General Discussions

SNOWLINE LISTENING SESSIONS -- Attendees (all confirmed Lot-owning Members)

11/12/22, Snowline Community Center

Michele Armstrong

Darcie and Alex Wells

Lisa Staton

Derek Rubio

Lee Murray

Deb Ansema

Christina Hemmen

Tom McPharlin

Adara Moncade

Rick & Bev Albinet

Jackie Eelnurme Digital Submissions: Kathleen Lange

Gerritt Kamp Peter & Heidi Nornes Joshua Kilpatrick

Wednesday November 16, Virtual

Tera Lormier

Cheryl Astrauskas

Dennis Peach

Jolie Mayer-Smith

Melissa Ahlers

Todd Schuh

Thursday November, 17 – Virtual

Tom Wagner

Sharon Westling

Garth Hall

Burton Alessa and Amy Benward

Dennis Peach

Liana & Scott Herron

Carola Heavyside

Ana Wagner

Gerrit Kamp

Hi folks:

First off, my apologies in how long it took to post these. I had to travel to the East Coast for a family emergency and was not able to get this altogether as quickly as intended! I want to thank everyone for participating in the listening sessions. To kick things off I am going to do my best to capture what I took away from these sessions. Please note, this opening is my own perspective that I want to share with the community and the Board, and does not reflect any one particular person or comment.

First, there are frustrations that the rule change felt like it came out of the blue. It is causing a division that could cause an outsized impact for the problem we are trying to solve.

That being said, the folks in the sessions understand the essence of why we are here and truly want to come together to find a solution that works for all user groups.

One consistent theme through all three sessions is -- can we gather data before we make drastic changes? Can we take steps in a positive direction, see if the massive rise in use of the pool and community sustains, and work to solve the underlying problems that the data shows us?

And, I can say all sessions very clearly reinforced that must be careful and cognizant of how much strain we are adding to Chuck, Evan and any of our current employees.

Over the course of the 5 hours spanning the three different days we covered several different topics. What I am providing below pulls out all the major questions the community has of the board as well as the ideas the community presented and discussed. These notes are not intended to capture every detailed discussed. And if any were mis-captured or misrepresented that is unintentional and I will be happy to make any updates/changes from the meeting attendees.

Libby

Questions:

• Is there a way for folks who let friends use their cabin, but don’t rent it use the facilities?

• Can we pause the rule, gather more data about how big of an issue this will be for the foreseeable future (vs a pandemic spike) and solution for the root problem? In other words, how can we keep more data for the next year to see if this tapers off before we put huge amount of infrastructure in place to manage for it. Could we put one thing in place, watch the data for a year and then see what happens?

• Can we increase the number of “passes per household” to sic

• At the AGM it was expressed that we are at a breaking point, what does this mean? There are busy times and slow times?

• Can we do anything to ensure large events (that are likely to have an outsized impact on the community) are disclosed?

• What other ways can we communicate directly with the Board outside of the Facebook group and the forum? What if we have a question that we don’t feel comfortable sharing publicly?

• Do the rules have to apply to all the facilities? If we aren’t going to enforce it in the Clubhouse, the Tennis Courts, Pickleball or the Playground can we break those apart?

• Similarly with events, do we have to have a one-sized fits all for community events? Some make sense to limit (Member potlucks that are indoors) but others not so much (field day and the fishing derby).

• Can we have a safety evaluation of the pool situation to understand what level of risk we have with our current pool setup?

• It seems common that the common amenities are not available to renters. What is the damage if they can’t use the amenities?

• How do we truly handle enforcement.?

• Who is using the pool? It was mentioned at the AGM that quite a few people from outside of the community were walking in and using the pool. It would be helpful to know if the users are coming from Mt. Baker Rim, Snowline Lodge, renters, and/or owners and their guests.

• What days and times are the busiest?

• Could we consider a daily usage fee? This will help supplement our budget and will naturally put pressure to slow the demand. When people need to pay for each use, they are likely to use the pool less.

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Ideas:

• Sign-up sheets for Tennis and Pickleball and publicize the how to use

• Key fobs / RFID wrist bands with a turn-style at the entrances that will truly deter folks. Wrist bands could create a positive pressure that is easy to see, when someone isn’t wearing it will be obvious. These would also be tied directly to the Lot #s and data about usage will be clear.

• An e-signature packet when you buy in Snowline that helps new folks truly understand the core elements of our CC&Rs.

• Align the pool “passes” with the septic occupancy of the associated cabin and remove the restriction to who can use.

• If the problem is primarily pool deck space could we expand the concrete and fenced in area, add more lounge chairs, and see how that helps.

• Ban the overly large floaties that take up a large amount of the water space.

• Regarding the potential fire situation – how do we share more broadly the resources available to us? Can we set up a “fire review” day where the Firewise folks come here and can review anyone’s property that would like it?

• Run more sessions like this throughout the year to keep the dialogue going.

• New Owners Event: A special meetup just for new owners to get to know the folks who have been around a while. Perhaps include a welcome to the neighborhood kit that includes a “Welcome Packet.” This would cover all the basic information folks need to know in easier to digest terms than the rules and regulations.

• Implement the same rule as the Rim – you can’t rent for the first year you own your cabin.

• Have various hours at the pool – ideas ranged from adult only, member only, Free Swim (anyone with a gate key, not restricted to Members), lap swim time.

• Run an evaluation of what it would take to add a second pool to understand the impact.

• Can we focus more on the capacity of occupancy limits rather than who the user groups are? Particularly what about focusing on septic capacity. Is there a way to regulate that?

• Odd days odd lot #s use the pool, even days even lot #s use the pool.

• Create another position (beyond Chuck and Evan) that only cabins with rentals pay for it that person is the person that is there if there is noise complaint or rental issues to be taken care of.

• Given Owners a set number of guest passes they can use each year.

• We could implement a reservation system that requires owners to reserve a time to use the pool. This system would limit the number of simultaneous users and give all owners an opportunity to reserve dedicated time to enjoy the pool.

• Passes or On/Off Days: We could develop a rule that owners in even numbered lots and owners in odd numbered lots have specific days they can use the pool. This limits the number of users. A similar idea is to give a select number of passes to each owner each year that limits their total use. Once you use all your passes, you can't have access until next year.

Next steps Sharing this information with the Board, who is maintaining the data collection through the Sustainability Committee. Information will be conveyed as soon as possible; pulling all this together will take a bit of time! This is a busy time of year for us all and I want to thank everyone in the community for staying involved!