25 Jan President’s Message – January 2014
As we get ready to begin the year 2014, I’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of the FHA Board of Directors to wish all of our members a healthy and happy New Year.
With the November election and the Annual Meeting behind us, we welcome newly elected members to the Board: Jay Emmer as the new Vice-President, Peter Hewitt as the Director of Covenants, and Maarten Simon-Thomas as the Director of Grounds and Facilities. Debbie DiSabatino has been re-elected to a new 2-year term as Director of Community Affairs. In addition to the members listed above, the Board has appointed Carol Kurtz to fill out the term of Steven Hudak, who will be leaving Fearrington Village in January. While we’ll miss Steve as Director of the Gathering Place, we know that the GP will continue to thrive under Carol’s proven stewardship. The Board has also named Tom Hauck as its appointed member of the Nominating Committee for the second year in a row; that Committee held its first meeting of the new term and elected Vince Collura as its Chairman for 2014.
If you know all the folks whose names appear above, you’ll realize that they represent a healthy mix of relative newcomers and seasoned veterans which leads me to offer a suggestion for your New Year’s resolutions: consider volunteering for your Fearrington Homeowners Association in some way, shape, or form. (Since this Newsletter is an FHA platform, I’m limiting the focus of this suggestion to the FHA while recognizing that there are many worthwhile volunteer opportunities in and around Fearrington.)
Log in to the FHA website, click on FHA Info and Forms, then click on Volunteer for FHA to get a feel for the range of opportuniies available. For hard-copy fans, there is a Volunteer Form at the back of this Newsletter. If you don’t find something that interests you, perhaps a housemate or friend has the background and skills that FHA could use in keeping this an active and well-run community. If there are questions, FHA Board members will be eager to answer them or to refer you to someone who can. I’ve never had an FHA volunteer tell me that he or she regretted the decision to get involved.
Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to our first Open Board Meeting of 2014. It will be held at the Gathering Place at 7:00 pm on January 29, and our featured speaker will be someone from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, talking primarily about its prescription drug take-back program and answering other questions the community may have. The FHA is planning to run a similar program later in the year. Come meet the new Board, hear the presentation from the Sheriff’s Office, and get your questions answered about volunteering with the FHA.
Joe Mottola, FHA President