The marathon started off great today. So many runners. Hope new folks fall in love with the island and join the club.

I am voting "No" on the debt assessment. It's a difficult and complicated choice. I know several others who are doing the same. I was very disappointed in the tone of Tom's recent letter to the membership which read like a ransom note. Other members have noted the same. D(http://same.My)espite that, my decision to vote "No" is based on what I heard (and did not hear) in the Open Session. It's obvious the club needs money to pay its crushing debt.  I know that the club management has allowed its banking relationships to deteriorate along with the club infrastructure. The Board of Directors and management team has painted themselves into this corner.  I was hoping for something closer to a mea culpa in the Open Session. I know Jeff Smith has to field calls from angry vendors but, frankly, this is why he is paid a six-figure salary. He's great at spinning phrases such as as "liquidity challenges", "scramble money", and "headwinds", but he's terrible at generating realistic forecasts- even once. Looking forward, the nominating committee has put forth two candidates, one of which does not live here and has no board experience, and another who has held a leadership position for years while our finances unravelled. My confidence is not high and I'm worried about being back in this same position as early as February. There are other options. The club's credit is already damaged. Instead of asking the membership for yet another financial lifeline, it's time for the BOD to get creative and make hard decisions that may be unpopular in the short term. Reduced ferry runs, lifetime memberships, increases on freight, executive salary reductions or partial deferrals, and opening up desirable tee times at our world famous golf course should be on the table. There are no rental properties available to drive ancillary revenue? Then make the rental program terms actually worthwhile for homeowners. It is the Board's responsibility to get creative to solve the problems which they, alone, have created over the past 3-4 years. I'm hopeful that write-in candidate Clay Burton can do what needs to be done. Clay, you've got my vote. I know that many people feel like they have no choice but to vote yes, but where does it end without significant changes? As Kaye Earles said in the open session, there are other options that are simply being ignored or overlooked.

This information is being privately emailed throughout the membership and it deserves being aired-out for accuracy and validation. It is being publicly listed that the salaries paid to the past CEO and current CFO might be as high as $1m combined. That is, approx $667k for Doug Egly (former CEO), and approximately $348k for Jeff Smith (CFO). In all other respects, the other salaries listed in this document appear to be in line with their roles. Many members trading this information would like to know if this information is factual, or erroneous, as it seems very high. Two+ years ago it was revealed that our lines of credit were being used to fund operations and there were questionable accounting irregularities under the watch of our Treasurer. Our CFO continued to paint a rosy picture while repeatedly missing recovery forecasts. The membership frequently received last-minute financial reports, often the night before meetings, that were structured in ways to limit scrutiny.  Last year a large group of concerned property owners recognized impending issues and formally requested financial transparency from Gary Baum (Pres), Tom Donohoe(VP) and Jeff Smith. They were stonewalled. Plainly, the members were told that certain financial information will not be disclosed. This needs to change... but there are no means to do so. The Small Biz Association, however, is determined to account for our $1.3m PPP loan. US Senators earn $174k/year, and the US President makes $400k. The CEO of Ford makes $21m. However, the HP membership is not permitted to know our own executive compensation while at the same time being asked to relieve the club's debt.  Why the secrecy?  In the absence of transparency we can only assume the facts would not be well received. With certainty, the new CEO and CFO should be well compensated for success.  However, they should not be incentivized for lack of performance. This is the heart of the question. Is the information being emailed around the club accurate?  I would like to know whether our CEO has been paid north of $600k per year, and whether our CFO is taking in $340k a year despite underperformance. I would like to know if severance packages were paid while our vendors were not. I would like to know the salary of the interim CEO and how the new CEO will be compensated including incentives and perks. PDF Document attached for your review, and the source of the information included.

In the 2022 Member Feedback Survey, the membership was specifically asked whether it was helpful to have a "straight ticket" on the board nomination process. In those results, the membership overwhelmingly stated its dissatisfaction with the process, with nearly 51% of the club owners showing either moderate or strong opposition to the practice of limiting leadership choice. Those results are below: Why does the Board and the nominating committee ignore actionable member feedback regarding a fixed election? Because they know the membership is nearly powerless to do anything about it. The nominating committee is solely responsible for stacking the board with candidates who have enabled irresponsible spending and gross mismanagement for the past several years. It borders on negligence. 60% of the members surveyed have little to no confidence in the Board's ability to manage finances and the nominating committee is responsible for placing those Board members with their "straight tickets". For the two open Board seats the committee has put forth only two candidates, Tom Donahoe and Julie Gorman. The committee held back two applicants because... well, they don't want people's feelings to get hurt. All this while the current Board has managed the club to the brink of insolvency. Tom Donahoe, one of the committee's two shoe-in nominees, is also conveniently the board liaison for the committee. While Tom is great at tough talk, he presided on the Board while Doug Elgy, Jeff Smith and Adam Martin ran the club's credit and reputation into the ground and have crippled us with $2m in past due payables. Tom was at the helm when the Board failed to track a $500k ferry overage despite boasting about "cost controls". Tom was at the helm when the Board decided to pay $50k+ to Reese Jones and vanity marketing brochures instead of investing in basic infrastructure such as ADA compliant elevators and leaky roofs. I don't know much about Mrs. Gorman but per her application she has only been on the island for approximately 15 months over the past 3 years. She has a background in medical billing and has never sat on a board in any shape or form - ever. She has, however, been on the transportation committee who is partially responsible for the marine and roads fiasco and is proposing a reduction of services in the cart repair department. These are our only choices. We can do better. This community has many potential Board candidates who are sitting on the sidelines. I hope you step up. We need nuts & bolts operations experts who have no reservations about "retiring" ineffective management as it becomes clear change is needed. I am praying for additional nominees. I'm not arguing that Tom and Julie don't deserve to run for the board because they certainly do. I'm arguing that they should not run uncontested. I am arguing that the membership deserves a choice- in fact, we are owed it based on the above surveys in which a majority of the membership disagree with a straight ticket and the direction of leadership overall.

This email was distributed on behalf of Todd Putz. Of note, the Nominating Committee will, once again, begin keeping formal minutes of proceedings. If you recall last year the committee rewrote its own charter to avoid keeping minutes. I'm happy Todd is correcting this. Shockingly, the committee will continue to put forth ONLY ONE member per open BOD seat. The existence of the Nominating Committee and the fact that it will continue to actively restrict member choice represents leadership blindness. Is the committee ignoring the membership survey? This policy undermines the very essence of member-elected leadership. The committee continues to justify this decision by claiming that, without it, members may not run against one another for fear of "someone's feelings getting hurt". This is patently absurd logic in any election, whether it be for a high school student council or a financially struggling club with less than 35% leadership approval rate. There are members, highly qualified people, who have tried to run but were shut out or actively thwarted by the committee. Jim Woodward is one of them. Notice that there is no clear method to get appointed to the nominating committee? The board may not appoint them, so who does? This group of nine invididuals impact governance at its root and there's no clear undestanding of how the committee itself is selected. A few other comments: No former presidents should sit on the committee. None. To avoid cronyism, all former presidents should recuse themselves immediately. There is no legitimate reason to delay this until after the 2024 election. No member who has a private financial interest in club projects, such as the cottages etc, should sit on the nominating committee and put forth candidates. No bona-fide Haig Point member should be required to submit applications, background checks or disclosure information prior to being considered. This includes restrictive NDAs. All Haig Point members have already been vetted, and any good standing member is already qualified to at least appear on the ballot. The BOD nominees should represent an accurate % of memberhip tiers at the Club. In other words, the BOD nominees should not be comprised of 100% signature golf members when this does not accurantely represent the club's membership growth trajectory. Todd left this bit out. As a reminder to all members- the bylaws permit ANYONE in good standing to run for the board and it only requires 10 signatures. In the pursuit of choice I will happily sign any petition put forth (so you only need 9!). (c) Any Property Owner meeting the qualifications set forth in Section 1 of this Article IV may, within thirty (30) days of the posting of the notice of the Nominating Committee’s nominees and solicitation of additional nominees, place or allow such Property Owner’s name to be placed in nomination by filing with the Association Secretary a nomination, to include brief biographical information and qualifications of the nominee, together with evidence of the support of the candidacy by at least ten (10) other Property Owners, which may be in the form of a signed petition or letters of support (which may be submitted via facsimile or email). The support of any person nominating, or signature of any person supporting a candidate, as one (1) of the required ten (10) signatories, shall not be counted if such person is delinquent in the payment of any dues, assessments, charges or fees owed to Association.  Fellow Members: We are now halfway through the year, and I want to update you on some important changes the Nominating Committee is making in response to Member feedback.  Also included is a brief overview of our process and our intended timeframe for the balance of 2023. ENHANCEMENTS TO NOMINATING COMMITTEE PROCESS The Nominating Committee has spent the last two months discussing all the feedback provided by the Members through the annual survey and the listening sessions.  Considering Member input and best practices, we are implementing several changes to improve transparency and enhance our standing within the Haig Point community.  Here is a summary of each change: We will publish minutes for all our meetings (effective February 2023) We will move to only one past President on the committee (effective January 2024) We will expand the size of the Nominating Committee to nine members in total The Club President (our Board liaison) will only attend meetings when invited to provide general input regarding the current needs for the Board Every Board candidate that we consider will complete the required application and disclosure information prior to beginning the Nominating Committee evaluation process All candidates (including any petition candidates) will be given time at the Meet the Candidates session to express why they are interested in serving on the Board We will proactively solicit topics from the Membership to discuss with each candidate during our evaluation and interview process, and at the Meet the Candidates session The ballot will eliminate the single check box for the nominated slate For the 2024 Board Election (conducted in December 2023), we will nominate one individual for each of the two open seats.  We will seek to find candidates who have varied experiences, professions, and backgrounds that will enhance the Board through perspectives and differing opinions.  Using our rigorous vetting process, we will select and recommend the candidates that best meet the needs of the Club, Community and Board at this time.  Rest assured that we will conduct background checks, ask all the hard questions each of you would ask, and conduct our evaluations at the same high level you would.  We strongly feel that in our close-knit community the price we all would pay to have more than one nominated candidate per open seat would be much too high.  Finding highly qualified Members that are both ready and willing to serve, and possess the leadership skills to be effective, is no easy task.  Finding twice as many as needed is significantly more difficult.  Many who would otherwise serve, decline to be a candidate if required to run against a fellow Member.  In addition, once the election is over, it is highly unlikely that anyone who does not win will ever run again.  Losing very capable individuals from our pool of potential candidates is a very high price to pay.  Also, multi-candidate elections have the potential to create other unintended consequences in the community.  For these reasons, we are hopeful that our Members will support our decision to nominate only one person for each open Board seat. NOMINATING COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES FOR BALANCE OF 2023 Between now and the end of the year, we have quite a bit to accomplish.  We want to be sure we have a strong list of potential candidates to begin our vetting process.  We will seek recommendations from all our Committee Chairs for anyone serving on their respective committees that we should consider.  We also welcome suggestions from our Members.  Therefore, between now and July 31st, please feel free to pass along suggestions you have to any member of the Nominating Committee.  To help you with this part, the competencies that we are looking for in a potential Board candidate include: Demonstrated successful Haig Point Committee participation Proven leadership skills and the ability to operate in a matrix organization Broad-based business acumen Ability to prioritize issues and make sound business decisions Passion to focus on the strategic issues, not day-to-day operational issues Willingness to make the hard decisions that are in the best interest of Haig Point Ability to provide oversight and hold management accountable Have a broad and thoughtful perspective that would benefit Haig Point August 1st to September 5th:  we will collect all applications from potential candidates.   Also, Members should provide their suggestions for topics to cover during the evaluation process. October 2nd:  we will post and email to Members the list of the nominated candidates. October 16th:  we request that any petition candidate notify us of their intent to run. November 1st:  is the deadline for any petition candidate to submit required package of materials. November 16th:  the Meet the Candidates session will be held at 4 PM at the Clubhouse. November 17th to December 21st:  the election will be open for Members to vote.  We hope that you find this information helpful, and you have a better understanding of everything we are doing to ensure we get the best leadership for Haig Point.  We are all neighbors and friends, and we want the same thing from our Board that you do.  We take our job very seriously and appreciate the support and confidence you have shown in us these past few years as we have worked to improve the function of the Nominating Committee.  As always, we are interested in your thoughts and suggestions, so please reach out to any of us:  Tim Engram, Amy Evans, Donna Galateria, Tim Nolan, Todd Putz, Bill Tait, Carl Walter, or Jane Winslow.    On behalf of the Nominating Committee, Todd Putz, Chair

Very high winds today. A tree fell over on the Tabby lawn. Fortunately it did not fall on the ruins. Stay safe!

Some of you may have seen the small barge on the water lately. This is a new business that has opened servicing the island. It's pretty genius. You can move carts, appliances, moving vans etc. Check out the website.

Renting this cart to fellow members who are hosting guests or looking for a 2nd cart. Daily, Weekly, Monthly. Will come well under club member rates. 2 seater Yamaha with rack for clubs. Rain cover, course-ready. New motor installed in Feb '23 so she's fast. ✔️ daufuskieent@gmail.com Adult drivers only please.