As most Sun City Anthem members know, we have 4 different members running 4 completely different web sites with blogging capabilities and a wide variety of community services available for free to our residents.

Besides this AnthemVOICE (blog and archival sites) operated by a group of residents, there are 3 other forums/blogs operated at no cost to residents by Ron Johnson (the original SCA community web site), Rana Goodman, and David Berman.

All 4 services have been running successfully for many years without any help by the SCA Board and without commercial support.

But, in spite of having an $8,000,000.00 annual budget with dozens of contracted staff, dozens of volunteers on various committees, a highly competent SCA Computer Club with hundreds of members, and numerous full time RMI staff assigned to this function, none of the SCA Boards of Directors since 2005 have launched a community web site with all of the needed services required by our 7,144 households.

Why not?   Some people describe this abysmal record as “tragic incompetence”.  Others call it “GROSS negligence”.  Still others call it “fraud and abuse of authority”.   Finally, some members consider the board’s annual demand for dues increases without delivering the web services promised to be a case of “theft”.

What ever you call it, after 6 years of total failure, members have to be considered stupid and lazy for putting up with this ridiculous game!  No wonder we seniors are considered senile when they see this sort of scam being tolerated–for years!

Evan a unity-apologist for the board has to admit that no organization has ever spent more time and more money to accomplish less in terms of SCA web services than our Boards and the RMI Community Management staff.  Maybe this fiasco qualifies for the Guinness Book of Records–or at least a mention in the Channel 13 Hall of Shame?

Why have the boards failed so consistently?  Board excuses for failing, year after year, has not yet included “the dog ate their plans”, but the crappy excuses we have heard from the boards and RMI are no less juvenile and insulting.  Nothing they have said makes any sense when you look at what the rest of the world is doing with web services.  A start-up business can launch a really professional web site within a few weeks and only spend a few thousand dollars.  Clearly we have the wrong people with the wrong plans billing time against SCA!

Contrary to their lame excuses, it is clear the SCA boards, RMI and professional consultants have no interest and no intent in using web services to keep all SCA members informed on policies, procedures, activities or  lifestyle matters.   It is clear the board is practicing the “mushroom” strategy of keeping members in the dark and covered with dung.  The boards want members to be uninformed and afraid of being personally attacked to make it easy to get away with their mismanagement and deceptions.

So, our community will have to continue to depend on private, free web services to serve the community unless or until we finally get mad as hell and demand the community management company be replaced, force there be a large reduction in dues, and/or fire the board members for such failures of their fiduciary duties.

But, maybe you have had enough of the board insults with having to tolerate the lousy web services they are providing?  Ready for a petition drive and public demonstrations to force the boards to deliver?

If not now, when?  Just as in the case of the constantly failing restaurant operations,  we know that nothing will get better until the failed board members and their failed contractors are fired, and we get competent people elected and appointed to our leadership positions.  At least, that is how we see it.