It’s November already and this marks a milestone in my 15 years with the Village:  it is the last full month of my board presidency. I have served the Village in many ways: on the original Membership Committee, on the Volunteer Committee, as both a member-at-large and a two-year term as secretary of the board. When I agreed to take over the president’s position, to fill the void left after Janice Trantham had passed away, it was to be as interim president for a few months. And here it is 2 and a half years later and my term is up and Ken Ross is back from Maine and ready to take the reins as your new president on December 1^st.   It has been an honor to have been your president and I’m proud of what the board has accomplished during these past two and a half years. When I took over in July of 2021, we were just re-opening the clubhouse for limited indoor activities. With the help of the re-opening committee, mainly Cassandra, Fran, and Greg, we got things up and running again after it had been shut down since March of 2020. During this tenure, with the skills and guidance of our new Vice-President, Ken Ross, the board has written, approved, and implemented a strategic plan. In so doing, we have hired Cassandra for extra hours as our Marketing Coordinator and have hired Terri Gilbreth as our Business Manager. We have also added two new members-at-large to our Board, Laurie Brown and Mark Laskey.

These past two years have also found us facing some challenges as well. One of which was searching for a new home for our events and activities. After an exhaustive search throughout Tierrasanta and beyond, luckily, we were able to work with the Villa Monterey HOA to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to continue holding our events and activities there. Due to Cassandra’s marketing skills, we have formed a partnership with our local library and have renewed and strengthened our alliance with Jewish Family Service (JFS). Our Village has presented at the Village to Village National Conference, a first for us in 15 years!

As I reflect on all of our accomplishments during my tenure as president, I know that I owe much of our Village’s success to the board members who have stayed the course for an extra two-year term. I want to express my gratitude to Fran Zweibel (who taught me what MOU and CE stand for), Carol Lee ( who kept me organized with the BOD minutes), Sheila Weiner (who took our Village into the community with her network of connections), and Rhoda Keegan (who kept us financially sound). These board members agreed to stay on, even though their terms were due to expire in 2021 and 2022. That is true dedication to the consistency of the board’s agenda and to getting the job done. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the Core Team Leaders and their committee members who have stayed on to keep our Village running “like a well-oiled machine” with all of their events and activities filling our calendar. I could not have kept my sanity during these past two years without all of their support, advice, expertise and cheesecake lunches!

As I turn over the president’s gavel to Ken, I want to assure you that we are doing everything to make this a smooth transition. Ken has an expertise in business and strategic planning that has proven to be very successful for our Village. I’ll be staying on the Board in the Past-President position and, therefore, the succession should be seamless.

As I express my gratitude to all of those who have helped enhance my presidency, I am reminded that Thanksgiving is just around the corner and there is so much that we have to be thankful for. We should count our blessings that we live in a community such as Tierrasanta and that we have our Village friends and activities to support us as we age in place.

And as we enter this season of thankfulness, let’s not forget our Annual Donor Drive that helps sustain and keep our Village viable. You’ll be receiving more information about this throughout the month.

In closing, I want to wish each of you a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

Marilyn Bente