I really do not have a clue to the answer but view it as a rather serious problem. Without some continuity, it is not likely that an individual can develop a sense of the community and a feel for the levels of quality and sophistication required to maintain the concept and build towards improvement, not just maintenance. I hope Patrick will feel free to respond as well as any of the rest of you who may know "why?"

-- Ronald B. Lee (ronanlee@bigplanet.com), February 15, 2000

Answers

There are undoubtedly a mulitude of reasons that the Kentlands cannot keep "good people" in the CMC positions. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest one of the more problematic reasons is the lack of simple respect and dignity afforded the CMC staff by the residents of this community.

Taking responsibility for our actions and behavior would go a long way toward achieving continuity in those positions. Not to be corny, but the Golden Rule is not only essential to completing the concept of the Kentlands, it's essential to every day life.

-- Robin Caldwell (rcaldwell@paint.org), February 15, 2000.

As a member of the pool staff for the past three summers I can say that it is very hard to please everyone in the neighborhood. You may be able to please one person, but your decision may disappoint several others. It would be very helpful if the residents realize how hard all of us at the community center and pool try to please the residents. However, we get more criticism than praise. I have heard that residents felt our guards last year were not attentive enough, and didn't place enough staff in the guard chairs. However, as one of the managing guards, I can assure you our guards WERE attentive. Each and everyone of us maintained the "10/20 zone of protection" that we are trained to do. We all scanned our zones within ten seconds continuously, and had we recognized a situation, would have been able to reach a distressed swimmer within 20 seconds. As far as putting guards in chairs, whenever the social pool had more than 25 swimmers, another guard was put up. There were weekends when all the lifeguard chairs were put to use, and a roving lifeguard was assigned to the "beach" area of the social pool. Effective lifeguard coverage was not an issue in our eyes. Another comment made to me was that for this upcoming summer, the residents want guards to go through customer service training. What most don't realize is that customer service training, and dealing with patrons is in the American Red Cross Lifeguard Training course that we all take to become certified. We have all had the training, and try to be as helpful as possible. We DO take our jobs seriously, and the 35+ hours we spend in ARC Lifeguard Training is very comprehensive. Personally, I will not be returning to Kentlands this summer, but if anyone wishes to respond with questions or criticisms, I would love to hear it. We, the staff, felt last summer was one of the better ones we've had.

-- Scott Tanzi (Scott3085@hotmail.com), March 13, 2000.

I have just learned that Clubhouse Activities Director Andrea Escher will be leaving. Her last day of work is May 29. She will be going to work for the City of Gaithersburg at City Hall. Another good person bites the dust. WHY can't we seem to keep good people???!!!

-- Dee Aronson (deearonson@erols.com), May 22, 2000.

Since the end of January, our community has lost its entire professional/administrative staff (you can't say we have had 100% turnover, because not all have been replaced as yet). These hard-working staffers have all been snapped up by other employers in the private sector and in county and municipal government.

Some have said "change is good." Others have commented "a new broom sweeps clean." In my opinion, the loss of these talented and dedicated professionals is a big loss for our community. No matter how talented their replacements, the professionals who have gone elsewhere took with them much of our institutional memory. Over the years, they had built the foundations for solid growth and gradual institutional evolution. Personally, I will miss them.

Our community is now in the process of staffing up again with a new group of talented and experienced professionals. I hope the residents of our community will keep in mind the importance of giving positive direction and constructive support to our professional/administrative staffers and other employees.

-- Dick Arkin (richardarkin@aol.com), May 22, 2000.