PCNHA Annual General Meeting 2021 Video
PCNHA Budget Information for Annual General Meeting – 2021
Transcribed Notes from Annual General Meeting Video (above):
Hello – welcome to the Pitman Creek North Annual Meeting. We have decided to communicate with the community in a virtual format again this year for two reasons: first, even though Covid 19 vaccinations are well underway and many of us have received at least one dose of the vaccine, we feel that many people may still be hesitant about gathering in person given the current Covid situation; second, we were unable to secure a location to hold our event. The Academy High School, where we usually hold our event, is currently off limits to anyone other than Plano ISD students and district employees. The City of Plano has also been reluctant to extend invitations to allow mass meetings in places like Hackberry Park or recreation centers. We really hope that we will be able to get back on track with our normal in-person meeting by next spring so please bear with us.
I always like to begin these talks with a bit of background on our organization and what it is we do. Our formal name is the Pitman Creek North Homeowners Association. The origins of our organization go all the way back to the 1980s when the subdivision was first built. We were organized as a voluntary HOA. When I say voluntary, I mean that no one in the subdivision is required to be a member or pay dues. I am sure that when many people hear the term HOA, they cringe, thinking of all the negative rules and regulations associated with a mandatory or required HOA. In fact, we have no regulatory powers or community restrictions over members or non-members. I am often asked if the board can get involved in situations regarding actions for people who are homeowners. We may give advice or provide basic comments on a particular issue but we do not have enforcement or regulatory powers to get involved in many instances. Traditionally, our HOA has been associated with three main activities. These are (1) community involvement, (2) garden maintenance, and (3) as a platform to disseminate information to the community.
Regarding community engagement, we try to organize as many social functions as possible every year for residents to meet and get to know their neighbors. I am certain that many of you have attended at least one of the events in the park that our social chairperson, Denise Gooding, has organized over the past few years. We have had food and musical entertainment at these events; however, due to Covid 19 restrictions in place over the past year, we have had to get creative with our attempts to continue to keep community engagement going. In the coming months, we hope to be able to organize new and exciting neighborhood events to bring people out of their homes to socialize with friends and neighbors again. In fact, June 12th, we will be having an in-person event at the park where we will have Ruthie’s Food Truck (who we had last year come) to provide food for purchase and we will also be providing free snow cones. And I believe that Denise says that she is having a DJ coming to that event as well. So hopefully everyone will be able to attend that.
Our organization has had a long history of connection with the 7 neighborhood gardens. While the City of Plano owns the gardens, we work in conjunction with the city to care for those gardens. Over the last few years, our Landscape person, Karen Smith and her crew of dedicated volunteers, have given countless hours to the goal of revitalizing and maintaining these green spaces. A large portion of the yearly dues we collect help us keep the gardens going. I am sure that many of you have seen Karen or one of the other volunteers working in the gardens. We are fortunate to have them and owe them an enormous debt of thanks.
Our organization also sponsors the website pcnha.org and a Facebook page. Our social media chairperson Kathleen Martin has spent countless hours behind the scenes making sure our HOA has a modern and user-friendly social media presence. Our social media platform allows us to provide an avenue for us in the neighborhood to disseminate information when necessary. I love the fact that I can turn on my computer in the morning and connect to our Facebook page to check on the latest happenings in our neighborhood. The platform has also allowed us to get to know many of our neighbors that we may have never met in person. Our website is pcnha.org. At this site, you can find out a great deal about our organization as well as pay your yearly dues online – this is a new feature. Many of you may have recently received a copy of the neighborhood newsletter. You can review past issues of the newsletter on the website if you want to gain insight into the happenings within our community from years past.
I especially love the pay online feature for paying your yearly dues. We have now made it easier than ever for you to go to the website, click the MEMBERSHIP tab, and follow the prompts to pay your dues. It only takes minutes. While there are 491 homes in our neighborhood, we typically get around 200-250 homes to join as HOA members. I really wish each of you would seriously consider joining the HOA to make this our most successful year ever regarding membership. If you pay your $50.00 yearly dues for the first time, our wonderful Membership Chairperson, Susan Nichols, will bring you a PCNHA yard sign for you to display in your front yard proudly. The sign I have shown here. If you have been paying your dues consistently and already have a yard sign, we will provide you a colorful sticker, like this one here, which denotes your membership for the current year. Several years ago, the board settled on using one sign which has the oak tree and just replace the sticker each year in order to be more environmentally friendly by not replacing the sign every year. Currently, our membership stands at 156. This is very low considering we have 491 homes in our subdivision. While I understand that it may be difficult or unrealistic to achieve full participation, the neighborhood needs to understand that the money we bring in from the dues is how we pay to maintain and revitalize the gardens, mow the grass, and pay the water bill year round, as well as provide social activities. These activities will not be able to continue without continued and increased financial commitment by the community. We need everyone to consider paying their dues. $50.00 per year is not a lot of money to continue to enjoy beautiful gardens and social activities. A lot of other communities charge $100-150 for their dues.
In past years, we have had guest speakers come to the annual meeting to speak to the group regarding specific topics like Property Standards or Fire Prevention. The first year I was President, we had a group from the Centurion Development – the people who are developing the Collin Creek Mall area – to come speak about what they are doing up there. Unfortunately, due to the Covid situation, a guest speaker was not possible again this year. I asked our garden chairperson, Karen Smith, to provide us with some gardening information for the upcoming summer. I will now read her remarks:
As summer approaches, it is time to step up our attempts to keep our gardens green and our gardens growing. But we can reconcile our desire for lush greenery, fresh veggies and brightly colored flowers with the harsh reality of another hot and dry Texas summer. There is a guide to keeping your landscape happy and healthy without driving your water bill through the roof. It is all in the timing. Experts recommend watering your garden early in the day to allow plants to soak up as much moisture as possible. As temperatures rise, warm water will evaporate before plants are able to use it. Watering in the evening is not recommended and can lead to fungus. Tool time: your regular old hose is pretty much the least efficient way to water your plants. It is incredibly imprecise. So much of the water used is actually lost and never gets to the plant at all. Instead, try a soaker hose or a sprinkler wand. Watering cans, though labor intensive, are also a good choice to ensure you are only watering where you want to. Also, plants want water that is cool. So, if you currently store your hose in the hot sun, see if you can move your hose to a shadier spot. If not, allow the hot water to run out before giving it to your plants. You can save the water and use it after it cools off. Another tool that comes in handy is a moisture meter, an inexpensive way to determine the current moisture content of your soil. If you don’t have one, you can also use a screwdriver. Poke the screwdriver in the ground: if it slides in easily, you are fine; if not, it is time to water more. Choose your plants wisely. Plants that use less moisture are usually small and slow growing. They may have gray or silver foliage which reflects the sunlight and leathery or hairy leaves. Try to avoid large, fast-growing plants and plants with large leaves as they require more moisture. When in doubt, native plants and succulents are great choices. Water wisely – water the roots of the plants and avoid the leaves. Don’t water outside of the plant’s root zone. If a puddle starts to form, stop and wait for the moisture to soak in before continuing. Runoff doesn’t do your plants or your water bill any good. Above all, avoid overwatering. Aside from being wasteful, it strips plants of nutrients and puts stress on the root systems. Also, many low water use plants will adapt to the amount of water they are given. All those drought-tolerant plants you purchased will still soak up lots of water if it happens to be available, negating your benefits. Reuse it. You don’t have to use new water for your plants. Install a rain barrel; save the water after boiling pasta or veggies; put a bucket in your bathroom and collect water as you wait for your shower to heat up. Most gray water is fine for plants but avoid use of water that contains bleach or disinfectants. It is not easy being green, especially during a Texas summer, but maintaining your garden is possible without spending a fortune on water, as long as you’ve got the right plants, a few good tools, and the proper techniques. Thank you, Karen.
Before I close, I would like to address two topics: First, we also maintain a yearly budget that details our membership dues and expenditures for the year. I won’t go into great detail because there are a lot of numbers and expenditures. A copy of this financial report will be included in the posting of this video. If not, you can go to the website and it will also be posted there. If you have any questions, you can refer those to our financial treasurer, Thomas Martin, and you can email him through the website. Second, back in January, we began discussing with the community the possibility of additional signage being added to the north entrance of the subdivision and possibly making structural changes to the front entrance sign. We have worked with many contractors and PCN residents to come up with several sign options to make these changes but, in the end, when we went to the city to discuss the possibility of putting up these signs or making changes to the front entrance, we found out that this was not going to be possible. The city is very strict in what it is they are going to allow us to do as regards to signage. They do own that sign at the north (south (sic)) entrance and it is just not going to be feasible to put the signs there or restructure the sign at the front entrance. Now what we will be able to do with the sign money is to get the front entrance sign most likely power washed and we are going to try to paint the lettering to give it a new look. So that will be an update to the appearance of the front entrance sign. But other than that, I don’t see at this point that we can go forward with new signage, unfortunately.
In closing, I would just like to thank the current board members for their continued service to the community. I hope you will join me in reaffirming their decision to serve in their current post for the next year. I would encourage any of you who might be interested in volunteering your time to help your community to reach out to us. There are many ways that volunteers can help us get things done throughout the year. If you are interested in serving as a board member, there are possibilities there. Please contact us – we would love to hear from you. We are always interested in finding new talent and skill sets to keep the organization moving forward. Thank you for your attention and I hope I haven’t been too long and I hope to see each of you at the event this June 12th in the park in the afternoon. Denise Gooding will post something with the time on Facebook and Nextdoor. I hope to see many of you if not all of you at that event and in the coming months as we get back out there and socialize. Thank you.