Dear fellow members of the Board of Directors and fellow owners,

My name is Ronald Schweighhardt and I want to welcome you to this 30th Annual Meeting of the Membership of the Windjammer Condominium Association of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, FL, Inc.

Please let me introduce to you the Chairperson for our meeting, Mr. Ken Direktor. He is with the law firm of Becker & Poliakoff which is probably the most astute firm in the State in regards to Condominium law, and Ken has been serving as Chair for our meetings for probably 15+ years. Thank you again Ken for being here with us again.

It is with sadness that I wish to acknowledge that in May of this year we lost our devoted former manager and Association Secretary Diane Boutin to cancer. She was truly a remarkable individual who worked tirelessly for us and her community. She was loved and she will be missed.

In July of 2010, our Board met to tackle two unpleasant issues, delinquencies and rising maintenance fees in a weak economy.

The first was the Board had voted unanimously to re-publish the existing collection and late payment policies and requested that late fees be assessed as called for in our By-Laws. This decision has resulted in more maintenance fees being paid on time and as of October 31st, the Association collected over $8,400.00 in late fees and interest.

Secondly, in an effort to reduce the maintenance fees, the Board voted and approved the charging of a 3% administrative fee if owners choose to pay their maintenance by credit card. This decision resulted in a maintenance fee reduction in 2011 of over $8.00 per unit. We had less than 10 complaints regarding this issue as owners adapted well to the decision.

If you have not seen the new and improved Windjammer website, you have to visit the site soon. It looks terrific and is full of new graphics and information including a Sales page, an Events page and of course our extremely popular beach cam page which gets thousands of hits per month and is probably the most popular webcam in South Florida.

All this keeps the Windjammer in the limelight and it introduces Windjammer and Lauderdale-By-The-Sea to a lot of new people around the world. I was told that anytime the camera goes down or gets moved, the front desk immediately gets irate calls about it.

Moving on the improvements made to our beautiful resort. And again in 2011 there were a significant amount.

• The improvement theme this year was making our guests more comfortable so we focused heavily on the units.
• A recurring gripe from owners and guests was our towels. We listened to your comments and so early in the year we changed out all the towels to better quality and softer towels.
• In order to better protect our new towels, we now provide make up remover pads in each unit and what we call our "Bag-o-rags" which in effect is a bag of rags to use for spills or other such accidents.
• Another often requested item was for new TVs and TVs in the bedrooms. This year we replaced all the old tube TVs with flat screen digital models and by the end of the year we will have flat screens in every bedroom. We have the TVs, but cabling is somewhat of a challenge without tearing open the walls so it takes a little time to run new cable.
• Our North building will have all new Lofa Sofas in every unit. Lofa sofas are a blend of the advantages of convertible sofas and futons, plus they offer the sleeping comfort of a real bed. We tested two of them for over a year and had great results and compliments. So now our owners and guests in the North building will be comfortable both sitting and sleeping. We hope to do the South building next year.
• For your bathing comfort, we’ve installed wonder shower systems in every unit. This model was put together specifically for the Windjammer.
• John our manager has also been working with a furniture manufacturer to tackle the issue of not enough storage space in the units. So he has designed a special platform bed with 4 drawers on each side, and calls it the Double Down model. He also designed one with suitcase storage underneath for units with dressers which he calls the Alibaba model. We are testing out 4 of them this year to see how they work out.
• All our beds now have gel infused memory foam toppers on them and the guests are raving about the great sleep they get.

We are pleased to announce that our Administrative Assistant, Patty Reynolds is now a Licensed Real Estate Associate in the State of Florida. Patty can now help you with the purchase or sales of timeshares at Windjammer and any other Real Estate needs for those of you who might be considering a house or condo in South Florida. She is a member of the local Board of Realtors and can access the Multiple Listing Service.

patty@windjammerresort.com

About a dozen leaders of the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Hospitality and Lodging sector gathered at The Windjammer Resort and Beach Club Friday morning, July 29th to learn about a new initiative to reduce the amount of discarded cigarette butts that are”… the largest source of pollution and a blight on our beaches,” according to John Boutin, General Manager of the Windjammer. The project is being tagged, “The Butt Stops Here!”

“We recognized the large problem of discarded cigarette butts on our beach and understand that the largest contributing factor is that when smokers come to the beach, they do not have anything in which to dispose of their cigarette butts,” Boutin added. Unfortunately, the vast majority of smokers simply ‘bury' their butts in the sand and ultimately they do not decompose and simply rise back to the surface, which has become a major cause of pollution.

“For every problem, there's a solution and ours combines reducing the largest source of pollution in the world while supporting a charitable organization, in this case, the Friends of MHA, a fundraising support group of the Mental Health Association of Broward County,” Boutin explained. That solution will be miniature buckets hand painted by the member artists of the 9Muses Art Center program of the Mental Health Association of Broward.

Boutin, who operates the Windjammer Resort at 4244 El Mar Drive that was begun by his mother more than a quarter of a century ago, got the idea for the 9Muses artists to paint the buckets due to his attendance at the Friends of MHA's hugely successful 16th Annual EPIC Awards Luncheon.

“John and several other business owners lent support and sponsorship to EPIC as a courtesy to me and they were really blown away with the event, the decorative table decorations painted by MHA's 9Muses and learning about MHA's several programs,” said Sandra Booth. Mrs. Booth is a long-time resident of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and has been Chair of the Friends of MHA and Co-Chair of the EPIC Awards Luncheon. EPIC stands for Exceptional People Impacting the Community.

John contacted Sandra, who has served as President of the LBS Chamber and a member of the Master Plan Steering Committee and told her of his idea and suggested that perhaps the 9Muses could paint the buckets to make them attractive as to encourage people to use them as ashtrays while on the beach or by the pool.

“We were excited to be able to give our 9Muses members the assignment and they embraced it with vigor,” said Chris Yoculum, Director of the program. “Not only are they enjoying the creative project, but through the help of the hospitality and lodging sector of Laudedale-By-The-Sea, we are getting the message out about this remarkable and talented group that meets at the 9Muses Art Center.”

Boutin has invited his lodging industry neighbors to replicate his initiative at their properties by distributing flyers and showing off the buckets. He's hoping that eventually the Town will also have “The Butt Stops Here” buckets available at the portals for public use. Boutin says that “if we don't want the public using the beach as an ashtray, we just provide them with one. It is clear and evident that people who go to the beach bring everything else but an ashtray.”

“This is a unique opportunity for our 9Muses and a practical way to raise some money,” enthused Anita Godfrey, the long-time President/CEO of MHA. “John also agreed to the Friends of MHA's suggestion of offering the ‘buckets' to guests as souvenirs and asking for a $25.00 donation to MHA. In addition to being an attractive reminder of their vacation in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, they can be used in the home or office for either an ashtray, or with a votive candle inside, as a decorative accessory.” There will be an envelope in each room that tells the genesis of the buckets and asking for the donation.

For information on “The Butt Stops Here” program, contact John Boutin at John@windjammerresort.com, call (954) 776-4232 or call MHA at (954) 746-2055. The Windjammer is at 4244 El Mar Drive.

The Mental Health Association of Broward opened its doors in 1957 and recently celebrated their 53rd birthday at a special ‘Open House,' featuring an opportunity for the general public to learn about the many programs offered at MHA. Events took place all day, culminating with their Creativity Café's Best of 2010 and Birthday Cake!

A range of social activities, support groups and educational activities are offered to consumers at MHA, including Depression, Healing Circle, Life Skills Training, Schizophrenics Anonymous, Bipolar, Anxiety and Nutrition/Weight Control and a new group for Hoarding.

There are two important help lines: The Children's Helpline, which is a “warm line” for parents or caregivers seeking information or supportive listening. The “Connections for Kids” guidebook is available for families seeking help for children's behavioral needs. The Seth Line, named for the late Seth Stambaugh, is a “warm line” open to any caller… where you can call and talk to someone who listens, understands and cares.

There are some excellent volunteer programs that include participation in Listen to Children, I'm Thumbody, Community Friends, 9Muses Art Center, Office work at MHA, Legislative Action, Speakers Bureau, Special Events & Booths and Fund Raising.

For information on the MHA/Broward, visit www.mhabroward.org or call (954) 746-2055.