NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, in accordance with the bylaws of the Association and Florida’s Condominium Act, that the annual meeting and annual election for the Board of Directors of VGH Association, Inc. shall be held:

In order for the Annual Meeting of the Membership to be held, a minimum of a majority of all unit owners must be present at the annual meeting (either in person or by proxy).  The Association urges all unit owners to attend the Annual Membership Meeting.  If you are unable to attend the Annual Meeting in person, the Association respectfully requests that you complete Proxy and return it to the Association, in order to ensure that the quorum is obtained, allowing the Annual Membership Meeting to be held.  A full election packet will be sent to every homeowner on Monday June 25, 2018.  We are also providing links below to the Notice, the Proxy and the Ballot. 

After our last Board Meeting a majority of the old Board, a majority of the New Board and every Association Member present voted to conduct a new election.  Said election will be conducted on April 25, 2018, as was agreed to at the meeting. 

According to Florida statute 718(2)2 due to the lack of a majority vote of the membership the board is obligated to fully fund reserves and as such everyone’s monthly maintenance will be $360.26.  In order to waive the reserve budget a majority vote of 23 owners must vote to waive the reserve for it to occur. 

Another year facing a bad storm threatening to level the neighborhood.  Not securing all the buildings is a gamble that we as a Board are not willing to take.  In that spirit, and for the benefit of all the owners, a few amongst us donate their time and resource to achieving this end. 

Several owners have agreed to install according shutters for their units.  This is most helpful as it facilitates the Board’s ability to make sure all the units are safe.  We are working on fabricating inserts similar to the inserts used on the laundry rooms for a few owners unable to achieve this end.  We ask everyone to please consider this alternative for safety.  The cost would be in the neighborhood of $2,100 for all openings including the sliding glass doors in the rear.  For additional information please follow this link ….. http://www.gsphurricaneshutters.com/

According to the Palm Beach Post’s 6am report Palm Beach County is expected to experience hurricane-force winds before dawn on Sunday.  We have today and tomorrow to keep preparing, but it will be in the rain that we will be doing these preparations.  I want to cover two main safety issues herein — the concept of negative pressure and the reality of projectiles. 

According to Hurricanescience.org, if we get his with a category 4 storm with winds gusting up to 131-155 MHP:

Catastrophic damage will occur.  Large amounts of windborne debris will be lofted into the air.  There is a high risk of injury or death to people and animals due to flying and falling debris.  Older mobile homes and a high percentage of newer mobile homes will be destroyed.  Well-built homes can also sustain severe damage with significant losses to roof structures and/or some exterior walls.  Extensive damage to roof coverings, windows, and doors will occur.  Top floors of apartment buildings will sustain structural damage, steel frames in older industrial buildings and older unreinforced masonry buildings can collapse.  Most windows will be blown out of high-rise buildings- falling and broken glass will pose a significant danger.  Commercial signage and fences will be destroyed, most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles down.  Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months, long-term water shortages can be expected, and most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.  For more information please follow this link: http://www.hurricanescience.org/society/impacts/windsatlandfall/

In summary, if ANY window in your building blows out, if the glass in your neighbor’s door blows out, if a sliding glass door blows out, if debris your neighbor left out creates a whole in the structure by being a projectile YOUR HOME CAN BE DESTROYED RIGHT ALONG SIDE YOUR NEIGHBORS HOME.  So in short, I encourage everyone to get out today and help their neighbors — for reasons of self-preservation if that is all that makes sense to you. 

Hurricane Irma is a threat to our community regardless of the path it takes.  The circumference of the storm is so large that the entire state of Florida can be fit into the storm.  It is in fact a real threat regardless of the trajectory it takes.  We encourage everyone to keep track of the storm and make sure your neighbors are well informed. 

According to the most recent news, we can expect the store to hit our area sometime late Saturday, and the worst of the storm will affect us sometime late Sunday.  We are investing in getting the neighborhood ready, but we really want to emphasis that our first priority are the areas of our property that we all own together — the common elements such as laundry rooms. 

Our Second area of concern are the elderly, the disabled and the single women in the neighborhood who cannot afford to hire helpers to get them ready for the storm.  We absolutely expect all able bodied owners and landlords to take care of properly boarding up ALL of their exposed openings — all windows and the sliding glass doors. 

Our workers will be out again today and we ask that all work be coordinated through Isabel and Mary.  We understand that everyone wants their building to be completely secured, but they did not complete their assigned work yesterday because they were commissioned to help with various tasks that were not cleared with the association.  We have 10 buildings to secure — we need everybody’s help.  Please note that all work this year is on a volunteer basis. 

As Florida may begin to see impacts from Hurricane Irma, we wanted to pass along some important information that may help you and your loved ones stay safe before, during, and after the storm. 

Remember to follow the direction of local officials.  Your local officials will be the best source of information.  Please let us know immediately if you will be needing assistance from the association.  We will have some workers on board shortly will start inventorying our protection supplies and considering various safety issues. 

The Florida Division of Emergency Management is updating its website with relevant alerts and advisories for potentially affected areas and linking to the most current weather information at www.floridadisaster.org

It took the Board attending several classes and extensive research to make this happen — with minimal costs to the Association.  Our entire website was hijacked by some comical bad programmers from Bangladesh and even after removing their initial hack the more tenuous process of finding the white screen hack took several months — but we are back and all is well!!!!