(Feb. 23, 2017) Members of the Ocean Pines Association Comprehensive Planning Committee believe they’re seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel that has been completing – and getting approval for – a community-wide survey.
Chairman Frank Daly said the committee recently sent two-dozen survey questions to the board of directors for review. The questions were posted on the OPA website, www.oceanpines.org, this week.
The survey is meant to inform a strategic planning document for the Pines. Daly said the committee also finished an outline for the plan and submitted it to the board last week.
The only feedback Daly received, as of Monday, was from committee liaison and Board Vice President Dave Stevens.
“Dave Stevens called and asked me to convene another meeting of the committee, not to specifically discuss either the questions or the outline, but the board wants us to put in a question regarding the use of the community center,” Daly said. “I think the issue with the community center that they want us to get at is: what should be an amenity or what should be paid in it.”
That meeting will occur today, Thursday, at 4:30 p.m. in the Marlin Room of the community center.
If all goes well, the committee hopes to have the survey included in the annual assessment mailings next month. The cost of that, Daly said, is believed to be negligible.
The committee also proposed a web-based version of the survey. Whether that would be an online tool like Survey Monkey, which Daly said would cost about $300, has yet to be decided.
Daly said the committee, overall, has been upbeat. A year ago the entire project was in doubt after the Ocean Pines Board voted to cut ties with a Salisbury University firm hired to assist the committee in developing the survey. The members regrouped and instead worked on the questions themselves.
“We’ve had pretty much our full compliment of people attending the meetings with the exception of when they’ve had personal things going on,” he said. “I think the general mood of the committee is that we are nearing, probably, completion of the most difficult portion of the assignment.
“It’s kind of tough to find out exactly what the community-wide interests are, and then to scope questions that we can get a committee to agree to is tough, and then to get the board to agree to it is tough. That’s a very complicated process that really involves 12 different people in two layers, and I think everybody realizes we’re near the end – unless something completely out of the blue happens to disrupt it,” Daly added.
Chairman Frank Daly said the committee recently sent two-dozen survey questions to the board of directors for review. The questions were posted on the OPA website, www.oceanpines.org, this week.
The survey is meant to inform a strategic planning document for the Pines. Daly said the committee also finished an outline for the plan and submitted it to the board last week.
The only feedback Daly received, as of Monday, was from committee liaison and Board Vice President Dave Stevens.
“Dave Stevens called and asked me to convene another meeting of the committee, not to specifically discuss either the questions or the outline, but the board wants us to put in a question regarding the use of the community center,” Daly said. “I think the issue with the community center that they want us to get at is: what should be an amenity or what should be paid in it.”
That meeting will occur today, Thursday, at 4:30 p.m. in the Marlin Room of the community center.
If all goes well, the committee hopes to have the survey included in the annual assessment mailings next month. The cost of that, Daly said, is believed to be negligible.
The committee also proposed a web-based version of the survey. Whether that would be an online tool like Survey Monkey, which Daly said would cost about $300, has yet to be decided.
Daly said the committee, overall, has been upbeat. A year ago the entire project was in doubt after the Ocean Pines Board voted to cut ties with a Salisbury University firm hired to assist the committee in developing the survey. The members regrouped and instead worked on the questions themselves.
“We’ve had pretty much our full compliment of people attending the meetings with the exception of when they’ve had personal things going on,” he said. “I think the general mood of the committee is that we are nearing, probably, completion of the most difficult portion of the assignment.
“It’s kind of tough to find out exactly what the community-wide interests are, and then to scope questions that we can get a committee to agree to is tough, and then to get the board to agree to it is tough. That’s a very complicated process that really involves 12 different people in two layers, and I think everybody realizes we’re near the end – unless something completely out of the blue happens to disrupt it,” Daly added.