October 2026 Sunriver Scene - Flipbook - Page 4
Sunriver
OWNERS ASSOCIATION
SROA treasurer
report:
Contact your board at sroaboard@srowners.org
sroa president’s message
A few words by way
has been between We believe this will be fairer to away from their positions due
$300K to $400K. all owners because they will not to this abusive treatment. To of introduction
SROA Board President’s Message for
The Sunriver ownOctober Scene
In the September
ers have told the
Scene, the President’s
board that they
Message focused on
want more amenithe importance of
ties, but our 2027
the Sunriver commubudget will be limited to small projects.
nity in “Maintaining Pam Hays
During the SeptemSunriver as a premier
residential and resort com- ber board meeting, the board
munity, protecting its natural will be discussing scenarios
environment, vibrant quality for planning a roadmap for
of life and economic vitality.” future capital projects (large
As we move into Fall, also and small) that would include
sometimes referred to as the substantial owner participation
“shoulder season,” the board and input.
The board will also be dishas much to do to prepare for
2027, so let’s discuss that.
cussing cost recovery for certain
The board’s first priority is to SROA services. For example,
set the budget and maintenance currently SROA offers several
fees for 2027 by early Decem- services to owners for which we
ber at the latest. The budget do not charge. We are going to
must cover infrastructure main- consider a change to this model
tenance, community recreation because some matters are takand amenities, community ing an inordinate amount of
standards, and environmental staff time, copying/postage
services. The main source of fees, and professional fees. A
income to cover everything recent appeal by an owner
comes from owner mainte- took several days of staff and
nance fees. The second largest volunteer time, at least $54 in
source of income comes from postage charges, and several
fees charged throughout the hundred dollars in legal fees.
year for recreation and events. This is overly stressing our
Since SROA is a not-for-profit budgets, and is also consuming
501(c)(4) corporation, SROA the time of our staff and volcannot go over budget and then unteers to the point that they
try to find funding elsewhere, do not have the bandwidth to
like a public entity might. We serve other owners in a timely
have to be very careful to stay fashion. The board will be
within budget.
looking at potentially changing
We don’t yet know what our policy on certain SROA
the budget will be for capital services to incorporate cost
projects yet, but historically it recovery for certain expenses.
have to shoulder the high costs
of an extraordinary individual
owner matter. We also believe
for a majority of our owners, a
change to this policy will not
have an impact.
To close off the President’s
Message for this month, there
is one additional topic that
must be addressed, unfortunately. That topic is Civility.
Last month, I mentioned how
I’ve watched SROA staff seek
to understand, and answer
respectfully and thoroughly
to owners. Unfortunately, I’ve
also witnessed staff and volunteers be treated disrespectfully by owners. In the past few
months, we have had instances
of owners poking and yelling
at our staff, cussing at them
profusely (in person and over
e-mail), calling them incompetent and demanding that
they be removed from their
positions, or being rude to
them for something as simple
as directing traffic around a
road project. SROA has even
had to bring in the police on
occasion for protection. This
treatment has also happened
to many of our volunteers. The
people on the receiving end of
this behavior are highly competent, and many are recognized
widely outside of Sunriver for
their skills and knowledge. We
are lucky to have them, and it
would be a tremendous loss to
Sunriver if they were to walk
start addressing this issue, the
Sunriver police have offered a
training course on de-escalation
and offered their services when
needed. The board is also going
to start looking at updating the
SROA Civility Code to make
it clear that these behaviors are
not acceptable. The board and
the SROA staff cannot solve
this on our own, though. We
need support from the community. Please understand that
staff and volunteers are doing
the jobs that are required to
maintain Sunriver as a premier
residential and resort community. If you, as an owner,
have an issue, please approach
respectfully and not with condemnation. Be constructive,
not destructive. Also, please
advocate for respect when you
see these behaviors. When I
was in college my grandfather,
who I admired greatly, wrote
me a letter. In that letter he
told me, “remember, in order
to have a friend, you must first
be a friend.” He was a very
wise man, and his advice was
so simple, yet powerful.
Please note that this letter
was submitted prior to the September board meeting. Please
watch the board meeting live
or via recording on YouTube
to get updates on some of the
topics. Owners can find the
link on the Sunriver Owners
Association webpage under
board of directors.
increasing to 3,000 characters
for written submittals uses the
full time authorized for speakers. He believes that if owners
must compress legitimate concerns into inadequate space,
clarity suffers and important
context gets cut. He believes
that the result is less informed
Board decisions and more
frustrated owners.
• Kristen Lawson stated that
owners have a significant concern regarding Sunriver Resort’s
using SROA property for a float
and tube business, and that
SROA is actively subsidizing it.
She cited the $10k paid to the
By Brad Banta
I have taken over as treasurer of the Sunriver Owners
Association, and with it this
column. Most of you have no
idea who I am, so an introduction is in order.
First, a bit about me. I have
owned here since 2017 and
have been coming since 2003,
the year I first visited and became hooked on Sunriver. My
wife Kathleen's family (McAniff ) has owned here since the
early 1990s, a dream realized
after their first visit in 1974.
My working life has been finance and operations: CFO
of a company I co-founded,
vice president of finance for
a telecom firm, and prior to
that management consulting
at KPMG and Deloitte. I am
an engineer by training.
Now, Clark Pederson.
Clark served six years on
the board, chaired the Finance
Committee, and wrote this
column every month without
fail. He explained the audit
process in enough detail that an
owner could follow it, and he
was candid when the numbers
were unflattering. The association's finances are in good order
and its records are clean; and a
fair share of the credit belongs
to Clark and Controller Joe
Healy and his team. Clark has
offered to stay available while I
find my footing, and I intend
to take him up on this gracious
gesture. I suspect owners will
miss his columns more than
they expect, as will I.
The transfer fee.
Owners rejected the Capital
Transfer Fee by roughly three to
one. I supported the measure.
Owners did not. A margin like
that leaves no doubt as to the
result. I have no intention of
relitigating it.
I do want to say what I
took from it. The objection I
heard most often was not the
half percent, or sellers paying
at closing. It was that owners
were asked to approve a funding mechanism before anyone
showed them the projects it
would pay for. Several said as
much at board forums this
summer. If we are going to ask
owners to fund something, we
owe them the plan first.
So, what to expect here.
Much of it is set by the calendar and by association policy.
In October and November I
will walk through the 2027
Turn to Highlights, page 5
Turn to Treasurer, page 5
Monthly meeting highlights, actions of the SROA Board of Directors
The Sunriver Owners Association (SROA) Board of
Directors meeting was held
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026.
Board members present: Pam
Hays, Holly Lekas, Kara Kerker, Brad Banta, Linda Beard,
John Hitt, Roni Jacknow
(via Zoom).
Staff present: James Lewis, Keith Wallach, Richie
Villagrana.
Owners forums
(summarized)
From Sept 18 work session
• Paul Conte (two letters)
first commented about proposed rules regarding yard
ornamentation (his comments
to the Rule and Regulation
Update Task Force). He commented on the misuse of the
term “subordinate” and stated
that the Design Committee should stop misusing this
undefined term and phrase
(subordinate to nature” when
evaluating owner’s compliance
Page 4
with design standards. Second,
he submitted a letter quoting
statements directed at him by
a Design Committee member
at the committee’s September
11th meeting and stated that
the Committee Chair should
not have allowed the committee member who made the
comments to continue in the
process. He requested that the
Board remove the committee
member and cited the SROA
Code of Civility.
From Sept. 19 regular
meeting
• Josh Lawson spoke (virtually via Zoom) on two issues.
First he spoke about Pathway
Safety – he stated that more
and larger signs regarding rules
are obnoxious and that larger
signs will not change behavior.
With regard to e-bikes, the
issues are behavioral by the
rider and not the e-bikes themselves. He suggested painting
15 mile per hour signs on the
OCTOBER 2026 SUNRIVER SCENE
SROA Financial Report
Year to date through August 2026 (unaudited)
Total Operating Revenue ................................... $10,675,250
Total Operating Expenses* ................................ $10,538,979
Operating Surplus / (Deficit) ............................. ($71,791)
*Reserve Fund Contribution: $2,690,833
pathways. Second he spoke
about a software prototype he
developed regarding the ability to survey owners and give
owners the ability to comment
and respond in real-time via a
proper owner portal. He suggested that the SROA consider
such technology.
• Josh Lawson requested that
SROA, via Board direction,
reconsider the 1,500-character limit for owner written
comments. He requested the
limit be increased to 3,000
characters to align with the
three-minute speaking time
allocated to in person or virtual speakers. He believes that
