The State of Montgomery Village

Good evening, friends and neighbors, fellow MVF Board members, committee members and MVF staff.

Tonight I would like to mention briefly some highlights of 2011 Foundation accomplishments and touch on where we are as a community, as we continue to move forward with hopes and plans for renewing and reshaping the blueprint for the future of Montgomery Village.

Financially, we are pleased to report that as of the end of 2011, MVF sits in the best financial condition of its 45 year history. While the economy in general has continued to have challenges, we have been able to undertake new initiatives because of cost saving measures.

• We were able to promise no MVF or Designated User assessment increase in the 2012 or 2013 budgets.
• As a part of the Five Year Plan, we’ll be spending down our undesignated reserves—and with those savings, we’ll be investing and using those monies to fund the Operating budget as well as new capital improvements. The plan includes conservative projections for assessments, operating costs, reserves and capital projects over a five year period.
• The MVF Representatives of our 10 homes corporations and 11 condominium associations passed a By-Law amendment to implement a Capital Contribution Fee, which provides an additional source of revenue to fund capital projects that will be open to all residents and help sustain continuous investment in the community. 

The Montgomery Village Historical Book Committee completed its work on the Images of America book about Montgomery Village last March and sent it out for publication by Arcadia in celebration of the 45th anniversary of our community in October. The book is a beautiful photographic compilation of Village history—something the committee can be very proud of. Over 100 copies have been sold so far; the book is available at the Foundation office, as well as on Amazon.

Speaking of historical elements in our community, MVF ramped up its programs for seniors this past year. Seniors in Action!, with over 60 participants, meets almost every weekday, offering activities ranging from cardio exercise workouts to arts and crafts, book discussion group, social gatherings, table tennis, a movie and documentary group, trivia games and guest speakers. As our community has aged, many of us are thinking about “aging in place” in our hometown community, and this program provides a place where our seniors can enjoy activities close to home with others who have similar interests. 

Our history is the foundation upon which our community must build, but build it must, and MVF has gone a long way in the past year toward “moving forward” and developing a vision for the future.

Implementation of Long Range Facilities Planning got off to a great start when the Farmers’ Market became a reality—a wonderful addition to Village life and a fine example of bringing the community together to make it happen. Thanks to the planning efforts of the volunteer Farmers’ Market task force and the generous cooperation of Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, the market was open every Saturday from June through October and is gearing up for its second season, with even more vendors.

The volunteer Vision 2030 Committee, assisted by a great deal of resident input along with the expertise of a professional land use consulting firm, completed its work of evaluating future land use in the Village and presented their report to the Board in October. As a result of the year-long process, the Board has approved a series of vision statements for major parcels that are ripe for development or redevelopment in the Village. Staff has been meeting with landowners and potential developers to educate them about the vision statements, and the upcoming formal master plan process, which Montgomery County Park and Planning Commission will start later this year.

Community outreach — In addition to shoring up MVF’s financial resources to benefit Village residents in general, we have continued to partner with several community initiatives to benefit those in need of help during difficult economic times. These initiatives include:

• Food for Schools — whereby we collect donations of food and grocery store gift cards to purchase food items for needy families identified by our Village elementary schools. Unfortunately, there is a great need.
• Coat Drive — whereby we collect donations of new or gently used clean coats of all sizes, again, to distribute to needy families;
• Scholarship drive — the MVF scholarship drive continues to facilitate donations to the PTSA scholarship funds at Watkins Mill and Gaithersburg high schools, to be awarded to deserving Village seniors in May.
• Post Office Clean-Up — this year, for the first time, MVF helped coordinate two successful “Cleanup Days” at the Montgomery Village Post Office. These were collaborative community events that involved the Post Office management, MVF and a number of community and student volunteers.

In addition, we are pleased and excited that other partners in the community are showing signs of reinvigorating:

• Gaithersburg High School had its groundbreaking and is set to rebuild, bigger and better than ever.
• Watkins Mill High School was granted the resources to offer a full IB (International Baccalaureate) program this year, a prestigious program that elevates the standing of the school. They will also be bringing back their publication, the “Current,” after being gone for five years.
• The Gaithersburg Library rebuilding is finally in progress.

Our Foundation staff continuously looks for new ways to improve efficiency and services to our community. To mention just a few accomplishments for each department:

• Finance and Administration — Worked diligently to develop a Five-Year Plan which forecasts revenues, expenses and assessment needs.  The department put into motion plans to implement an electronic data management system so that MVF can join the paperless society.
• Architectural Standards — has been working hard to develop a Community Design Study for the Village. The ARB has been visiting each community and reviewing those items recommended by the MVF Design Consultant and Architectural Standards senior staff; they expect to complete the study in 2012. By the way, the department’s 7th Annual Home Show takes place this Saturday, March 24 at Lake Marion Community Center. There will be over 40 vendors as well as architectural standards staff available to provide information and answer questions about replacement or upgrading projects for your home.

• Communications — has been working for months with the Communications Committee to develop a branding/marketing concept for Montgomery Village, which will include new advertising avenues and a new publication.  In addition, MVF has joined the 21st century and through online communication with Facebook and Twitter, keeps you updated on current happenings. Be sure to check it out!
• Community Management — expanded its private property maintenance inspection program, which complements their management contracts by offering exterior inspection of each individual home and providing feedback and reports to the boards.
• Government Affairs — Sharon Levine continues to monitor county and state legislation and projects that can affect our community. The big win for associations during the 2011 legislature was the Priority Lien Bill, which will help the associations financially to some degree.
• IT — Continuing to update our office technology, offsite “Cloud” backup was implemented in the office; servers were consolidated into a secure “rack” system; and the Office Suite was upgraded from version 2002 to version 2010 — a significant step forward.
• Maintenance — We receive regular compliments from residents and visitors about how nice the medians and rights-of-way look on Montgomery Village streets.  Due to cost saving measures, a decision was made to outsource Foundation landscaping and maintenance beginning January 1, 2012.  Much work was done in 2011 to bid the contract out and select a qualified contractor.
• Recreation, Parks and Culture — I had the pleasure of seeing so many of you around the Village during many special events or regular programming.  The lawn theater had a great season, our camps were sold out, and it was great to host Sue Palka and Mayor Katz at the 2nd Annual Great Pumpkin Race at our Fall Festival. A couple of new programs of note included a spring Tennis Tournament; and Futsal, a wildly popular indoor hybrid of soccer. 

In closing, I will say that it is gratifying, but not surprising, that the September 2011 “Money Market” magazine listed Montgomery Village as one of the 100 best places to live in America. We can all be very proud of our community, and Montgomery Village Foundation will continue to work very hard, along with our fine volunteer Board, committees and fellow community stakeholders, to move forward toward a vision of tomorrow that includes upgraded amenities, programs and activities for all ages and an enriched quality of life for our residents.