders. We believe that recruiting competent home owners with diverse skillsets is the key differentiator. So is empowering home owners to work on specific problems that they are personally committed to resolving. We proved that a board of directors and home owner led subcommittees with diverse skills can work collaboratively towards the same goals and solve problems faster. The positive results show we have exceeded expectations with less meetings in the middle of a pandemic largely because diverse thinking can often solve problems more quickly. We also stopped debating and simply pull in the same direction once a board majority decision was made.

Do or do not: There is no try

Arguing that “we have never done that before” when now is 2020 and before was 1999 is not acceptable. Several concerned home owners have contacted the HOA board for solutions to problems that only exist because HOA, Swimclub & the ACC do not coordinate better with each other. We specifically picked new crosstimber.com software to enable the HOA, Swimclub & the ACC to work hand in hand together for the betterment of the community. EX: Our new crosstimberhoa.com software has an online reservations system that easily solves the problem of non- home owners using our tennis courts without permission but it cannot work if only the HOA home owners use it without any support from the Swim Club or the ACC.

Oct/Nov 2020 HOA Community Goals to Move Forward

Accurate and Positive Outcomes

Up to date, bylaws are important to guiding our mission. Our Association of Home Owners demands accurate and positive outcomes that will increase the value of our property and whenever that is not achieved, we members (whether we be homeowners or board of directors), have an obligation to correct it. Larger, expensive neighborhood wide initiatives like power washing/repairing sidewalks and resurfacing streets should be delivered on time and on budget as a rule without exception.

Accountability and Truth

Directors are required by Texas law to act as fiduciaries. Therefore, board members should be committed to two things: accountability and truth. Accountability because we must always strive to make wrongs right and be held responsible for the success of this non-profit corporation. And truth because if the truth is never discovered then the community cannot evolve into a diverse, inclusive community for modern families.

Board members may not knowingly misrepresent facts

The Board is aware of a campaign letter sent to all homeowners by a single Board member. The letter includes an opportunity for you to give your proxy vote to elect 5 Board members to Donald Oroian. The remaining Board members: Brian Kinlaw, Tracey Lammert, Dr. Pratik Parikh and Cynthia Silman, do not support the contents of his letter as it is not factual and requires clarification. In a recent series of Special Board meetings, we provided the following clarifications:

• None of the complaints in the Oroian letter was ever a formal proposal. There was never a vote by the board and the discussion never went any farther than a spitball conversation.

• In particular, the Oroian letter stated that the Board is moving in the wrong direction. The specific example cited was an ethics code AMENDMENT that our HOA lawyer didn’t recommend and never came up for a board vote. Instead, the board majority opted for an ethics code PLEDGE. We recently held a Special Board meeting on August 11th to vote on it that only was only attended by four of the five board members. All four board members present agreed to sign it.

• The Oroian letter also left out the original basis for the entire ethics conversation began three years ago when background checks were first suggested. Background checks are standard for any director with a large fiduciary responsibility. In 2019, the board majority looked at the +800K cash assets balance and finally agreed It was prudent to ensure that board members have no conflicts of interest, and no motivating factors with a background screening.

• The Oroian letter also takes a November 2019 conversation about how to improve security conversation completely out of context. At the time (over 10 months ago), It was noted that $50K for our current 4 hour patrols + the FREE 24/7 ring app would be significantly cheaper than 8 hours of patrol @ $100K annually. 
  NOTE: The completely FREE Ring App is recommended by the Bexar County Sheriff’s organization and does not require the use of a Ring Device. Any home owner can download it to their smartphone (via iOS or Android here: https://download. ring.com/bexar). The app is used to: monitor neighborhood activity; share crime and safety-related videos, photos and text-based posts; and receive real-time safety alerts from your neighbors, local law enforcement and the Ring team.

• The ethics code is a work in progress. The proposed amendment was already dead and a non-issue long before the time the Oroian letter was sent because our lawyer didn’t recommend it. We recently aligned behind an optional pledge while our Ethics committee continues working towards a more permanent solution.

Establishing Director and Committee member qualifications and mandatory requirements

The Ethics Committee was formed a few months ago to establish qualifications and mandatory requirements for HOA BOD directors and committee members. One of our Crosstimber HOA Board of Directors objectives is to inspire home owners with our example and thus guide positive changes to move the community forward. Unfortunately, there is no law that explicitly establishes qualifications for persons wishing to serve on the Crosstimber HOA board of directors or one of its subcommittees. The provisions established in our bylaws merely “encourage” adherence to stated qualifications. Where mandatory requirements are entirely absent from our governing documents, there may be circumstances where any unethical person may be eligible to serve as a director and/or appointed to a subcommittee.

Oct/Nov 2020 Letter from the President - Security gates don't secure your home.

 Getting to know your neighbors is step one to securing your home

My wife and I moved here because we wanted our kids to grow up in a scenic, planned community and it was zoned to some of the best reputed schools in the area. We bought into this gated community are because it made both of us feel safe. Then someone “egged” our garage door almost as soon as we moved in and took our peace of mind. Me being me... I thought it was wrong for someone to instill fear in my family so I decided to track down the culprits myself. We connected to share information as needed with neighbors, the HOA and the authorities. They informed us that other families were also targeted that same night.

Three sets of parents were horrified that their tweenagers were involved but they were also honorable. We were offered and accepted sincere apologies so we chose not to press charges. Seasoned police detectives will tell you that it is usually going to be someone who feels comfortable. Someone you know. Someone in your peer group. Of course, the culprit could also have been someone random. Perhaps someone passing by saw a convenient opportunity that was not to be missed and targeted our home? This is why getting to know the neighbors helped me in my example but so did contacting the authorities.

Leveraging 24/7 technology is key to securing your home

Coordination w/ Law Enforcement and Surrounding Neighborhoods is a must when there is evidence of any crime. The Bexar County Sheriff’s office has recommended that home owners download the free Neighbors app to their smartphone (via iOS or Android here: https://download.ring.com/bexar) in order to join their digital neighborhood and use the app to: monitor neighborhood activity; share crime and safety-related videos, photos and text- based posts; and receive real-time safety alerts from your neighbors, local law enforcement and the Ring team.

Experts say that security should always be a default state and always on if it is to be effective. This approach requires cameras. Generally speaking, the facts are that community managed cameras in each vulnerable blindspot will save more money than they cost but they are still expensive. So are guards and patrols. When my family’s peace of mind was stolen, we called the guard patrol. It was not helpful for them to show up and offer to call the police after admitting that they had not seen anything or anyone walking around. That’s when I realized that one home owner installed and managed random camera at the front door or garage of our home was cheaper than guard patrols and much more effective for my family’s need to stop worrying that it could happen again or escalate.

Arguments against cameras center around the idea that a career criminal would never arrive in his own car and would wear a disguise and maybe even be armed. While that maybe true, hiring guards to man the front gates for a few hours a day is not helpful without cameras throughout the neighborhood. Think of it this way: when a guard patrol is cruising by my house or manning the gate, they are not watching yours because they cannot be in two places at one time without cameras. Best of all, modern cameras can be motion triggered and always on. This creates notification events that will help to alert you of suspicious activity near your home and help the HOA monitor our common areas VIA text messages. If you just don’t like cameras, well behaved dogs are as good if not better than state of the art messaging technology.

Let’s secure it all together now

We recently completed a survey that shows people tend to agree that Patrolling Crosstimber for only 4 hours a day costs $50K and doesn’t deter crime in a neighborhood of 650+ high dollar homes. Many different Crosstimber home owners have shared several problem scenarios:

• Guards who they rarely show up during an emergency.

• Guards who “help” the home owner call 911 but didn’t see a thing.

• Guards who are not here for 20 hours every day.

• Guards who take power naps.“I pulled into the North Gate entrance on 1/24/2020 at 8:30PM. I noticed our Security patrol truck parked on my left facing the exit with the guard inside and an interior light on. I quickly pulled over to the curb on my right and got out to thank him for his presence and inquire if I could get him a water or anything. I was a little afraid he might have a gun but then I noticed that he didn’t move as I approached and stood outside his window. I could see that he was busy playing “Candy Crush” on his phone before he fell asleep. As I moved toward the front of the car and looked back into the truck cab, he still didn’t move. I knocked loudly on the hood and I saw him jump and his eyes fly open. When he opened the door, I explained that it is harder to sleep if you are moving around.”

In conclusion, the intersection/layering of different forms of security is best so that home owners have no single point of failure:

• Guards who stay awake when they are here

• HOA managed cameras in each vulnerable community area blind spot

• Getting to know your neighbors

• One home owner installed random camera at the front door or garage of each home.

• One security alarm system

• One well behaved dog

• Using the free Neighbors App from Ring and Nextdoor to say something when you see something

• Joining the Security committee to come up with other innovative ways to improve security in the community.

PLEASE NOTE: The HOA can only manage/control the guards and cameras. The bottom six methods are actually the most effective and all of them are entirely up to you. There are problems with relying entirely on any one of the methods.

Homeowners want to see HOA improvement in 5 key areas:

Improvement Area 1: Neighbors value the safety, health and welfare of the community for their peace of mind.

1. Welfare: Protect home owner property values and find a way to ensure that one home owners freedom to lease out their home does not create a neighborhood nuisance in the form of a party home.
2. Safety: Build a complete disaster recovery plan for 648 homes in coordination with the Swim, HOA & POA so that we have one that will enable us to function effectively in an emergency situation (like the one we are in). NOTE: They want separation of powers per the latest surveys. 
3. Health: In the age of COVID, Coordination w/ Law Enforcement and Surrounding Neighborhoods is a must. I’ve contacted one of the Police officers assigned to our area to help us ensure that Police will issue actual citations when home owners report valid violations. She recommended that we should talk to a few of the local local constables to see if that makes more sense and we have to start serving people civilly. Comparing notes with the other HOAs and discussing what we find with our lawyers would also be a good thing

Improvement Area 2: Neighbors want an increased security and a strong infrastructure. They want to hear or know that the HOA is researching a new plan for the replacing the gates and increasing security. DONE: Weeks ago, I requested the formation of a security committee because I think that security should be 24/7 if it is to be effective. Keystone cops who show up and sometimes sleep for a portion of the 4 hours that we pay them to patrol up every day are not helpful… Especially @ $50K annually. Telling them to stand in one place at the front gate is also not helpful without cameras throughout the neighborhood. The intersection/layering of all of the above is what I have always said we need. With that said… we have two problems to solve that are related to one another

1. Infrastructure: The gates are from when community was built and obsolete. The board is in  $discussion with vendors to replace the gates before they fail agai
2. Security: We need to enhance our current security. One popular idea is to modify the entry process to use TX Tags with enhanced cameras and/or the current RFID gate openers. Arguments against cameras center around the idea that a career criminal would never arrive in his own car and would wear a disguise and maybe even armed

Improvement Area 3: Neighbors want a working Crosstimber communication platform with real information that evolves and lets them consume information remotely on their favorite communication platformS without having to go to every meeting 

•  Increased communication across all channels: This is the reason that we are forming a communication committee to guide respectful and effective communication across all channels (US mail, email, SMS/MMS text, and online) between home owners and residents whenever possible. NOTE: The new website also has a neighbor directory, mobile phone app, automated eforms for ACC and board member candidate profiles, even reservation features for common areas and technically we could pay fees when they are due for HOA, SWIM, and POA but we need political parties at all three associations to share their account billing information. We would be glad to offer them free admin level access. 

Improvement Area 4: Neighbors want to manage transparency and truth for themselves. They want a board that issues factual public statements in an objective and truthful manner. We can better prioritize HOA goals with the creation of independent, disinterested committees as needed to identify solutions to specific problems in several possible improvement areas that have already been identified:

1. Bylaw Modernization Simplify HOA bylaw modernization and consistently obtain quorum.
2. Enable Disaster recovery planning
3. Maintenance (including signage) and replacement of obsolete infrastructure
4. Improving communication coverage across the entire community 
5. Unify DCCRs – Consistent Architectural  standards across all of the community
6. Enhanced security (including Neighborhood watch)Increasing security
7. Standards of conduct – Good Faith, Honesty, Civility
8. Conflict of interest - Separation of Powers

Improvement Area 5: Neighbors understand that having ethics and standards of conduct are a big part of the job on the HOA. They expect a us to build and maintain a healthy level of honesty, civility, and good faith among the Board members and employees.

• DO: Foster a positive, outcome oriented environment for our all- volunteer board to serve their community.
• DO: Use Robert’s rules to lead modern meetings that respect the time of others and ensure that home owners will enjoy attending because they will be heard.
• DO: Learn to support the work of your fellow residents and committee members whenever you vote “No” by making sure to help if the board majority says “yes” (EX: Just because you vote no doesn’t mean you get to abstain from doing the work that the rest of the team has committed to do for the community). Specifically, they expect every director to communicate effectively, help update our website, answer questions, listen to community suggestions and help mediate simple property disputes between neighbors.
• DO: Show our children that we value people who think differently than we do. We value their opinion as much as our own because a diverse team of people who have different perspectives can identify and solve problems faster and more thoroughly when they work together to solve the same problem. In contrast, a group of like-minded people can form an echo chamber and tend to solve problems in a way  that shows bias.

A proposed “Code of Ethics” explained in relevant context with examples

A Code of Ethics is designed to represent key guiding principles for the Association’s officers, directors, and employees and should not be understood to replace or eliminate any additional obligations set forth in applicable Association by-laws or DCCR agreements. Perhaps a “Code of Ethics” pledge is best explained in relevant context with examples, as follows:

Canon 1. Directors shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their Association duties.

• DO:  Remember that a disaster recovery plan for 648 homes means that all decision making roads (Swim, HOA & the ACC) CANNOT lead to one address if there is ever an emergency situation.
• DO: Validate the concerns of your home owners and find a way to meet them in the middle because arguing that “we have never done that before” when it is now 2020 and before was 1999 is not acceptable.

Canon 2. Directors shall endeavor to build and maintain a healthy level of honesty, civility, and good faith among the Board members and employees.

• DO: Recognize that lone dissent can mean that three Directors who are considered to be good successful leaders within larger firms have resigned due to one single person creating an all-volunteer environment of toxic dysfunctionality, negativity, and inaction where nothing ever changes.
• DO NOT: Undermine and devalue the VOLUNTEER work of others by making derogatory comments because you do not agree.
• DO NOT: Assume that every community suggestion should represent a win/lose opportunity to barter for power. This is about serving your community not your community serving you.

Canon 3. Directors shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.

• DO: Accept full responsibility and accountability for planning and execution across all communication channels and learn from poor outcomes.
• DO NOT: Suggest that the “Texas Business Organization Code” (which is a 700 page downloadable document) should be combined with our bylaws to provide ample “ethical guidance” since it only contains a small paragraph related to ethical professional naming conventions and there is no other ethical guidance provided.
• DO NOT: Stage a very public rejection when a disinterested, independent group of residents takes the time to build a point of view that all of the other board members think seems fair just because it will close your favorite loopholes.
• DO NOT: Announce in an email that “this position is solely needed and I can’t wait for <name removed> to help make things better on this Board” in response to the creation of an ethics committee and then publicly protest the proposed Ethical Code of Conduct in a campaign letter to the entire community to request votes.

Canon 4. Directors shall act in Association matters for each home owner or resident as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest.

• DO: Lead modern meetings that respect the time of others and ensure that home owners will enjoy attending because they will be heard.
• DO: Remember that fully disclosing a possible conflict of interest means that you have to be “transparent”
• DO NOT: “Lie by omission” and actively lobby for other concerns on the HOA board without formally disclosing your conflict of interest for months.

Canon 5. Directors shall build their residential reputation on the merit of their service to the Association and shall not compete unfairly with others.

• DO: Run a clean campaign that shows our children that we value diversity and inclusion because everyone in the community should be heard and not just your friends and those who will always agree with you.
• DO NOT: Order specific BOD Candidate Profiles removed from the Annual Board of Directors candidate packet mailout without calling for a vote in order to favor your preferred candidates.
• DO NOT: Condone sending out an edited video along with a demonstrably false narrative in order to conduct a targeted attack of the current president.

Canon 6. Directors shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the Association and shall act with zero tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption. 

• DO: Learn to support the work of your fellow residents and committee members whenever you vote “No” by making sure to help if the board majority says “yes”
• DO NOT: Allow your rather volatile friend to continually show up in emails, online, and in person every time a vote doesn’t go your way to reinforce your disapproval and threaten your fellow board members with “retaliation”.

Canon 7. Directors shall, in all matters related to their Associa- tion, treat all persons fairly and encourage equitable participation without regard to gender or gender identity, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation, or family, marital, or economic status.

• DO: Admonish others when they openly refer to other home owners who happen to be minorities as the “vocal minority” during discussions
• DO NOT: Ignore one home owner and then agree to meet with another home owner if they live next door to each other.

Canon 8. Directors shall help mediate Association home owner related conflicts and guide respectful and effective communication across all channels (US mail, email, SMS/MMS text, and online) between between home owners and residents whenever possible.

• DO LISTEN: Almost any community suggestion that anyone would like to discuss should not be met with some form of “back to the basics” sarcasm, passive aggressiveness or condemnation.
• DO NOT: Head the Architectural Control committee, sit on a zoning board as a professional civil engineer, and then deny that you have the ability to read a survey and help mediate simple property disputes between neighbors.