Joe D’Amore

Well, it’s been a little over a month now that I have been serving as the President of the IronOaks Board of Directors, and I’m very happy to report that I have not broken anything, yet. I hope that continues.

I hope all of you are doing well and have either gotten your double dose of vaccines or are in the process of getting them. We all want to return to normalcy as soon as possible, and the way to get there quickly is for the vast majority of us to get vaccinated. Getting vaccinated goes hand-in-hand with opening all our amenities. There are still some of you who have not received the vaccine (you know who you are). I encourage you to get it done. I don’t think we can do what New Jersey is now doing—offering a free beer if you get vaccinated. If I were to try to set up a program here where you get a free beer or glass of wine (I know what you like) our board treasurer would no longer share her baked goods with me. I must admit, I am addicted to her baked goods. As much as I would love going to concerts here again, I don’t think we could do what the rock group Flaming Lips did when they held a concert during the pandemic. They enclosed all the concert goers in plastic bags filled with air, bags that held up to three people. Cool idea, but once again, I love those baked goods. So, we will have to do it the more traditional way—let’s get to herd immunity by all of us getting vaccinated.

Over the next few months, the residents, committees, management, and the board will be working on the first draft of the Strategic Plan prepared for IronOaks by the McMahon Group, the company we hired to conduct our Strategic Survey. What we have so far is a plan looking like an outline of a strategic plan. It is a good beginning and offers us a lot of food for thought. The draft is posted on the HOA website after you log in, and I highly recommend that you all give the draft a read. Please remember, it is just a draft, and we will need a lot of community input before we get it finalized.

After catching up on the strategic survey draft, you can see we have a lot of work ahead of us, figuring out what we need to do and how we are going to pay for it in a financially-sound way. If any of these projects get your blood pumping, first, do not hesitate to share your thoughts about the draft by sending in your comment cards. Your board members receive your comment cards. Just remember not to state anything that you would not want your grandchildren to read. Secondly and finally, consider getting involved—join a committee, a task force, and maybe even consider a run for the board.

I wish you all a safe summer!