Cascades as a active adult community

There is a very interesting article in today's Sunday Dallas Morning News (July 26, 2009) about several developments in the Dallas and Denton markets (Robson Ranch, Frisco Lakes were two of them), where the emphasis was on having a resort/retirement lifestyle before people were retired, and how fun and neighborly these places were.

Seems to me that this model would be something very interesting and workable for us, here at Cascades. While still encouraging greater golf membership within the community, the idea of developing more of the community feel with neighborhood parties and get togethers makes an great sense. Why don't you read the article at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/denton/flowermound/stories/072609dnbusactiveadults.3ffb253.html

Thanks for reading!

Rick

The Idea of shrinking services

Seth Godin is a business writer and thinker, and he writes a daily blog. I would encourage everyone to subscribe to it, it is just a kick in the pants much of the time. Here is what he wrote today:

Death spiral!

You've probably seen it. The fish monger sees a decline in business, so they have less money to spend on upkeep and inventory, so they keep the fish a bit longer and don't clean up as often, so of course, business declines and then they have even less money... Eventually, you have an empty, smelly fish store that's out of business.

The doctor has fewer patients so he doesn't invest as much in training or staff and so some other patients choose to leave which means that there are even fewer patients...

The newspaper has fewer advertisers, so they can't invest as much in running stories, so people stop reading it, which means advertisers have less reason to advertise which leaves less money for stories...

As Tom Peters says, "You can't shrink your way to greatness," and yet that's what so many dying businesses try to do. They hunker down and wait for things to get better, but they don't. This isn't a dip, it's a cul de sac. It's over.

Right this minute, you still have some cash, some customers, some momentum... Instead of squandering it in a long, slow, death spiral, do something else. Buy a new platform. Move. Find new products for the customers that still trust you.

Change is a bear, but it's better than death.
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Don't you think this is applicable to our situation at Cascades? We need to help Bill see that we can't shrink our way to success as a development or a country club!

Rick

Rush Weekend!

Been thinking about how to encourage interest in joining our club, and even becoming a homeowner out here.

Probably the most effective "salesmanship" any of us have experienced was the "rush" during college or even in some social organizations, where there is a concerted effort to bring more friends into a particular circle. Why shouldn't we do the same thing at Cascades?

Why not designate a "Rush weekend" for us to try to encourage new members? We could have golf, beers and a party on a weekend night, have every member invite one or two guests and just have a grand old time. And I am not thinking this should be a Cascades sponsored and paid for thing, but for a reasonable price, everybody but Buddy Miller would probably invite a friend or two to something like this. We all benefit when Cascades prospers, don't we?

Why not try some low cost and high fun events like this?

What do you think?

Rick

Issues at Cascades

Hey gang, we really need to be talking together to address some of the issues we seem to be having out here at Cascades, and while a blog seems pretty high tech, it can help us to stay in touch and learn what is going on in  the community, and with our neighbors.

Last night's Fourth of July celebration went very well, I thought. Food was good and it mainly was just good to see everybody there at the club. That's what it is there for!

I was thinking of some issues that I heard about last night, and thought we might want to address these in some way.

Let's start here:

1. Property tax valuations- My understanding is that several people have been fighting this battle with the city, since there really appears to be little rationale for the high valuations most of the Cascades property has been given.  I don't have any direct knowledge here, so I would appreciate an update- and anybody can do that on this blog! (In other words, this isn't a Rick Coker blog, it is merely a bulletin board that anyone can post upon!)

2. Traffic aspects- Jerry Irwin was telling me about the problems he is having with traffic going by his house, much like the complaints that the Embry's have made before. What can be done here? Is a gate the only answer, or is there something else that can make it ? What would need to happen to enable gating? We just don't see that so much here at my house. 

3. The status of the club and its operation. Since all of us are members as well as homeowners, we really have a stake in the operation of the club. And certainly Bill Cawley gets plenty of advice and plenty of complaints about everything from how the beer tastes to the preparation of somebody's hamburger, so I don't want to make this a gripe thing, but more to the point of making things better.  I have to tip my hat to the Moneta's and Bill Minyard for taking the bull by the horns to try and act as hosts, I know that isn't easy! And I appreciate their work, and know I have left some names out, so sorry!

To me, the lawsuits and  resulting confusion as to what is going on out here have been a real drag on our ability to recruit new members and sell more lots.  And while I sure don't know all the issues involved, all I can say is that it seems like nobody wins if we stay in survival mode or struggle.  We have great people, a great golf course and a very nice clubhouse, why shouldn't this be an attractive and bustling place to live and play?

In any case, I wanted to get the conversation going here. If you read this and can't figure out how to respond, email me at riccoker@gmail.com or phone me at 903-521-7667 and I will walk you through it. When we are all together, there is just so much to talk about, but we can't just talk at parties!

Rick