Joe Van Dyke

I have lived in Providence since 2013 and witnessed an evolution of our community over the last 12 years. Our community has grown, and over the last 6 or so years, I have grown to become more engaged and familiar with the process of homeowners associations. During that time, I have served on my sub-association board on and off, and as many of you might already know, I’ve served on your Providence Master Association Board for the last 4 years. When I first joined the board, I had two main goals that I wanted to accomplish. One, create an environment of fiscal responsibility, cutting unnecessary costs from the budget and returning excess money to homeowners. We have accomplished this. Two, improve the state of the parks and facilities (i.e. notably the bathrooms and park lighting). We accomplished this.

Being completely transparent, over the last 6 months, I have repeatedly gone back and forth about whether I would seek re-election this year. New homeowners taking my place on the board could be good for the community. But I also believe strongly that the progress we’ve made in cutting costs and creating an environment of fiscal responsibility can be undone by the wrong candidates being elected. Nationally, our economy is still struggling. Many in our community live paycheck to paycheck. I am afraid that if the board goes back down the path of irresponsible spending, we will again be in an environment where struggling owners will have an even harder time paying for higher costs and wasteful spending.

While I have personally struggled greatly with this decision, I know that if I did not run, I would heavily regret that decision when a new board increases spending for unnecessary amenities at the expense of all of you. I have been a consistent board member with consistent policies during my time here. You know what you get with me. I don’t play the “politician” game and make vague statements that appeal to the masses. I tell you what I want and what I believe in. So with that said, I have one primary goal: fiscal responsibility. I hope that a fiscally responsible board can continue to make sound financial decisions as we have done, maintaining a flat assessment level, and returning excess funds to owners when possible. This has always been, and will continue to be, my primary focus as a board member.

Secondly, I aim to increase transparency and accessibility of the board. Several board members claim to be “pro volunteer” but at every turn, they avoid voting to appoint committee members they don’t agree with, picking and choosing only who they know will agree with their position. This “groupthink” mentality is both dangerous and toxic. When it comes to accessibility… our meetings used to be held in Providence. Several board members (including two who are also up for re-election this year) voted to move the meetings away from the convenient location within Providence, and instead selected a car dealership several miles away. Member attendance and participation has significantly dropped since this decision, because it’s not a convenient location. Even after being invited back into Northern Terrace, which is walking distance for most of us, these same board members still opposed coming back. These same board members who historically will claim they want to bring events and lifestyles back into Providence opposed advertising a free, homeowner-organized winter holiday event being held in the Northern Terrace Clubhouse on December 6th. This event is one of many events organized by Kristin Huth, who has worked to bring events back into Providence over the last few years, and has successfully ran multiple events. Let’s get our meetings and events back into Providence, encourage participation, support our volunteers, and stop adding hurdles and unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy while claiming to be “transparent.”

Kristin Huth is seeking a position on the board this year as well, and even if you don’t support me running for another term, I hope you can support Kristin. I have no experience in planning and organizing events, but Kristin has successfully done this multiple times for Providence. She is focused on maintaining the vision of fiscal responsibility and finding efficient and inexpensive ways of funding quality events that benefit our community.

If you have any questions or comments for me, you are always free to reach out to me directly with a phone call or text: (414) 793-8611

If you want more specifics on where I stand on a specific issue or policy, you may always reach out to me directly by phone or Facebook (many of you know me through Facebook community pages - J Van Dyke).

Thank you for considering me for another term on the Board of Directors.

Joe Van Dyke