December 12, 2019
Hello Residents of Thousand Oaks,
I hope this letter finds you well, and I wanted to reach out and provide some current updates to the Homes Association. Our neighborhood, as most of you know, is still growing and in full swing. This means, at this time, the Developer has a vested interest into how the Association is run. The developers are the Members of the Board of Directors who oversee the organization known as Thousand Oaks Homes Association, Inc. It is the Association’s Board of Directors that appoint four volunteer officers: The President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. These Officers are collectively the Advisory Panel. The Advisory Panel volunteer officers serve at the pleasure of the Board. The Association, its Board and the Panel members are governed by its Bylaws, which are required by and created under Missouri Statute, which provide clear requirements for the organization management. These Bylaws will be posted to our website in the coming days for our members to access and review.
We recently had two officer/members of the Advisory Panel resign, effective December 31st, 2019. We will be looking to replace those positions as soon as possible. The in coming days/weeks, we will mail a letter to all homeowners alerting of how the process will move forward. All positions will be approved by the Board of Directors. Please look to your mailbox for that letter.
No one can be fully be prepared for the amount of complexity the Advisory Panel must learn to manage. The number of hours required to manage a neighborhood of 821 homes, which has a target of 1,500 homes, is incredible. At times the volunteer roles are full-time jobs, taking volunteers away from both their families and paying careers. With such a large task, ongoing on the job learning is part of the day-to-day operations. On December 11th, 2019 a training meeting was held by the Board of Directors and the organization’s legal counsel to revisit the roles and responsibilities, and for Board Members and volunteer officers to bring forward any concerns on how business was being handled. All four volunteer officers of the organization were invited on November 25th, 2019, to join the meeting to help ensure fiscal 2020 would have a fast start. Only 50% of the Advisory Panel were present.
I personally thank Allyson Berberich for her two years of thankless commitment to the organization. She helped lead incredible changes within our neighborhood, including but not limited to, pool upgrades, new playground, key social events, streamlining of organizational processes. She took time away from her husband, children and friends to donate countless hours of time for the betterment of the neighborhood.
I also thank Angie Cason, who spent a year with the team. She, too, took away countless hours from her husband, children and friends to volunteer her time for the betterment of the neighborhood. Angie helped identify areas, such as our beautiful trails, which were in much need of large improvements. Further improvements are still needed and her passion for those trails will remain a focus of the organization.
Over the past week a private social media page that has no affiliation with Thousand Oaks Homes Association, Inc. has been flooded with opinions and rumors. While the topics discussed do indeed have some factual contexts to them, unfortunately many comments have left out key pieces of information that make up the total picture. Everyone’s opinion has value, but when opinions are collateral attacks on volunteers our collective community suffers, and future volunteers are deterred.
I greatly appreciate everyone who is currently volunteering and has donated insane amounts of time in the past. It is important to note: all of our volunteers, including the Advisory Panel and Committee Chairs, have families. They are wives and husbands with amazing careers and beautiful children. They are our neighbors, friends, and colleagues, with whom we spend holidays and weekends. Who join us on vacations, and who we laugh and cry with. Our organization does not and cannot endorse personal attacks or rumormongering for any reason. Such behavior is observed by the youngest and most impressionable members of our community, our children, which we cannot allow to continue. Our group is better than this.
Our organization will continue to only act in the most professional manner and to foster conversations; to complete tasks at hand and drive business forward in a manner that is best for the neighborhood as a whole. It is only with this forward focus that our Association and neighborhood will thrive.
Effective December 12, 2019 the Thousand Oaks Homes Association, Inc, will no longer participate in the private Facebook group known as Residents of Thousand Oaks, Kansas City/Parkville. Again, the organization does not have any affiliation with this private, resident-run page. We are moving toward a full social media presence for residents to learn news of the day as well as find important information such as Resident Handbook, CCRs, and Bylaws. This is a work in progress, and we will alert the members when we are up and running. Please go to our website, thousandoaksmo.com, to sign up for our email blast. Additionally, we are working through the logistics of increasing the number of open meetings versus only once a year. When we know more and are able to fully understand the scope, we will let you know so you can attend and help us continue to drive positive impact in our neighborhood.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We are an amazing community with truly amazing people. We don’t always see eye to eye, but that is ok, it’s what makes our nation and our communities so great. I am grateful for this opportunity, and I look forward to meeting and working with you in the future.
Best regards,
Matt Smith
President
Thousand Oaks Homes Association, Inc.