"THERE IS MORE TO DO"

“There is more to do” is the theme of Dave Israel’s campaign for UCO president, and I think it’s an appropriate one.

Dave has been UCO president now for six years, and his accomplishments have been many. Dave's new insurance team has saved our unit owners some $10,000,000 over the last six years, and his Operations Committee has saved our unit owners $2,000,000 over the same time period. To my mind he came along at precisely the right time, as the world was becoming swept up in the computer age with all its changes and innovations. Dave created an electronic information distribution process unheard of in prior administrations, and I believe not likely to continue if people from the past are placed in office.

You only need read what Fred Hadley, of the Boca Century Village, wrote (see Dave’s blog, “Kind words from CV West – Boca Raton”)

 http://village-blog-and-chat.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-message-from-your-sister-village-in.html

to realize how far behind the times our Village could be had Dave not been at the helm the past few years, and how far back we could go should the "malcontent" candidates be elected.

I remember thinking several years ago that there was no need to rush into all the new computer-age stuff, and my sympathies lay with the elderly here, many of whom, I thought, would never operate a computer in any form. (Some have. I've been proved wrong.) Time has a way of passing you by, however, before you realize it. More than this, as time passes it often becomes impossible to continue in the old ways.

Going way back, our community newspaper was literally a "cut and paste" composition, available locally in print edition only. That era saw the Editor in Chief being the UCO President's wife, making it a UCO house organ, carefully vetted, I understand, prior to publication to ensure no criticism of the administration was published. 

Now the UCO Reporter is a truly independent newspaper published in print edition and on the Internet, read anywhere on earth. Those who are running against Dave, fought the electronic edition at every step, and perhaps can be counted upon to eliminate it if they are elected.

All kinds of things have become far easier to do when done by computer and via the Internet. This has all happened faster than I thought it would, so I am very thankful we have had a Dave Israel and others in his administration to bring our community into the computer age.

I also believe there is more to do, as the theme of Dave’s campaign asserts. I DON’T think we can rest on our laurels now and take a two- or four-year hiatus. A few examples:

1) Electronic touch screen voting (coming to our UCO elections in March).
2) Electronic clicker voting at delegate assembly, coming soon if Dave is reelected.
3) Village-wide Broadband Wireless Communications, adding untold value to our apartments.

Already, prospective owners and renters are clamoring for Wi-Fi, and they will want and need it in “full capacity,” not in the limited mode some buildings have availed themselves of without realizing its shortcomings—and maybe short lifespan . (I hope Dave will explain in a future article what we may soon face in this regard.)

In short, I don’t think our Village would be well served by a new administration utterly opaque to information requests, to which they might well reply: "Why do you want that?"--no matter what you asked for!

They will most probably come with their past values of secrecy and denial. They will be without these priorities and lacking in the personnel with skills to carry on the work Dave and Company have so effectively put to use. "Oh, we'll be just fine," I'm sure the opposition will respond. I don't think so from what I've seen. I think we are very fortunate Dave decided to run for a fourth term and I hope he is elected.