SNHA Newsletter February 2024
Contacts and Phone Numbers
27 Old 108 Loop #5
Jeffersonville, Vermont. 05464
Phone: 802-644-5865
Executive Director – Michael Williams michael@snha.net
Regime and Homeowner Project Manager _ Peter Udemi peter@snha.net
Bookkeeper – Stefanie Lang stefanie@snha.net
Save the Date
- SNHA Annual Meeting
Date: Saturday, July 6, 2024
- Homeowners Family Get Together:
Join fellow Homeowners for music and dessert
Date: Saturday, July 6, 2024
Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Details will be posted soon
- Solar Eclipse
Date: Monday April 8, 2024
On April 8, 2024 at 2:14 p.m., a partial solar eclipse will begin, and at 3:26 p.m., a total eclipse will darken Vermont’s daytime sky, lasting about 3 minutes. This will continue as a partial eclipse until 4:37 p.m.
This is the link for the Total Solar Eclipse Weekend at Smuggs:
https://www.smuggs.com/pages/winter/promotions/eclipse.ph
Note: This time will be at the higher, “in season rate” for renters but will NOT count toward owners’ use as it is outside of the Winter Season Dates.
Did you know?
- A BIG change at SNHA
After 33 years as the backbone of our Association, Joe Hester-Ingram has retired! He served as our Executive Director from 1990 through 2022, and as the Regime and Homeowner Project Manager, during 2023 year, as a transition step for himself and to provide training for both our Current Executive Director , Michael Williams and Peter Udemi, our new Regime and Homeowner Project Manager.
During his many years with the Association, Joe prepared annual budgets for all our regimes and for SNHA, worked with contractors on projects large and small in regimes and individual homes, monitored routine and preventative maintenance in our buildings and homes. He also worked closely with the SNHA Executive Board, the SNHA Board of Directors, Regime Directors and individual owners. He was a watchful eye on our property while many of us have been absentee owners.
We appreciate all that Joe did for SNHA and for each of us, the individual owners. He was always there for us with the answers to our questions or the willingness to research the solution to a problem, whether it was during business hours, in the evening or over a weekend. We thank him for his commitment to us as a community and as individual owners.
Please mark your calendar for July 6, Saturday, for the SNHA Annual Meeting, where we plan to recognize Joe’s service to the Association.
- Welcome to the Regime and Homeowner Project Manager at SNHA: Peter Udemi joined SNHA in early October and has assumed the role of Regime and Homeowner Services Manager. Peter relocated to Vermont after nearly 20 years’ experience as a Facilities Manager, Maintenance Manager, and Regional Facilities Coordinator in Florida. He has an MS in Environmental Policy and Management along with trade level troubleshooting experience.
Peter will be taking advantage of the “Work Order” feature in AppFolio. If there is something that you would like to have done in your unit or regime, you can communicate with him directly by logging into your AppFolio portal and entering a work order detailing your needs. Also, contact Peter at the email and office phone listed in the header or on his cell phone at 754-251-9822.
- OpenKey is a bluetooth key application to use on your phone for entrance into your unit with a reservation only. Pre-registration can be completed before you arrive at Smuggs . Don’t forget to download the App first. When using, your phone needs to be moved around the door lock to properly direct the bluetooth signal being used from the phone.
If you can’t activate at preregistration, no worries, just ask when you check in at the guest services.
- Smuggs 55 Plus Ski Club. Are you here most of the winter? They meet every Wednesday during the SKi season. There is a fee for joining. All are welcomed..
Find them on Facebook.
- Storm water :The Task Force that Smuggs planned to form, has met and made a recommendation for the consulting engineering firm to be used for the next phase of the stormwater project. The resort has taken this recommendation and signed a contract with TCE, a small firm based in Williston Vt, to perform the Engineering Feasibility Analysis (EFA). The work will begin as soon as the state of Vermont approves the NOI that all of us signed, which was submitted prior to the November 1 deadline. Further Information can be found on the Owners Login Site
- Local Organizations: Smuggs partners with local organizations like the Rotary Club and the Cambridge Recreation Board doing fundraising events that are open to homeowners? Just one example, is the “Annual Pie for Breakfast” event held on January 27 where $5 gets one all the pie they can eat and all the coffee they can drink and provides funding for the “Winter Wellness Program” which ensures that fresh air, exercise, and fun are available for all regardless of their socioeconomic status.
The partnership between Smuggs and the Cambridge Recreation Board, helps to fund recreational facilities, programs, and the promotion of recreation for the town and its community members, as well as managing all maintenance of the Cambridge Town Fields, and fund the Cambridge Youth Sports programs that play on those fields. Also, discounted swim lessons and ski lessons are made available to the children in the community through this partnership.
The CAMBRIDGE AREA ROTARY partners with Smuggs each year to provide a week of learning to ski/ride, snowshoe or cross-country ski for the 4th, 5th and 6th Graders at Cambridge Elementary School through the WINTER WELLNESS PROGRAM.
- Fire Extinguishers along with Smoke Alarms are mandatory in all public dwellings. A fire inspection of all units (in the rental program or not) is mandated by the fire marshall. A fire extinguisher easily seen, tagged with the valid date, in working condition, and accessible must be found in every home.Smuggs manages this program for all homes in the rental program. SNHA will be managing a similar program covering all non and self renters’ homes. This annual mandatory fire extinguisher inspection will be done within the course of the next season for any homes not in the Smuggs rental program. You will be contacted by SNHA with information pertaining to your unit. For more information from the Waterbury Fire Safety Office go to Link.
New Rental Agreement Update:
Owners who attended or watched last summer’s Annual meeting know that overall, the performance of the new rental agreement has met many of our initial expectations. Participating owners received income last winter that was $117,833 higher (7%) than it would have been under the old contract. However, a couple of legitimate concerns and questions were raised at the meeting.
One issue was the new 5 Star plus (Quality Home) methodology. Expectation was that consumers would gravitate to quality and preferentially book Quality homes, giving these owners an occupancy (and rental rate) advantage to justify their investments. Occupancy data from last winter did not bear out this prediction.
Smugglers’ acknowledged that this was a significant issue, and worked in good faith with our SNHA negotiating committee this Fall to develop better internal and external marketing methods and practices as well as tweaking pricing strategies to hopefully bring the performance of ALL the 5 Star plus homes up to levels that match initial expectations. Smugglers’ had told our committee that they were going to send an email communication to owners detailing the changes they have employed and what further changes they anticipate for the 5 star plus (now labeled “preferred”) homes to boost their rental performance. We look forward to continued communication with the resort, and to continued cooperation to achieve our mutual goals.
The other issue regarding the new contract which has generated significant questions concerns the promised “online” calendar. We have received assurances from Smugglers’ that after considerable technical work and internal testing, the calendar is now ready and will very soon be released for the first stage of usage by owners on the new contract.
—
Margaret Goldman