Strategic Planning Committee

Please see the following invitation from the Strategic Planning Committee Chair Kathy Henkel-Raphael. If you are interested in joining, please email Marissa Johnson at marissa.johnson@fsresidential.com or by calling the office by January 28th.

Dear Tamiment Property Owners,

I hope that you are all healthy, warm and staying safe as we continue to live with the continuing impact of Covid on our lives.  Hopefully, it will be under control soon and we will return to a more normal existence!

In our community we have seen many changes and challenges over the last few years.  Some of our responses to the changes and challenges have been well received by some of us, questioned by others, and by some brought out emotional responses and sincere concern about the direction we are going. It is important for all of us as members of this community to be united on the management and governance issues by which the community operates and in the direction we are going.  To that end we are going to soon begin a Strategic Planning process.

The first step in the Strategic Planning Process is to gather input from us, the members of the community.  To achieve this we will begin to run a series of focus groups with participants from the community.  The purpose will be to see what we the owners want and expect from the community and each other.    The focus groups will run the same way for each of the following groups with the objective of determining where the objectives and therefore probably the issues are the same or close and where they are different.

              Full-time property owners, part-time users (weekenders)

              Full-time property owners and users with school age or younger

              children at home

              Full-time owners and users on with no children at home

              Full-time retired owners

A key output from these meetings will be the “why” is something important, less important, or totally irrelevant to a group.   Where there is agreement across groups on an issue, and it can be well articulated, it can most likely be solved more easily, quickly, and effectively.

The focus groups will be run in the clubhouse and will be scheduled beginning in mid-February (hopefully, Covid has calmed down by then).  I would like to run them as close as possible to each other – because, for me, it will make it easier to see the patterns where there is agreement, significant disagreement, and where there are groups who feel like they are not being listened to on a particular topic.

 There are certain “rules” for focus groups that I have lived by.

               Meeting can’t be longer than 90 mins (60 is even better)

               Attribution of what comes out of the focus group NEVER indicates

               who said what but only what the actionable learning is.

               It is my responsibility to provide what I have taken away from

               each focus group to the members of that group so they can each

               review, clarify or correct what I think was said.

              It is my job to be sure everyone gets a chance to speak, and that

              the session is not dominated by any one person

              To be sure, I have provided snacks so that each participant gets

              something out of the time they have spent on this!

If I have done my job correctly, each of you who chooses to participate should walk away feeling good about the time you invested.   If this is not the case I will greatly appreciate your candid feedback and suggestions – I really mean this; I can’t correct or adjust what I don’t know.

Please take a moment or two to think about participating in this process.  If you are interested at all, please RSVP to this invitation by January 28th.  Again the meetings won’t start until the middle of February and will last no longer than 90 mins.

In ending this note, let me say the following, my husband of 44 years and I have lived in this community since 1991 – when the hotel was here, and we thought Wayne Newton was going to bring in gambling.   We were part-timers until I retired from MetLife about 10 years ago.  We raised our youngest son in Brooklyn, NY, in an area called Park Slope, where we still own a Co-op.  I volunteered to do this task of facilitating a Strategic Plan process because it is one of the roles I held in the early 90’s so I know how to do this, I can keep the process focused and objective so that we as a community can feel unified and committed to the results.   But I really volunteered because my husband and I  have been going to the monthly meetings, and I truly believe that generally,, people are on the same page as to what they want but are uncomfortable in some ways that the “train seems a little off track”  I personally hate to see people feel like that especially when I think it is not anyone’s intent so when I think I can do something to help get people on the same page I feel obligated to give my time to make that happen.   I hope you will all feel the same way and participate in the process!

Be well, be safe, and be heard!

Kathy Henkel-Raphael