RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY REVIEWS
WHEN COMMUNITY BUILDS TOWARDS UNITY
Shakespeare’s King Henry IV says “uneasy lies management problems and challenges must still
the head that wears the crown”, and while we be met in a timely and effective manner. This
are not wanting to burden anyone with regal is a balancing act in which the classic dilemma
trappings, there will be many restless HOA of putting down the necessary foundations for
boards and managers just like the Bard’s king as a secure future must be balanced with dealing
they endeavour to effect the necessary changes, with the immediate needs of the present.
improvements and good governance that will
keep their respective homeowners secure and
asleep in their beds.
effective communication, essential to impart news
of the broader activities and any consequences
Pecanwood’s initiatives to relaunch its estate and in building the needs of the future. It is also key
golf components provide a very interesting case in imparting ongoing news about the initiatives
study. In many areas they mirror the hurdles and and projects, and to ensure that the sense of
challenges faced by every modern golf estate community is strengthened within the estate and
and, while we cannot cover all of the initiatives that individual rights are seen to be protected,
undertaken by Pecanwood in this forum (they while allowing the individual homeowner to feel
are both extensive and a work in progress), a that they are part of the inclusive process.
selection and the underlying philosophy driving
these changes will illustrate the point, and I
am sure the general terms of reference will be
familiar to many other estates.
Pecanwood’s strategy also included the need
to be in effective ownership of the golf course,
addressed through the signing of a Heads of
Agreement to a long-term lease. The effective
Any management team needs to ensure that all implementation of the full lease is now only
the boxes, in terms of good governance, are in dependent on the course’s owner’s compliance
place and then ticked off effectively. with several pre-emptive conditions.
Pecanwood’s HOA Chairperson, De Villiers Botha, The balancing act that every HOA board
stresses this need. “Effective leadership is key undertakes now reveals itself again.
at every stage of a business’ life, but never
more so than when it is restructuring, setting
itself new goals and implementing essential
changes,” he says.
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Balancing these dual elements requires very
The reintegration of the golf course back into
the daily life of an estate is not a challenge
that has been, or will be, faced by Pecanwood
alone. In this instance, securing tenure over
In this iterative process, there is a dual and the management rights to the golf course
challenge, in that while executing the longer- had to be supported by both the agreement
term plans takes time, the normal day-to-day of the homeowners and their approval for the