Firstly, congrats to Autumn on the new baby. I did remember that you posted something about coming home, at T-giving, to have a baby, didn't I?

As to the proposed dues increase, my math isn't too terrific but with 1760 homes (with 208 in arrears so we can count those as contributors) the increase could be pretty-well figured as $453,000 divided by 1560 (following me so far?) divided by 12...or a proposed increase of $24.20 per month. That's a 53% increase in our dues. My feelings are that the residents should not be charged with deciding what they want to do without. An attendee, last night, put forth a scenario which I can relate to: he and I and many others were, often, notified by our "higher-ups" that we had to trim our budgets by 4% (pick a number). We often thought that we couldn't get the job done by doing so but we identified changes and reductions and the job got done, anyway. That, dear friends, is what we pay CCMC for. It is unconscionable for a management company to be 6 months into an economic downturn and to be caught off guard by the figures. Equally insulting is their proposal that they hire 11 new employees. The Program person and the Asst. DCC Director's job could be combined among other suggestions. Keep your suggestions coming and send them on to the HOA.