A meeting of the Seascape Association Board was held on Sunday, February 10, 2018 at 1:00 pm to discuss two topics, adding a memorial bench to A Beach and granting lifetime tennis membership to ten-year annual tennis members.

 

Board members present on the conference call were Tim Gallagher, John Honey, John Mannix, John Beigel, and Ellen Clark.  Michelle Sax and Charlie Loguidice were not present, but they sent in their proxy.

Tim called the meeting to order after confirming a quorum of seven members.

 

 

Adding a memorial Bench beside the A beach boardwalk

 

Board Discussion

 

At the annual meeting in June, a motion was passed to investigate a request by Shirley Hersey to put a bench on A beach mid-way down the boardwalk facing the ocean, in memory of her husband Dr. Francis Hersey.

 

After considering the detailed information provided, the Board agreed that putting a bench on A beach halfway down the boardwalk is not financially viable, because A beach including the board walk is under the control of the Falmouth Conservation Commission permit.  The overall project costs for a bench including the permit, cement pad, bench, labor and installation are estimated at $10,000 if contracted out and about $4,000 if done by volunteers. The largest item would be the new permit from the FCC. Additionally, in the past the Association has not been inclined to fund or partially fund memorial benches because memorials are the responsibility of the requesting family. 

 

Therefore, regarding the present request, the Board supports Shirley Hersey’s interest to place a memorial bench in memory of her late husband and suggests a good location would be on the right side of B Beach, in the sand immediately off the parking lot.  This location would not disturb any vegetation, therefore no involvement with the conservation commission would be required and considerably less work involved, thus reducing the cost significantly.

 

Board Recommendation

 

The board recommends a memorial bench on B Beach paid for by the Hersey family.  

 

TENNIS MEMBERSHIP

 

At the annual meeting in June, an annual tennis member requested they be granted a lifetime membership after being an annual member for ten years. A motion was passed to consider this request.

 

Board Discussion

 

The Board considered the implications of grandfathering members who have paid ten or more years in annual dues to lifetime membership.  Historically there has been no provision allowing annual members to transfer into lifetime membership. The board recognized the distinction that lifetime members make an upfront commitment financially to support the tennis courts and the annual members do not make that same commitment. 

If the board makes the recommendation to allow the annual members to be grandfathered to lifetime, the tennis account would need to be funded in another way. The board considered including an additional $15 to the annual association dues, totaling about $1500 annually to be set aside in the tennis fund, opening up the responsibility of paying for the courts by the whole membership.  Sharing the financial responsibility of the courts would also open up the use of the courts by all households in Seascape. This option makes sense because all homeowners benefit from the value added to their property by the courts. 

Regarding making a change to the whole membership contributing financially to the tennis fund and thereby opening the use up to all, a few board members expressed the perspective that the tennis members would be giving a financial gift to the association members because of the investment over the years.  A point was made that some of the initial lifetime members were not tennis players; therefore their donation to build the courts was a gift years ago to the tennis players.

The board discussed the implications of this option, including whether or not the courts would have an increase in use. Not all board members thought the courts would be over run by use, but some members expressed concern. In the event the court usage would increase, the board discussed suggestions such as a sign up schedule for reserving court time, perhaps giving preference to the lifetime members.

Another consideration is the addition of the pickle ball to the courts, which is expected to attract new members, which could make up for the loss of income if we move to grandfather the annual members. 

Therefore, for now the board decided to see how much interest there is in pickle ball this season and the amount of money that comes into the fund. The board is open to reconsidering this issue at another time.

 

Board Recommendation

 

The board recommends that we do not grandfather annual members who have paid ten or more years.

 

New Business

 

Joan Boyer and the Administrative Committee have been working on the by-laws and an outline of the board member’s responsibilities.  The committee has given consideration to Hal Leed’s suggestions for the by-laws. At the next board meeting the board will review the by-laws.

 

The meeting adjourned at 2:10 pm.