Greetings fellow ASRC members; Ah, the second month of the year and so spring is near! As a member who took about three newsletters before I read or understood the first message in the first newsletter, I now sit at the other end of reality. We all lead busy lives and quite frankly, this newsletter doesn’t get as much attention as the Super Bowl or Australian Open! So please forgive me now and throughout my tenure as President, much of what I say in these letters will seem repetitive to some, and hopefully enlightening after a few times for others 🙂
New Board of Directors: I’m happy to report our members have confirmed our board positions, and with that, I personally and warmly welcome our new members Vincent Paquet, Cory Caouette and Glenn Burkhardt. With that, here is our lineup to help our club be the best it can be in 2014 and beyond:
- President: Brett Houston
- Vice President: Dan Crouzet-Pascal
- Treasurer: Yogi Ransing
- Secretary: Kathy Jussen
- Swimming: Vincent Paquet
- Tennis: Cory Caouette
- Facilities: Glenn Burkhardt
As I said last month, in conjunction with the staff lead by Club Manager Dan Chapman, the committee members and “do gooders at large”, it is members like these that help the ASRC maintain and improve the club’s vitality and relevance in our lives. The ASRC Board of Directors is comprised of a team of volunteer members, and as such is our responsibility to make decisions in the best interest of the club membership at large, taking into consideration the diverse interests our members have and into consideration the legacy these decisions hopefully create. In the spirit of balancing those interests, please communicate with us in 2014, to Dan or me with any questions, thoughts or constructive feedback. If you are shy on giving input, then consider participating in a short survey we will be sending out in the near future.
Club Renovations and Repairs: If you have been to the club in the last month or so, you are likely to have seen the benefits of ASRC rededicated to sweeping through to repair and freshen-up nearly all aspects of the club. We hope you notice and enjoy the recently resurfaced tennis courts, the resurfaced and updated pool deck, the drought-tolerant landscaping, enclosed trash container, and most recently the nearly finished entire tennis area, including the tennis observation deck, bleachers, stairs and tennis bbq area wood features. Expect to see several improvements completed by Spring this year, including an updated kitchen (including an energy efficient HVAC system for the renovated main building), pool area building siding/paint and club-wide outdoor furniture. The past and current board has worked hours on end with construction consultants, our architect and dozens of capital expenditures spreadsheets to develop and see through these improvements in a fashion that maximizes our hard earned savings and yet prepares the club to last another generation.
Status on the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) from the City of San Jose: The ASRC is awaiting feedback from City Planning on our ability to maintain our operations and also include a modest amount of “member general use” and “fitness” rooms. As most of you know now, the ASRC must obtain a CUP in order to maintain the club’s ability to operate. In addition, it was deemed a prudent and necessary step to forward into the CUP process a plan that would be successful in light of the multiple layers of approval by our members, our neighbors, City Planning and City Council. While it may seem easier to file for a CUP with no changes for the ASRC in terms of a fitness center and member room, and deal with this issue “down the road,” this approach would have required the ASRC re-start the process with the City (and neighbors) for any fitness center or any additions to the club. In addition, we would have lost for the most part the honest and hard efforts of past board members, our past facilities committees, our architect, our club manager and all of the permit and planning fees the ASRC has spent to get this far. Once the CUP is obtained, it will be up to the ASRC membership to determine if/when/how such renovation plans are carried out. To that end, this board is hard at work getting its arms around what the current plan will be in terms of costs and timing, and we plan on being able to share this effort in the next few months.
The next upcoming event where your attendance and input is vital to the club’s success is the City Planning Commissioners Meeting, which now appears more likely to be in sometime in March. This meeting will run very similar to the format for the successful ASRC Community Meeting held on December 18th, which many of you attended (and thank you!). We will do our best to keep you up to speed on these important meetings and hope you find the time to help constructively provide input and support of this process. Stated again, whether or not the ASRC embarks upon a renovation plan will be up to the membership to decide.
ASRC Neighborhood: If we have learned anything in the last year in the process of trying to obtain rights to add facilities to the club, it is that we live in a community with neighbors on nearly all sides of our club that have just as much passion for their homes as we do our club. In addition, we have learned that our direct neighbors have as many diverse interests as our ASRC memberships do. Try and put your head around that! In balancing this dynamic and passionate cross section of neighbors and ASRC members, myself and Dan will be sending out regular communication and reminders on how we can all elevate our awareness of each other. In light of our goal to become as a whole a stronger neighborhood, our messages this month are:
- Park in one of the two ASRC parking lots. The lower parking lot is almost never full.
- If you are dropping off a youth for an activity, please use the parking lots and not the surface streets.
- Having a blast at a late night tennis match? Be considerate of the level of your enthusiasm in watching and participating in matches. If you see a member or guest having more than a good time, consider letting them know its ok to bring it down a notch :).
- Approaching and leaving the club. If you can’t walk or ride your bicycle to the club, consider your approach and exiting habits to the club and the nearby streets. If you like me have seen the “Drive like your kids live here” signs all over the place, it’s not just our area that cares about traffic in neighborhoods. While we recognize the ASRC is but one of many nearby resources that elicit a traffic trip, we want to get the message out on helping keep driving habits in-check with our surroundings.
The more we all use and enjoy the club in responsible and considerate ways, the more we create a healthy lifestyle and strengthen our relationships with our community. So get out and enjoy the pool, the tennis courts and the ever-increasing grounds and facilities!
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