COMMENTING ON CLUBHO

COMMENTING ON CLUBHOUSE CLEAN-UP

Behind the scenes... We now have a sparkling clean clubhouse. A lot of people wanted the clubhouse cleaned. Most felt it was the responsibility of  park management to do it. Emotions were running a bit high. Many wanted someone else to take the complaint to park management and more or less demand that they turn to and get the job done.

How did the clubhouse get dirty? Who were the culprits that caused the problem? Let’s have a look at those questions.

I have noticed that after a period of time my home gets dirty from just living in it. I guess you might say the only ones we can blame for this is ourselves. So every Spring, just as the birds become ambitious at building their new homes, we start Spring cleaning ours.

Say, in the case of the clubhouse, have you noticed cake crumbs and icing being dropped on the floor and then being ground in by people walking on them? Who would do such a thing? Probably not many on purpose. Yet there are a few who will stand there and work those crumbs into the carpet with a shoe rather than stoop to pick them up. On the other hand as we get older our sight may start failing or our once supple bodies no longer bend so that we can stoop and do a simple cleanup. We actually may not know we have added to the problem.

In the kitchen we expect a clean environment but like all things with time and use it becomes dirty on a level that cannot be cured with the swipe of a towel.  Management provides David to keep after the light cleaning duties every Sunday. He actually does that for the clubhouse putting in 4 to 6 hours weekly. Not only that but on his own initiative he washes the used coffee cups and puts them away and puts away all the stuff after a dinner the next day.. We felt the mop he is using in the kitchen and bathrooms was not doing the job and leaving the floors in sad shape. We told that to Larry.

We also asked if the rug in the clubhouse could be cleaned and he agreed that at some near date that he would hire that done. However, he pointed out in the past that it needs 24 hours to dry and residents not willing to wait will pass through barriers and, “NO SIGNS”, to do whatever it is they want to do, “Because nobody is going to tell them what to do!”. We hope to install a sense of embarrassment in those kind of folks with this article. Perhaps they will consider a day off for rug cleaning day? Especially, if those that appreciate a sparkling clean, clubhouse remind them.

The gist of the discussion with management is that the clubhouse is a mutually common ground for management and residents. It serves as an office for management and a great entertainment facility and post office for residents. We both have a stake in keeping it beautiful and clean. Management and residents have a difference of opinion as to what each other have to do. However, in this case we have seen an amicable compromise and all of us have benefited from it. Each group has a better understanding of the other and solved a problem without anger.

Where there is compromise, nobody is entirely happy with the results but both parties can live with the solution.

To those who rose above emotion and discussed a problem rather than demanded a solution, we salute you. To those who saw the wisdom of compromise and came together to deep clean the clubhouse, we admire your selflessness.