Ellie’s Notes  –  Calling SaveSCC Volunteers to  May 28, 2025 Volunteer Organizing Session

Please share this communique with your neighbors, friends and associates who may not be receiving our SaveSCC email blast. Help them to sign up on our website so they are in loop and receiving the most up to date information.  Thank you!

Save Sun City Center Volunteer Forum

SCC Community Hall
910 S Pebble Beach Blvd

Wednesday, May 28, 2025
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

This meeting is for volunteers only. It  is not a public meeting.

Tee shirts, window clings, signs and banners will also be available for a donation in the lobby during the meeting.  This is a great opportunity to stop by for a tee shirt or item even if you are not interested in volunteering.

Volunteers are the life-bread of any organization but this is particularly true in a long term community effort such as Save Sun City Center effort to thwart ClubLink’s development goals.  Our efforts have already spanned three years and prospects are they may last for many more years to come until we have once and for all successfully put the threat of development on our golf courses to bed. And only ClubLink knows what constitutes their right combination of factors (housing demand, financing, labor availability, supply chain availability, supply costs, incentives, political climate, changing codes and laws, their project capacity, finding the right development partner, etc.) to proceed with development plans and file their application with Hillsborough County.

I have been and remain steadfast in my resolve to lead us to victory in this endeavor and we have seen some excellent progress including the recent win in the legislature amending the Live Local Act for affordable rental housing to exclude recreation areas including golf courses, swimming  pools, tennis courts, etc.  We also have the continued support of our Hillsborough County resources including Adam Gormly – Director of Development Services who was at our Information Session on April 16^th and my face-to-face on May 19 with our Hillsborough County Commissioner Christine Miller and her aide Casaundra Marion at the Public Engagement Meeting on Storm Water Management at Lennard High School. Commissioner Miller and her aide again reiterated their support against any development on the golf courses in Sun City Center.  While this forum was an excellent opportunity, I say less than about 12 area residents attended and only 2 were from Sun City Center. The turnout was  abysmal and the Commissioner was clearly disappointed and very perturbed by the lack of engagement when she personally worked in the community restoration effort on Shell Point Rd after the flooding from the hurricanes and saw the devastation first hand and the public didn’t show to advance their cause.

We in SCC and SaveSCC collectively have serious work to do to advance our agenda against development of our recreating areas and human capital and money are both necessary for our success. There is no getting around it. 

For the first time, I, as the President of SaveSCC, have engaged attorneys to consult with us on a legal issue. It does not come cheap. While our initial foray will be done on a specific issue on a time and materials basis to do something on a shoestring, retainers will be required down the road and significant money will be required for Land Use, Zoning and other specialties. We also need residents with expertise in these areas to help in planning these engagements to ensure the best use of any resources and the best bang for our investment. 

My hope was the Information Sessions would inspire more of you to come forward and join us as donors and volunteers to pursue the work at hand. From a donation perspective we have received about $ 3,400 through monetary gifts and contributions for SaveSCC materials – tee shirts, signs, window slicks, and banners during and since the Information Sessions. Thank you very much to those who contributed. We promised to use it wisely and prudently.  We appreciate your support. More financial assistance is needed.

With respect to volunteers we’ve received less than 10 volunteer forms and a few emails and offers via our web sign up.  This is not nearly enough to support our efforts with reasonable progress. It takes a village.  I am asking each of you to reconsider what you can do to help.  I view our effort like the Midas commercial, you can pay now, or you can pay later but either way it costs. We will either protect the community we love and preserve our golf courses, greens spaces and community amenities or we will see losses or less appreciation in the value of our homes as our community becomes less desirable. I’d rather make an investment in our future prosperity. It’s up to each of us.

So here are the Volunteer Kick Off Meeting Details.

Whether you have submitted a SaveSCC Volunteer Form or not, we are asking if you would become a SaveSCC volunteer. Our community and SaveSCC  needs leaders and workers in twenty different areas to properly and successfully do the work at hand.  I have personally worked in all these areas but there is not enough of me to go around. We’ve greatly exceeded my capacity. Others must also be integral in our work and share the load leading the charge. It’s that simple folks.  So let’s identify and assemble the teams and get our game plans and objectives clearly defined and move forward to prepare for the road ahead. I remain confident we have a lot going for us.  Our success  requires a wider investment and participation from our community residents to guarantee success. Please, your help and commitment is really needed. I can’t do it without you.

The work is essential and the rewards include making a substantial contribution to our community, making new friends, learning new skills and keeping yourself vital and engaged, being part of something unique, and really connecting with your neighbors, fellow residents, others engaged in similar work, the County staff and our public servants, government leaders and key decision makers. Together we can shape the future of our community and its future growth and evolution for better or worse by what we do or do not do. So join us now!

Linked is the Save Sun City Center Volunteer Form for you to review and email back with your info and area(s) of interest if you have not already done so, so we can hook you up. It is important you reply before the meeting so each team has their volunteer sheets in hand.

While background in the subject area is helpful, any of us can come up to speed with effort and your teammates can help.  So we can use anyone with time, commitment and a little talent, whether you are leader, catalyst, subject matter expert or team contributor, we need you and can put you to work for the good of our entire community and its future.

Here are the work groups we hope to resource properly:

• Zoning & Planning
• Transportation/Roads
• Water, Flood Management, Waste Treatment
• Fire Rescue
• Preemptive Strike – Special overlay, Restrictive Covenant, Community Plan Amendment?
• Communications
• Birds of a Feather – ClubLink, local HC, State of Florida
• Golf Operations & Management
• Emergency Readiness Plan
• We won – Now What?
• We lost – Now What?
• Community Analysis – what makes us special
• Environmental
• Legal
• Communications
• SaveSCC Board
• Technology – Zoom, Web services and email list servers
• SaveSCC Website
• SaveSCC Facebook
• CA governance & management
• Kings Point governance & management
• ClubLink
• Minto

The Volunteer Forum is being held on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 in the SCC Community Hall at 901 S Pebble Beach Blvd from 1 pm to 3 pm to assemble together all prospective volunteers and assess each work group’s membership, scope, objectives and game plan. It’s best if you can make it but it is equally important to cast your hat into the ring even if you can’t make the kickoff so we get you looped in as the real work commences. Do that by sending your Volunteer Form to me at GetInvolved@SaveSCC or snail mail to my home at 1357 Emerald Dunes Drive.

Here is the Agenda:

• • Introductions
  • Overall Game Plan
  • Brief Overview of the 20 Teams, their scope of work and subject area, deliverables, and objectives
  • Breakout into teams to brainstorm and organize
  • Team readouts back to the group
  • Adjourn

Thanks for your consideration and support – you are the engine for progress! It won’t happen without you.

I also hope to receive more donations via mail or the SaveSCC website and to receive your SaveSCC Volunteer Form if you haven’t already sent one.

I look forward to seeing you next week.

Thank you!

Ellie Anderson

President SaveSCC

SaveSCC.org

312-282-7337