As Planters Row continues to grow, so will the need to keep residents informed concerning community issues. Our newsletter, web site, directory guide and Neighborhood Watch program are the ways we look to reach the community. We are already working to improve each of these means of communication for 2002.

Our monthly newsletter will continue to provide committee updates and community announcements. We will also encourage Planters Row residents with businesses to advertise by providing them a substantial discount off of standard Grapevine ad rates. Ways to lower our printing costs and attract more outside advertisers will be explored, and it may be possible to have our web site designed and maintained for free. Plans are currently under way to update our directory guide and produce additional copies for new residents. We hope to produce an updated guide by the end of March.

With full representation across Planters Row, the Neighborhood Watch team will be ready to help welcome new residents to our community. Sue Brady has been a great help in coordinating this effort. A safety carnival and bike rodeo are in the works for the spring and fall seasons, too.

With an aggressive agenda for 2002, our committee won't accomplish its goals without additional coordination and leadership. I would like to welcome and thank Dan Donboch for graciously volunteering to serve as co-chairman for the Communications Committee. We look forward to working with Dan.

This is a really big year for everyone in Planters Row as we now assume full responsibility for our common areas and amenities. Please make every effort to attend the upcoming annual homeowners' meeting on Thursday, February 21st. More than ever we're relying on each other, and a great turn out will give us a great start for the year.

With community and homeowner association control transferring from the Planter's Row developers to its homeowners through at least the increase in homeowner percentage voting, the passage of a 12/31/01 option-to-exit for the developer, and the election of a homeowner-filled Board of Directors, the work of the Transition Committee has shifted as well. In the course of preparing for transfer, transition work was done to obtain for homeowners a Reserve Fund Study, a legal audit, a potential accounting audit, as well as a review of new property management opportunities and a recommendation therein. Work is now being done to inform the homeowner-filled Board of Directors on how to organize itself and the community for success in negotiating any final settlements with the developers, improving results obtained-to-date and to-come in property management, and fully-equipping the Planter's Row Homeowner Association (HOA) and the community for its responsibilities in "preserving, protecting, and enhancing" individual and shared investment in Planter's Row.

The 2002 Planter's Row Annual Meeting will be different from all that have preceded it. Homeowners and their representatives on the Board and in committee, along with the homeowners of the community, are now legally and fully responsible for the not-for-profit corporation that an HOA actually is. The current Planter's Row property manager retains its responsibilities to the HOA pursuant to its contracts with the developers prior to 12/31/01, and with homeowners since that date. Planter's Row developers legally were in control of the HOA and the community since the inception of the development to the time of legal recognition of transfer so they remain responsible for work performed or not-performed during that time. Pursuant to all that, the new, homeowner-controlled Board and existing committees are preparing status reports and agendas to share in this newsletter and at the Annual Meeting. There is much to prioritize and accomplish together.

Every household in Planter's Row is a member of the homeowner association. For the purposes of ongoing success in the creation of a well-functioning, homeowner-controlled HOA and community, it is very important for every household member to become informed about homeowner associations, in general, and the Planter's Row Homeowner Association, in particular. This can be accomplished by:

1. Individual membership in and education through the Community Association Institute (CAI) at $95 per year, which includes an annual subscription to its quarterly publication, "Common Ground," or, as a result of the Planter's Row institutional membership in the CAI, a "Common Ground" subscription-only at $39 per year
2. Individual reading and understanding of Planter's Row materials, including covenants, rules, directories, newsletters, etc., and household representation at every meeting
3. Member involvement in PR HOA committees. Our present organizational structure, created when homeowners functioned in an advisory role-only to the developer-controlled HOA, is composed of three committees: Architectural Control, Facilities, and Communications. In the near future the structure will change to accommodate new homeowner responsibilities arising from assuming HOA-control. The new, homeowner-controlled HOA structure may include such committees as: Covenants, Rules and Design Review Enforcement; Finance and Insurance; Facilities Management and Maintenance; Recruiting, Nominating, and Social; and Communications and Neighborhood Watch.

In between now and the time of our Annual Meeting please consider how you will address the foregoing changes, responsibilities and opportunities. I look forward to reviewing these developments and any questions and suggestions you may have at our upcoming meeting. See you then!