Communications Committee
Report to the SFTR Board of Directors
June 2001
Submitted by Carol Rawle

We would like to report substantial progress in reducing the amount of paper shuffling the POA must do, all due to the dilligence of Bill Wenstrom and with Lisa's willing help from Bill Quigley's office. The financial reports are now being e-mailed instead of costly "snail mail". And the board minutes are now being posted on the web site with an e-mail alert to all property owners who've submitted an e-mail address, further reducing copy, paper, and mailing expenses.

A flyer was sent out to all property owners soliciting e-mail adresses and to urge use of the SFTR web site. It seems that it has produced results. Pat reports that new e-mail addresses are being sbmitted at a rate of two or three a day. Our goal is to get an e-mail address from every SFTR property owner who owns a computer!

Thanks to our SFTR web manager Patrick Roehl, it was discovered that we were in danger of losing our "domain name": santafetrailranch.com. We needed to renew it right away or lose it. Patrick took care of the paper work, and the committee decided to go with a nine year renewal at a total of $189.00, due for renewal again in the year 2010.

Patrick and Joyce Wolff tried to scan old copies of newsletter articles so they could be stored on the web site. However, it just wasn't possible. There is a wealth of information in these old SFTR articles that won't be able to be utilized in the web data base unless someone who loves to transcribe documents decides to contribute their labor. Morgan Chai did do this some time ago. Sadly though, the work was stored on "floppy disc", not the more stable CD's, and was damaged by postal scanners when sent through the mails.

The new "Calendar" feature is up and running. Anyone may post events on it without having to go through the web manager. Try it! It's easy!

The "FORUM" is the newest feature and will be real useful the closer we get to the annual meeting in October, and is now operational. Any property owner may post their views on ANY subject, and anyone may respond to it. Finally, a mechanism is in place for dialogue between property owners with different view points, and a method to respond to one another's ideas!

The committee discussed the sad condition of the community bulletin board at the mail box area. Harriet Vaugeois promised to bring the matter to the Common Areas Committee. She felt certain that her sub-committee would be able to make the necessary repairs this summer.

I'd like to take this opportunity to urge, again, all property owners to visit the SFTR web site regularly, and to PLEASE submit your e-mail address! It will go a long way toward making POA business a whole lot easier to conduct in future!