Welcome!

 Hi neighbors!

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit my blog. I’m not much of a blogger; I just write what I see and feel, and I have some strong feelings about this community that I love.

Photo Credit: Millie Tyler

I should have started writing last fall, to be perfectly honest, but hindsight is always 20/20. It was an absolute whirlwind of campaigning, canvassing, onboarding, meeting, mailing, and everything else. I didn't think I could add one more thing on my plate. However, it has been said, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." So here goes.

During our campaigning in the fall, our neighbors were finding out left and right, the dirty, underhanded things that Former HOA president Paul Westphal was doing. Things that were in his interests only; things that even fellow Board members had no idea about.

Then he had the geese killed.

Then we knew: he had to go.

Our "Riverwood Forward Team" was formed almost accidentally: neighbors all experiencing the same problems with the Board, and all sick and tired of the tyranny. We planned carefully, worked hard, and pulled together a group of candidates who we all thought were infinitely more fit for the job than Paul Westphal and his cronies.

And by some miracle, those candidates won.

The new Board has struggled a bit to get their feet under them, so to speak. After all, the outgoing Board has not spoken a single word to them. No offer to help transition, no advice, not even so much as a "congratulations." Our new Board members are basically starting from scratch.

It should be noted that the Riverwood Forward Team is still around. We are still here, operating independent of the Board's oversight, for the benefit of our neighbors and our community. We came together with the goal of supporting our neighbors and our community by keeping our Board accountable. We accomplished that goal in November via our campaign, and we will continue to maintain it as it applies to our new Board.

I can offer our new Board a little grace as they work to get their feet under them, but rest assured, our mission is the well-being of our neighbors and our community. We will continue to do what we came together to do:

1. We will support our Board as long as they are keeping their promises and doing what they know they ought to be doing,

2. We will hold them accountable if they don't, and

3. We will keep our neighbors in the loop either way.

If you have made it this far through my post, thank you! And thank you for helping us facilitate the change our neighborhood so desperately needed. This may just be the first step in a long journey to move our beautiful Riverwood forward, but I am not afraid of hard work, and I am in it for the long haul. I love my neighbors, I love my community, and I am dedicated to making Riverwood the absolute best it can be!

-Mary

Photo Credit: Millie Tyler

PLEASE NOTE: views expressed in this blog are the opinions of their respective authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the HOA board, Riverwood Farms neighborhood, etc.