Quote:
Originally Posted by uujudy
On the other hand. . .
My 86-year-old mother-in-law from St. Petersburg visits us for weeks at a time, and she LOVES having a Villages guest pass. She only uses it when we go to the pool or the movies, but she LOVES showing her guest pass. She doesn't swim; she just likes to sit at the pool with us. We usually get her a pass for her entire visit. She visits us for two weeks at Easter, another two weeks for Thanksgiving and her birthday, another 3 weeks for Christmas, plus occasional weekly visits from time to time... She would use up a 30-day pass in no time at all.
Would I have to get her a pass on a daily basis, or just get one whenever the weather was nice, so we could go to the pool together? That doesn't make much sense to me.
PS: Shhh. Don't tell anyone I told you how old she is. She still claims to be 79. She said that once you're 80 everybody thinks you're old.
PPS: She saves her old guest passes. She keeps them on her refrigerator so all her neighbors can see that she's been to The Villages many, many times.
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As I have said in earlier posts, I served on the Focus Group concerning the guest IDs. The 30 day limit proposal was for the In-Area Guest ID's only since those are issued for 365 days and are limited to children, spouses, grandchildren, spouses, great-grandchildren only (no other relatives, i.e. brothers, uncles, etc.) The actual proposal was not for 30 days, but for 30 days of use per 365 day period. Persons living outside the tri-county area are issued passes (maximum 30 days) which are renewable. Some of the ones we heard from who have the in-area guest passes use them very little. One guy said he sees less of his grandkids now than he did when they lived in Orlando. The 365-day pass just allows them to do things with the grandkids, etc. on a spur of the moment basis (Sunday afternoon occasionally for instance). Out of area guests are usually not just "drop-ins" but planned visits.
Most people who have guests from outside the area do so for much less than 30 days annually. Some people have many guests but not the same ones all the time. This focus group all came about, not because they don't want you to have guests, but because of those few (and they are few) who abuse the system. Guest passes are now issued for the very young children because some were passing off their grandchildren's friends (or others) as their grandchildren as well. Much of the abuse was from people who do not live here full-time and as a result, did not want to have to pay the amenity fees, upkeep of property, insurance, etc. so they bought close, got their friends in TV to get them guest passes (using their out-of-state id's) every 30 days thus giving them all the amenities of what the guest program was meant to be without having to pay all the stuff that goes with ownership in TV.
If you know of someone using the pools, etc. and living in Bison or somewhere close but not here, call (all the rec centers and pools have phones) and they will send someone out to check. I have noticed much more checking going on since the focus group meetings at our neighborhood pool and that is as it should be. Personally, I would like to see the pool monitors returned, but we were told that it is totally cost-prohibitive. Meanwhile, protect our investments by calling and reporting. If they are indeed there legally, they should not be offended and if they are, too bad. I can count on one hand the times I have been to our neighborhood pool in the six years I've been here and have had people in the pool ask me if I belong. I actually appreciate that they do and am happy to produce my ID, thank them for asking, and enjoy the rest of my time there. Turst me, I am not offended....quite the opposite.