Glenbrooke Community Association (GCA) Board Candidate’s have all been invited to submit their Candidate statements to GlenbrookeNews for posting.    There are four candidates and this is third in the series -ed.

My wife and I have been part of the Glenbrooke community for nearly four years. For the last 18 months, I have served as the Treasurer of the Board. During this first term, I have worked along with my fellow board members and facility director to bring long term financial stability and consistency to Glenbrooke and its operations without the need for an assessment increase. In fact, our balance sheet has steadily improved, we have operated in the black, and fortunately we have even been able to implement a slight decrease in our monthly assessments. I also suggested and the board endorsed a “Facilities Improvement Fund” so that we could set aside funds to implement our future long term plans for the Arbour Lodge area.

I am proud of Glenbrooke and have tried to help make this a place where we can all openly participate and feel a true sense of ownership. Actively serving on the Communications Committee has been an excellent tool in understanding the opinions and wishes of our residents. We are also working to improve staff job descriptions and overall policies to better manage our community and our resources.

In my opinion, a single term on the board is insufficient to bring about all the necessary changes and improvements needed. I ask for your support for election to another 2 year board term to continue on this path. In another year when we will likely see control of the board pass to local board members, it will be important to have experienced incumbent board members for continuity and leadership. I would appreciate the opportunity of being one of those board members still serving. 

From a career standpoint, for over 30 years I was employed as a senior executive with Sutter Health, a major not-for-profit health care system in Sacramento. My job titles included Regional President and Senior Vice President. I also served for several years as CEO for UC San Diego Healthcare including the medical centers and clinics.. During these years, my duties involved serving on several dozen boards with responsibility for managing hospital and medical clinic operations with fiscal accountability for $200 to $750 million. My job was to organize the board leadership, simultaneously serve on multiple boards, and help engineer financial turnarounds for the institutions involved. I understand board operations and enjoy the opportunity to serve in leadership and decision making for the benefit of organizations such as Glenbrooke.

Board dynamics is an art, not a science. While observing my former homeowners board for nearly 15 years, I saw a combination of both artful and awful decision making. Sometimes boards take up causes or directions that defy logic. At times, boards love passing rules that seem to serve ill defined purposes. I served on my HOA board as secretary for four years (meeting 11 times a year) on a platform of bringing both consistency and common sense to the board.

I believe we have a good start here in Glenbrooke, and with your support we will continue in this direction. I will work hard to make sure that we are fully prepared for the transition to local governance when we separate from Pulte, including an understanding of commitments made to Glenbrooke by the City of Elk Grove, Sacramento County, Cosumnes Community Service District, and any other external agency or government. And of course, working diligently to protect our assets as a community will always be near the top of my list.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

2/1/12

.

If you haven’t got enough of the Super Bowl hype by now, this piece by David Roth posted in his Wall Street Journal blog will surely answer or link to any remaining questions about the game including players injuries, outcome predictions, silly questions,  recipes, ad nauseam.

Click here for Mr. Roth's blog entry.

Vincent Van Gogh's Family Tree:

His dizzy aunt ------------------------------------------ Verti Gogh

The brother who ate prunes -------------------------- Gotta Gogh

The brother who worked at a convenience store -- Stop N Gogh

The grandfather from Yugoslavia ------------------------- U Gogh

His magician uncle ---------------------------- Where-diddy Gogh

His Mexican cousin ----------------------------------- A Mee Gogh

The Mexican cousin's American half-brother -------- Gring Gogh

The nephew who drove a stage coach ----------- Wells-far Gogh

The constipated uncle --------------------------------- Can't Gogh

The ballroom dancing aunt ---------------------------- Tang Gogh

The bird lover uncle --------------------------------- Flamin Gogh

The fruit-loving cousin ---------------------------------- Man Gogh

An aunt who taught positive thinking -------------- Way-to-Gogh

The little bouncy nephew ----------------------------------- Poe Gogh

A sister who loved disco --------------------------------- Go Gogh

AND... (drum roll, please!)

His niece who travels in an RV -----------------Winnie Bay Gogh

Hey... I think I saw you smiling................... There ya' Gogh!

You do not have to have any previous choir experience – just come  out to the next practice on Tuesday evenings at the Arbour Lodge at 7:00PM.  For more information call Dan Malloy (listed in the Resident Directory).

If you are planning on attending this MINGLES event, please sign up in the Activity Binder in the lobby of the lodge. Since the MINGLES steering committee is making all the food, it is really important to get an accurate count. This will help make sure there is not only enough food, but also keeps costs down by reducing waste.

(1) Fine : This is the word women use  to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut  up. 

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed,  this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you  have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before  helping around the house. 

(3) Nothing : This is the calm before the  storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes.  Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in  fine. 

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not  permission. Don't Do It! 

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but  is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh  means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her  time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back  to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.) 

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements  a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long  and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your  mistake. 

(7) Thanks : A woman is thanking you, do not question, or  faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here -  This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm  and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome'..  That will bring on a 'whatever'). 

(8) Whatever : Is a woman's way of  saying...Go to Hell... 

(9) Don't worry about it, I got  it : Another dangerous statement,  meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several  times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man  asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to #  3.

A group of citizens headed by resident Lynn Wheat have announced the formation of a grassroots citizen’s group aimed at uniting Elk Grove residents to oppose the city’s pending application before the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) to ultimately expand the city boundaries by 8,000+/- acres.

Under the banner of “GRASP—A better Elk Grove is within our Grasp - by uniting neighborhoods together.” The group notes that the City’s history of rezones, unrestrained urban sprawl and record breaking residential foreclosures shows the lack of commitment to the approved General Plan.

Elk Grove GRASP is currently undertaking a petition drive to present to LAFCo showing that local residents are deeply concerned about: their continuing decline in home property values; lack of infill development; updated market data suggesting less demand for future growth; and the future costs to existing residents to provide water, sewer, fire, police, and other services to the new area. GRASP is opposed to the unnecessary city expansion to specifically accommodate more of the same type of development which has dominated the city during the past ten years—more rooftops and strip mall centers.

Elk Grove GRASP welcomes interested residents to view their web site, Facebook page, or e-mail them for further information on how they can participate in becoming more involved in planning the future of Elk Grove.

Web site: http://elkgrovegrasp.org/            email:  EG.grasp@gmail.com

(We all most likely have different opinions regarding this and I fully understand and welcome that.)

COFFEE FILTERS

Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for .00, even the large ones.

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.

2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.

4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.

11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.

12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..

13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them.. It soaks out all the grease.

14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers.."

15. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliquéing soft fabrics.

16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.

17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.

18 Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car..

19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.

20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies. Saves on having extra bowls to wash.

21. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.

22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.

23. Use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a zip-lock plastic bag until they sprout.

24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book.

25. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

26. Great in the tool room when separating nails and screws then use in to bottom of containers to remove moisture and prevent rust.

27.  The make beautiful paper roses - click HERE  for instructions

OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS TOO