Advocate
October 2019Aberdeen Homeowners Association
Thank you,
Kathy McGinty and Wendy Nolan for getting the clubhouse festive for FALL!
HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!
Well it finally happened, Aberdeen. Somebody turned down Fall’s thermostat. And much like the burning of Cheryl’s She-shed brought hopes of a new and improved “she-shier” replacement, the turning of the temps vows to enhance our enjoyment of all our cherished autumn traditions. Can we all agree that a crisp breeze adds a little extra flavor to our pumpkin-spiced treats. There’s just something unnatural, dare I say unholy, about sweating it out on a hayride wishing our pool would stay open through Christmas. We yearn to encase ourselves in fleece jackets and leather boots. We want to see the leaves bear their vibrant jewel tones before dropping to the ground. Pumpkin and apple picking just don’t feel the same while wearing shorts and flip flops.
Finally, finally the weather seems to align with the calendar and our expectations. So where are we to find all this glorious fall fun-let’s take a cue from Cheryl and start in our “backyard”, or close to it, anyway-right here in Forsyth county. Cheryl turned to State Farm, and you can hop on 400 and turn into either Warbington Farms or Kinsey Family Farms, each of which offers classic fall activities from hayrides to pumpkins. I especially love the warm apple cider at Kinsey, and my kids always enjoy the challenging corn maze at Warbington.
If screams and scares are more to your liking, the all-new Cumming Scare Fair will take place the last two weekends in October. This fundraising event benefitting Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society offers a walk-through haunted attraction, as well as food trucks, vendors and games. And that’s not the only place to scare up spooky thrills. Our very own Sharon Forks Library boasts another eery experience on October 24th: The Library Haunted House. The meeting rooms will be transformed into a ghostly abode-can you stand the suspense??
If you’re looking for something less intense, you can take your kiddos to the Trunk or Treat Safety event on Saturday, October 19th at the fairgrounds, where children can wear their costumes and learn some important Halloween safety tips, all while having lots of fun.
These are just a few of the many ways to take advantage of all that our county has to offer in the coming weeks. No matter how you spend this season, make it a time for creating special memories with family and friends and enjoying this cool weather while it lasts. So get out there and make your fall even “fall-ier”!
-Tara Garcia
House
- of the -
Month
Congratulations to Dan and Donna Koopote of 5030 Westbury Lane for winning House of the Month for July 2019 and Michael and Mary Woods of 4920 Wiltshire Lane for winning House of the Month for September 2019! There was no House of the Month for August.
They are the winners of a $25 Visa gift card and will now be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift card to be given out at the Aberdeen Annual Meeting! Will you be the next to win?
House of the Month is selected by the Aberdeen Architectural Control Committee (or ACC). All association members who's home and yard stand out as being consistently well-maintained, conform to Design Standards, and have no current violations, fines or other issues with their account will be considered.
FoCo School Schedule
October 23rd/24th.....Early Release
October 25th.....Professional Dev. (student holiday)
November 25th-29th....Thanksgiving Break
December 20th-January 6th...Holiday Break
Aberdeen Home Sales
26 homes have sold
in Aberdeen, year to date.
Median Sales Price in Aberdeen is currently
$393,000.
Median Days on Market in Aberdeen is 10 days, year to date.
Aberdeen Homeowners averaged 98.24% of their list price, this year.
Data is from the First Multiple Listing Service and is provided by Megan Waite, Realtor
October 6th was Taco Night at the Clubhouse!
Thank you to Jessica Mercon, Andrea Hyatt and Lori Clarkin for preparing the
taco dinner, from scratch, for the neighborhood.
It was enjoyed by all who attended!
The Board is pleased to announce two new Directors.
Wendy Nolan has been selected to fill the unexpired term of Bob Kapelski, which expires in March of 2021
Katie Bagosy has resigned from the Board, and Chad Heacox has been selected to fill the remaining portion of her term, which expires in March of 2020.
Santa Claus is coming to Aberdeen,
December 1, 2019!
Fishing Off the Grid
By Bob Kapelski
I just recently went on a fly-in fishing trip in Ontario, Canada. Logistically, this was no easy task. I had to fly to International Falls, Minnesota and rent a car. After clearing customs I drove to Vermillion Bay, Ontario. I spent the night and drove to the outfitter the next morning. After boarding the plane we flew 140 air miles to a remote lake in Northern Ontario.
Imagine being left on a distant lake with just a few friends. You have no guide, no cell service, no WIFI and no Walmart. if you forgot to bring something forget it. Your electricity is provided by a gas powered generator.
The bathroom is slightly rustic and the weather can be iffy but the beauty of this trip is that there is very little fishing pressure. You are the only people on the lake and the fish are plentiful. We joke that you could drop a beer can in the water and catch a fish. We ate fresh walleye every day for lunch and dinner. We would have eaten walleye for breakfast if we could come up with a recipe.We had fish fried, blackened, grilled, on nachos and in tacos. We experienced incredible sunrises and beautiful scenery.
To register for the run and learn more about the
Ludwig family, visit http://bit.ly/holdenstrong
100% of all money raised goes to the Ludwig family.
Book Club
Aberdeen Book Club welcomes all Aberdeen residents!
The book for November will be Searching for Sylvia Lee
by Jean Kwok.
We meet the 3rd Monday of every month at the club house at 7pm for book discussion, food and laughter. Contact Debbie Mervich at dmervich@gmail.com
for more information.
-Debbie Mervich
Tennis News
The grand opening for the new tennis pavilion was a huge success! Thank you to everyone that came out and a special congratulations to our Round Robin winners - 1st place Steve Sywy and Wendy Nolan and 2nd place Jay Squillace and Wendy Barker!
We have several adult tennis teams and a junior tennis program for ages 6 – 13 available to all Aberdeen residents. If you are interested in joining a team or have any questions, please send an email to aberdeentenniscommittee@gmail.com.
Fun fact: ALTA has over 90,000 participants in North Georgia with 10 difference leagues and over 1850 tennis facilities. Forsyth County is one of 6 counties that account for 93% of all facilities and has one of the largest growing number of participants in north Georgia. Aberdeen has around 25% of its residents that participate in a league ranging in ages from 5yrs – 70+ yrs. Leagues include USTA, ALTA, T2, Ultimate Tennis, League Tennis, Junior Tennis Program, Beer League Tennis and more.
Tennis Court Use
Reserving a Court
1. To reserve a court, go to www.reservemycourt.com
2. To request a login, please send an email to Karen Maddock karen.a.miller@att.net
- You can reserve a court up to 10 days in advance.
- The maximum play time is 2 hours for practice and casual play.
- You can make 2 reservations per player per weekPlease indicate what the reservation is for; ATLA, USTA, practice, T2, etc.
Note: Any ALTA or USTA makeup/rainout match takes precedence over practices and casual play.
Tennis Rules
- The Tennis Courts are for the exclusive use of Aberdeen residents and their accompanied guests only.
- Reserving a court through the Reserve My Court website is required before playing.
- Please observe the rules of proper tennis etiquette while playing. Do not walk behind someone while the ball is in play; do not return a ball while a point is in progress, etc.
- Only rubber soled `tennis` shoes are allowed on the playing surface.
- No sitting or standing is allowed on the granite countertops.
- No animals are allowed within the tennis court fence.
- Big Wheels, skateboards, tricycles, bicycles, skates, or motor vehicles are NOT allowed on the courts.
- The resident host/hostess is responsible for all actions of his/her guest.
- NO SMOKING IN ABERDEEN'S COMMON AREA, INCLUDING PARKING LOT
- Wendy Barker
Tennis Committee
Board of Directors:
Announcements
Upcoming Projects & Activities
Those of you who attended the budget meetings that the current Board made open to the Membership may recall hearing about changes in our Internet provider, camera upgrades at the clubhouse, air conditioning the pool bathrooms and other exciting projects such as re-locating the breaker panel from the pump room to the pool room. All of these items, and more will be decided by the Board at a Special Meeting called by the President on October 17th at 7PM. As usual, Members in good standing are invited to attend.
Among other things, the Board recently changed landscape companies for our maintenance and seasonal color. 4 Seasons Landscaping was engaged beginning October 1st to provide weekly services and other things as agreed to by the Board. This change resulted in a significant four-figure savings for Aberdeen for more services. 4 Seasons provides landscape services to neighboring communities like Laurel Springs and others.
Our website provider has increased their annual charge from less than $1,000 to close to $3,000 for the same service and content management, on an extremely dated user interface. Several Directors have been reviewing other offerings and have found multiple offerings at a cost of around $500 per year for significantly better content management, coupled with iOS and Android portable device apps that make the content readable and usable on your phone or tablet. There will be some upfront costs which the Board is trying to minimize, but the objective is to make this changeover as transparent as possible to the Membership. More as things develop.
The pool and clubhouse access system is very dated in its operability by the administrators. Without going into detail here, Aberdeen will benefit greatly by upgrading to a more user friendly (both for resident users and the folks who have to operate it) so that future Directors can quickly learn to administer this. A by-product of having a system such as we have is the ability to provide entry statistics to our facilities, which can give guidance to the Board as it decides such things as guarded hours at the pool. These charts gives us guidance on when to schedule pool guards from our pool management company:
Next, our upcoming camera upgrade will provide better property and asset protection for the pool, clubhouse & playground area, however this will require more bandwidth than we currently have. Regrettably, AT&T is non-responsive to many months of requests to provide better Internet connectivity, and there is currently consideration to switching providers. Doing this will result in either an increased cost for service or a two-year term agreement with early termination fees, and the Board is considering this.
Proposed Covenant Amendments
Over the summer, several Aberdeen homeowners spent a lot of time giving thought to the proposed amendments that were proposed at last year’s annual meeting. While they had merit, it was felt that further consideration of the consequences of each proposed amendment was necessary, and this committee, chartered by the current Board, undertook that task. The result is that each proposed amendment underwent some changes to avoid unintended negative consequences that Aberdeen homeowners might find objectionable.
The Leasing Restriction amendment had an elemental change that guarantees that any Aberdeen homeowner may rent his or her residence without restriction. There is no “hardship” requirement that must be met and any leasing cap does not apply to an individual homeowner needing to rent their home.
The Residential Use amendment makes it easier for the Association to manage traffic within our neighborhood associated with non-residential use by both defining what non-residential use is and giving the Board the discretion to assess certain circumstances and whether the use of an Aberdeen home is in keeping with the residential character of our community. The intent of this proposed amendment as well as the Leasing Restriction is to maintain and increase our property values.
The Initiation Fee proposed amendment will bring Aberdeen in line with surrounding communities by charging a fee equal to the current year’s Regular Assessment to the purchaser of a home in Aberdeen. This revenue would be an offset to the dues we all pay to operate the Association. About 20 homes per year turn over in Aberdeen, and if this proposed amendment were to have been in place our dues could have been reduced by about $30. Here is updated information for similar subdivisions to Aberdeen.
The full text of the proposed amendments will be sent to everyone via email in two forms, the full legal version and a “plain English” version and there will be at least one opportunity for everyone to get together to discuss this further. We need a half-dozen or so volunteers to engage our neighbors in this effort and explain the benefits of these proposed changes, so if you are interested in helping out, please contact the Board at directors.abd@gmail.com.
In a few weeks our printed directory will be distributed, along with a printed version of the plain English version of the proposed amendments. In that package will be a proxy for you to vote in support of each amendment (yes, you can vote FOR one or more or AGAINST one or more, you don’t have to support all three). We need 279 votes FOR an amendment to make it part of our covenants.
-Board of Directors
Social Butterflies Still Needed
Are you a Social Butterfly, Decorating Diva or Persistent Planner? Aberdeen Social Committee Chair and other members needed. Please email the board with interest at directors.abd@gmail.com
Website
Navigation
Did you know that Aberdeen has a website? Our website is www.aberdeencommunity.org. On it you can make updates to how you receive community notifications, reserve the clubhouse, view facility use guidelines, download Property Modification Requests, and much more. If you are new to the neighborhood and do not yet have a login, you can request one directly from the website!
Login Request: Go to www.aberdeencommunity.org . Click on the EFORMS tab at the top of the page. In the middle of the page there will be a box titled EFORMS. Click on "Login Request Form". Fillout request form and SUBMIT. If you do not recieve a login within a few days, email the board at directors.abd@gmail.com .
Notification Updates:
Once you logon to site, go to MY PROFILE tab at the top of the page and click. On this screen you'll see EDIT PERSON- [Your Name]. Below it will be four tabs. Click on SUBSCRIPTIONS tab. Make updates as needed.
Reserve the Clubhouse:
Once you logon to site, go to ACTIVITIES tab at the top of the page. A drop down will appear and you'll select EVENTS CALENDAR to verify the date you want is available. When you've confirmed the date, return to ACTIVITIES tab and select RESERVATIONS. Fill out reservation form and SUBMIT. Clubhouse manager will confirm your reservation.
Facility Use Guidelines:
Once you logon to site, go to ACTIVITIES tab at the top of the page. A drop down will appear and you'll select AMENITIES. To the right of the page you'll find a list of the amenities. Click on the amenity you are looking for information on.
Property Modification Request:
Once you logon to the site, go to RESOURCES tab. A drop down menu will appear. Select DOCUMENTS. On the right side of the DOCUMENTS page will be another drop down box titled CHOOSE A CATEGORY. Select ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL COMMITTEE. Click on "PMR, with online fields, preferred version".
- Megan Waite
to M.O.E.S!
M.O.E.S. enjoyed our first outing in August! We headed to our local brewery in John's Creek, Six Bridges Brewing, for some Hard-hitting Trivia. The " Sack Lunch Allstars" did not win but we had so much fun! We look forward to future get-togethers.
Please feel free to plan your own outing or playdate through our M.O.E.S. Facebook page, below.
-Tara Garcia and Megan Waite