Fond Farewell

By Kirk Wooldridge, General Manager

As we move into September 2022, I will be reaching my eighth year and days of service as the General Manager of the Tahoe Keys Property Owners Association (TKPOA). Based on an informal count I have been the twenty-eighth General Manager of the TKPOA in the past fifty nine years, with only one other General Manager serving five years.

Needless to say, the TKPOA is an extraordinarily complex large scale Homeowners Association to manage with the oversight of the Board of Directors, and support from the TKPOA Staff, TKPOA Committees, numerous Volunteers and contracted Consultants. I will not bore you with the details of the complexity in the article, because there is not enough space to provide this detailed information in just one issue of the Keys Breeze. Many TKPOA Property Owners, nearby neighbors, and contractors don’t want to believe this is such a large task, but with that said, just become a member of the Board of Directors, Finance Committee, Architectural Control Committee and/or Water Quality Committee and you will soon discover some of the first levels of the overall complexity. As some TKPOA Property Owners “in the know” say we are tasked with running a “small city.” Yes, we are running a small city with one-fifth the staff, and one-fifth the budget, and support from the City of South Lake Tahoe, who is responsible for the roadway maintenance, roadway medians, snow removal, and is responsible for city services and the provision Fire and Police protection through TKPOA Property Owner paid property taxes. When I started in 2014 one of the Board of Directors premier goals was to improve TKPOA Staff retention after the TKPOA had been plagued for a number of years with non-stop turnover of Managers, General Managers and Staff positions and overall staff shortages. With many of the programs implemented and management of all levels of the TKPOA Staff, improvement in staff tenure was realized in a number of management and staff positons as directed. Our past Facilities Manager – Tom Callahan and past Accounting Manager –Don Havard reached eight and six years of service respectively, Heather Blumenthal – Operations Manager will be reaching her eighth year anniversary soon, and Linda Callahan – Architectural Control Department (ACD) has reached her tenth year anniversary. Greg Hoover our past Water Quality Manager/AIS Management Coordinator worked in his positions for the past five years. A number of TKPOA Staff members have reached beyond their three and five year anniversaries as well.

With this improved tenure in TKPOA Staff, and the overall consistent and professional management of the TKPOA business matters much has been accomplished in the past eight years. These accomplishments are too long to list in this article but have been documented in the annual “Board Accomplishments” article published in the Keys Breeze every year beginning in 2015. This article is published to document the accomplishments of the TKPOA Board of Directors, TKPOA Committees and TKPOA Staff after the completion of each Board Term in the monthly Keys Breeze. The Keys Breeze began monthly publishing in 2015, in providing

this monthly magazine and upgrading the website the TKPOA provided improved transparency and communication to all TKPOA Property Owners. This has continued to improve over the past eight years, with another website upgrade, use of email eblasts, improved membership mailings and electronic information distribution, posting of the electronic Board Packets on the website, Town Hall Forums, and of course “Zoom” Board of Directors and Committee Meetings. All of these past Accomplishments and improvements come with a cost, the cost of time and money spent by the TKPOA Staff, Board Members, Volunteers, and contracted Consultants in countless meetings, “on top of meetings” to determine the best course of action, in dealing with all of the TKPOA major issues and projects.

Moving forward, I do applaud the current Board of Directors decision to seek proposals from Association Management companies, and sincerely hope they can find a company that can meet and exceed the levels of service TKPOA Staff has attempted to provide the past eight years, it is not an easy undertaking. I am well aware of this because I have attempted to document the entire “scope of work” to manage the TKPOA and I am already on thirty fifth page of a Request for Proposal/ General Manager transition document.

In closing, the overall goal of the Board of Directors and General Manager is to manage the business affairs of the Association and to make the TKPOA a better place to live. Easy to say, but difficult to deliver on with the ever changing landscape of issues, demands and priorities that continue to face the TKPOA, as well as the new ones that are developing. As one Board Member used to say, once you solve one issue, an even bigger issue will take its place. All I can say is after eight years, it has been stamina, persistence, and the professional mind set to keep moving forward in a positive direction that has provided the TKPOA with all of accomplishments we can document. But, it was also those TKPOA Property Owners that “stepped up” and volunteered their efforts, their expertise, their time and professionalism that supported and assisted the TKPOA Staff, TKPOA Committees and Board of Directors to push many of these major issues forward to a positive outcome. Their volunteered effort was needed at these pivotal times, because the TKPOA did not have and never has had the staffing levels, or another Volunteer or the expertise or the shear wherewithal to push many of these major issues to the next step. I would like to thank the TKPOA Staff for their support over the years in their efforts to address these issues.

Most importantly, on behalf of the TKPOA Board of Directors, TKPOA Committees and TKPOA Staff and myself, I would like to personally thank these Volunteers for their support and efforts. I would like to provide them each an accolade by name, but they do not need this because they all “know who there are” and the “priceless” contribution they have provided to make the TKPOA a better place to live.

Thank you again for your Volunteered time to the TKPOA!