Quote:
Originally Posted by Jazuela
Not everyone wants to be in charge. Not everyone is any good at it. Many people enjoy joining and participating in what other people have started, and don't want to be responsible for a club's creation and upkeep. I'd say that's probably why both Disney clubs are full, in fact. I'd also say creating a club is a wonderful thing, for those with the impetus and skill to do so. But saying "start a third club" to someone who wants to JOIN a club - is dismissive of the concern.
The concern is that it's activities and clubs that are two of the MAIN selling points when you go to the sales office to discuss the idea of living in The Villages. It's in the brochures, it's in the monthly advertising magazine, it's on their website. The Lifelong Learning college was one of the MAIN attractions as well - I was very interested in that, and now it's gone. Joining clubs is another main interest to me, but "waiting in line or sitting home waiting for someone to tell you that there's finally room to join" is not of interest to me, at all. We were told there was now over two thousand clubs I could join. But judging from some of these posts from full-time residents, visitors, and snowbirds, there are over two thousand clubs - but you can't join many of them because they are full. And of all the hundreds of structured daily activities The Villages offers every day in their rec centers, you might have to get there an hour early just for the privilege of waiting in line, and even then, they might shut the door on you when you get to the front of the line because the room's full already.
These clubs and structured daily activities were a highlight of their sales pitch. If they are not readily available due to overcrowding - even if it's only for three months out of the year, then they need to either a) stop including them in their advertising as a main selling point or b) create more of them. That's on the developer, not on the homeowners. If the developer is using these things in their advertising it's their responsibility to ensure that these things are available. Not just existing, but not available due to overcrowding.
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I don't know of course, but I doubt that any of the clubs were started by the developer. Maybe some were back in the initial stages, but from what I've seen in the last 12 years of researching TV and then living here, it is resident initiative that has caused clubs and organizations to start and grow. To me this is a little like the difference between equal opportunity and guaranteed result. We all have the opportunity to join (or start) clubs and organizations. That doesn't mean we can all do it the moment we want to. Sometimes we have to wait. We can't all get tee times when we might want them either, but with some planning and persistence you can play a lot of golf. I have no problem with the developer using these opportunities to market the property. Had they not, we probably wouldn't be here, and that would be a real shame. I doubt there is anywhere in the world where a person can do exactly what he or she wants exactly when he or she wants to do it. Just my 2 cents.