"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. "

by Sir Winston Churchill

I am writing this in advance of knowing the outcome of the Annual Meeting which will have occurred on March 24, 2007 at the Montclair Country Club.  Although I do not know the outcome, I am very pleased to see the voting responses that have already been received.  For the first time since doing away with the proxy system, we achieved quorum weeks in advance of the annual meeting.  Quorum this year was set at 863.  Ten days before the annual meeting we had already received over 1050 votes.  Two-thirds of these votes were submitted through the US mail with the remaining one-third via the Internet.  I am pleased with this result and believe that the Board's experiment to include the Internet voting option was successful.

I am hoping that the increase in voter turnout is linked to the Internet voting option as well as a sign that people are taking an interest in how the Board is managing the community.  It is my hope that when the votes on the budget are tallied at the Annual Meeting the new Board will find that the community is signaling us that we are on the right course.  Should it turn out otherwise, then the Board will have some added challenges ahead of it.

Although it is still early in the year, I am pleased to see an increased level of attentiveness to common area landscaping in the form of flower-bed and median maintenance.  This work is being executed by our recently contracted professional landscaping company.  It may take a few more months to know the full impact of this new approach to obtaining services, but for the moment I am cautiously optimistic.

Continuing from the perspective of being optimistic, I believe that our security patrol demonstration has been effective in meeting expectations.  As of March 11^th the number of incidents that the patrol has responded to since being placed on contract in early January exceeds the number of incidents for the same period last year by a factor of four.  This is even more interesting given that patrol personnel are on duty just 8 hours per day this year, while last year they were on duty 24 hours per day.  There are number of variables in play when comparing the calls made to patrol between the years.  For one, I believe that a professional security staff has better procedures in-place to record incidents.  Two, I believe that the Board and Management Company have taken positive steps to improve community awareness of having a professional service on site.  And three, there is a possibility that there are actually more incidents taking place this year.  In my opinion, all three of these variables translate to the community benefiting from having a professional security patrol on duty.  Not knowing the outcome of the budget vote I will be somewhat cautious in forecasting too much about security, but I do believe that the budget projection of having a 24 hour per day security staff in-place when the beaches are open is the right course for the community.  I hope that the budget passes and this will become reality.

By MPOA staff, it was found that the Kids Dominion play area mulch thickness was less than the industry standard.  To address this and maximize safety for children playing at Kids Dominion, the Board approved in February a $9K contract to increase the rubberized mulch in the play area.  This was completed in mid-March.  To those residents who may have visited Kids Dominion and found it to be closed during one of the "warm" pre-spring days, we are sorry for the inconvenience.  The area is now open and ready for use.   

I would like to thank all of the members of our community that continue to step forward and volunteer their time to assist with community activities.  This includes members of the new Board, committee members as well as those who provide a few hours of their time throughout the course of the year to help with our numerous community events.  Your time and your commitment to our community is much appreciated.  For those who have not volunteered but would like to hear more about how you can, I encourage you to seek out a Board member, committee member, or Armstrong's Events Director.  Contact information can be found on the inside front cover of the Montclairion or via the MPOA official website: www.Montclairva.com.  

In closing, I would like to thank all who have supported me as the MPOA President for the last 2.5 years.  I have enjoyed it.

Doug Taggart