Monday, May 19, 2008

Minneapolis owners' meeting a success

I received a note from Chris Hahn regarding the owners' meeting that took place last week. He was kind enough to allow me to post it here. As many as 90 owners attended, and I'm told most of them came away with a pretty good feeling that construction will start up again soon.

Here is Mr. Hahn's e-mail message:

Hello Neighbors,

I wanted to take this opportunity to send a heart felt thanks to everyone again for not only taking time out of your busy schedules to attend the owners meeting, but for all your great input and participation at the meeting, which I think was the main reason for the meeting's success. I also wanted to make sure you all knew how much I appreciate all of your kind words and support that you have extended me over the last several weeks, because frankly I did not know if I made that clear enough at the meeting, because as you know I was very sleep deprived and exhausted.

The other main purpose of writing to you all is up until now I have basically been the face of the owners meeting if you will, and now that things are beginning to evolve into something much larger, I strongly feel that the new face going forward should be our designated owners group and newly formed committees, because it’s a team effort and it has grown well beyond my capacity to successfully manage and attend to all of the many moving parts and details that are required. For instance, I had over 30 emails and phone messages waiting for me when I got home Saturday from the meeting ranging from wanting my advice and/or information on a wide-range of topics from Residence Club to the owners meeting , which I am very happy to see and humbled by, because its important that everyone is well informed and is brought up to date on the events of the meeting, but frankly there is not enough time in the day for me to respond in a timely fashion and effectively communicate to you in a way that you all deserve. So with that said, going forward everything will be transitioned and channeled through the 6 and probably soon to be 7 member owners group, which will be primarily responsible for representing our fellow owners best interests, and to be a liaison between Pillar and the owners at large. Also, our newly formed committees will also be a valuable resource for all the clients/owners to utilize and assist as well. More details on the owners group and committees will be sent out shortly. Please keep in mind that I’m not suggesting that you can’t pick up the phone and call or email me or any of the other group members for that matter, we certainly all welcome that of course, but I think its vital going forward that we all have a system in place that eliminates any breakdown in communication that leads to misinformation or misunderstandings that unfortunately has been the case in the past, and also provides accurate information in a timely and efficient basis.

At this time, I would please ask everyone to be patient as far as receiving information on the meeting, the owners group is currently working very hard to dissect and organize the large amount of information that came out of the meeting. We will be sending out a very detailed email this week that will discuss the highlights and salient points from the meeting, and will be followed-up very soon with a breakdown of all the agenda questions that you all sent in, including Pillars responses. In the meantime, I would kindly ask that those owners that did attend the meeting to please reach out to those owners that could not make it and share with them your thoughts and feelings about the meeting if of course you feel compelled to do so.

In closing, I would like to say that all future correspondence and perspectives relating to RF business will be coming from a diverse group of your fellow owners, the owners group. This is obviously a very good thing, because it means that my original idea is developing into what I had envisioned, and that is, all of us owners/neighbors are starting to unite together in order to be part of the solution to not only protect our investments, but to find productive and constructive ways to realize and fulfill our dreams. What is even more exciting to me is that I think we have only scratched the surface, and that we are at the threshold of doing something very extraordinary and revolutionary, because what I personally took away from the meeting was that Pillar is now completely committed and willing to work with us owners in good faith, with transparency and accountability to do what it takes to make sure that Red Frog succeeds, and us in the process. Actions always speak louder that words, but I truly believe we have a real partnership with Pillar now.

Again, my many thanks to all of you that participated in the meeting, and making it possible for us to change our reality for the better, for not only ourselves, but for all of us collectively.

Your friend and neighbor,

Chris
Lot #46

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

What about my prescriptions?

I had a thought the other day as I went to the pharmacy to refill my prescriptions. What am I going to do if we end up spending extended periods of time in Panama? Who do I turn to? Of course, I e-mailed my friend, Sam Taliaferro, of PrimaPanama and developer of Valle Escondido in Boquete. Here was his response:

You can have prescriptions sent down through mail forwarders. I have suppliments sent regularly. The pharmacy's are fairly well equiped and will probably have what you need. You just need to check the costs out when you get down here.

I had hoped that the laws for getting the medicines we need were a little more relaxed as I am told they are in Mexico. Sam says many drugs may be purchased over the counter that require a prescription in the US. In my research, I found a website from Panama Law that talks about this in more detail.

- Mick @ Lot 83