Invitation to all: Diwali Potluck Celebration October 12th

We’re excited to invite you to a Diwali Potluck Celebration at the Clubhouse on October 12th, 4 – 6 PM. Let’s celebrate together this joyous festival. This event is open to all residents of all cultural backgrounds – come and learn about the festival of lights! 

This is a casual, come-as-you-are event. There’s no requirement to bring food, drinks, or supplies – just bring your smiles and festive spirit! Please RSVP at https://forms.gle/z3bDwF3CqMtWSuLKA. 

Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India. It symbolizes the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. The story behind Diwali comes from ancient times, when Rama returned to his kingdom, Ayodhya, with his wife and Brother, after defeating the demon king Ravana. To welcome him, people lit oil lamps called diyas and that tradition continues today. It is also widely associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, and Ganesha (the elephant head god), the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles.

Families celebrate by deep cleaning their homes, praying for happiness and prosperity, and gathering with loved ones. Streets and homes sparkle with fireworks, the glow of lamps, and the sweet smell of delicious Indian sweets.

To celebrate the festival together, we’re hosting a Community Diwali Potluck! It’s a great chance to connect and enjoy some delicious food. Whether you’re bringing a dish or just joining in the fun, we can’t wait to celebrate with you!

Learn more about Diwali here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

The board would like to thank Tej & Kunal for proposing and organizing this event. If you are interested in organizing a community-wide social event please reach out to board@caminodelprado.org.

Clubhouse Trash update

To address the issues with clubhouse trash, the board will be making the following changes…

We are looking for a volunteer for taking the trash carts to and from the curb for pickup day. To show our appreciation this volunteer will receive one free 5 hour rental per year (non-accumulating). In the interest of fairness and to show our appreciation, the board has also extended the same benefit to the volunteer from this past year.
If you wish to volunteer, please email board@caminodelprado.org.
The trash cart size will also be increased to the “large” size. While this won’t entirely solve the problem of there being too much trash, it will lessen the chances of it happening. Do use the trash and recycling bins correctly, and if they are full then bring your garbage back to your own unit.
Please also remember to review the clubhouse rental rules, to avoid penalties for misuse.

Board Update

Following up on our recent board election, the board has internally chosen the roles of the officers:

  • Manish: President
  • Bhargav: Vice president
  • Mehmet: Treasurer
  • Chris: Secretary
  • Barbara: Member at large

Annual Meeting Results

Thank you all who attended this year’s annual meeting. It was great to see so many people in person.

Also a big thanks to all who mailed in your ballots – it’s great to see so many people engaged in local democracy! Congratulations to Barbara who won re-election, and Mehmet and Manish, who will be joining the Board. Our thanks go out to Satya and Margaret for their contributions, as they transition off the board – if you see them around please be sure to thank them for their service!

Annual meeting 2025

Our annual meeting and board elections are scheduled for July 23rd, at 6pm in the clubhouse (not via Zoom). We hope to see everyone there, all owners and residents (including renters) are welcome to attend. RSVPs are not required, but will help us order enough food: https://forms.gle/UDornjE6zGiAeJT39 (RSVP by July 6th please). 

Homeowners, please be sure to vote by mail – we need to hit quorum! There will be no in-person voting this year (voting is being conducted by an independent third-party).

Hope to see you there!

Landscaping Update

Dear community,

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about our landscaping. We know that many of you feel the same way that we on the board do; there has been an explosion of weeds, ivy overgrowth, and other issues. Part of this is a result of entering Spring after a particularly wet Winter, and we are working with our landscaper to address the situation (but it may take a bit of time to catch up). We’re also looking at what we can do next year, so we can preemptively tackle the issue of weeds.

For the ivy, we are collecting and assessing bids to either do a deep trimming, or a complete removal. Removing the ivy entirely is very expensive, but even just trimming the ivy is fairly expensive (significantly more expensive than it used to be), so we’ll be assessing the break-even point on removal vs trimming. For those interested, please join the next board meeting.

We’re also looking at other measures to keep down landscaping costs. This past month, the board voted to authorize a major replacement of grass areas around the complex to easier-to-maintain, drought-tolerant plants (similar to the replacement that happened along the North side of Bryant Way several years ago). This can reduce ongoing maintenance costs, and make it easier to keep a high quality bar. Drought-tolerant plants also reduce water costs. We’re utilizing Santa Clara County rebate programs for this work, which will cover an estimated 75% of the costs. We estimate the break-even on savings will be around 5 years, likely less (and we have landscaping funds saved in our reserves that can be used for this project). This project will take a month or so to kick off in earnest, as we await approvals. Note that grass at the playground will remain.

~Chris

 

2025/26 Dues

In an effort to communicate early and often, I wanted to share that the board has voted to raise the dues to $520 per month (effective starting July, 2025). While everyone wishes dues would stay lower, this increase is roughly in line with last year’s rate of inflation – which is a good “sanity check” for whether we are maintaining our budget well.

Of particular note, our reserve study has been updated and preliminary reports show that we are very well funded compared to past years: currently 88%. This means it’s currently very unlikely that we’ll need a special assessment for future projects like fencing or painting. Given this, we are taking a softer approach to funding our reserves than in previous years (only increasing our reserve contributions by a small amount, to maintain this status).

However, a few of our operating expenses have increased as we’ve looked to bring on better service providers (most notably, our property management costs), and we are hearing that we should anticipate a sizable increase in insurance costs. We’re also kicking off some bigger projects that aim to bring down other operating costs, but we’ll be able to most accurately reflect that in the budget next year (more to come on that shortly).

For those curious, here’s a quick video explaining of how reserve funds and operating funds differ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRmXVUF1jfE (Our dues partially go to the operating fund, and partially go to the reserve fund.)

Stay tuned for a much more detailed breakdown in our annual disclosure packet, which will come out in the next month or so (which will be physically mailed to every homeowner).

The HOA pays for termite treatment!

Please remember, the HOA will pay for most termite control! We only ask that you first get a professional inspection, which most pest control companies will do for free. Three options are:
Bay Area Termite: bayareatermite.com / (408) 337-1694
Planet Orange: planetorange.com / (888) 979-6897
Terminix: terminix.com / (877) 837-6464
Once you have a report please send it to help@caminodelprado.org for review. (Please do not schedule any treatment before your report has been reviewed.)

If you do find termites or other pests, the Board encourages you to let your neighbors know as well. It is best for them to get inspected too.