Dear Village Neighbor / Friend,
1. CAWSV Meeting – 7:30 PM, next Thursday, 12 May at my 8131 Edmonton Court home (1st choice) or via Zoom if we have weather issues. Perhaps FCPS heard that our meetings often degenerate into bare-knuckles, full contact Battle Royales since they now demand that we have liability insurance to cover them (FCPS). Anyone care to explain this nonsense? I tried to reason with them, but to no avail. Maybe they haven’t read the original subdivision charter directing us to meet at RVES and for RVES to accommodate us.
But if we meet at my family’s home, refreshments will be provided, but if via Zoom – on you. If you can’t attend the meeting – please let me know your input. We can’t vote as your proxy, but I am happy to discuss your (civil) input. We’ll vote to set the dues rate for the next membership/fiscal year (10/01/22 – 9/30/23). Factors to consider:
1) Our annual budget is based on $3,500 revenue or 350 members. This last drive, we netted 320 members
2) Rolling Road median maintenance contract will continue through next summer and then stand down for 2, 3 or 4 years during the widening project before the CAWSV may want to again supplement VDOT’s mowing schedule. I suggest we prepay for the 2023 mowing season in early October this year.
3) Relocating our village sign or acquiring a new sign or two (one northbound, one southbound) with whatever savings we’ll have from not having to mow the median (a/a $4K) during and immediately following the construction phase of widening Rolling Road.
Seems straight forward, but the elephant at the meeting and going forward is the future of our citizens’ civic association. The President is only one member of the 10-member Board of Directors & Executive Council. We will need a manager to head up that leadership team.
Can you be the President and that stay-at-home parent tasked with teaching your child(ren) how to spit, swear and excel academically? Yep – you sure can! Can you simultaneously be a PTA President at an elementary school and then later at middle school while also serving on another board such as our Springfield District Council also while coaching and managing a Travel/Select youth athletic team? Yep! Hell, I did and if you believe my critics – I’m at best average and probably below average guy, but I do know that my universe is a bit bigger than me, my family, and my home. Shoot I even had to teach myself music to stay up with my kid – but with my version of music translated and written in my own script, nothing like your music teachers would appreciate, but it worked - minus the trills!
Suppose it is easier to find reasons why you shouldn’t, but I ask that you also consider your personal attributes that can also be useful for the benefit of the Village and our civic association. I will have spent 20+ years just to fail if the CAWSV flounders just because one of us leaves his / her post. Failure dear friends is not an option! Stand up and step forward! I will show you the way!
2. Community Yard Sale & Free for All – 28 May 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM. 4 June is the Rain Date, also 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Thanks to Lindsay Latham you can add your intent to participate and include a general category of items you want to sell by clicking on this link WSV Yard Sale List. It should allow you to post your intent and edit as you may want or need. The link didn’t initially work, but Lindsay has it up and firing on all cylinders now.
Need more Stuff to Sell? Sue Borschel is hoping to find a generous soul willing to take four items I have and sell them, but you keep the money.
- Two brand new filters for refrigerator
- Combo iPhone and Apple watch charger
- Brand new Inivo 550BN HDMI switch
- Pallets
Contact Sue Borschel at 703/459-4399 or via email at sjborschel@gmail.com if you’re willing to help her out. In fact, there are many of us also willing to “hire” young Americans to sell our stuff for a flat fee guarantee or for a percentage or even all they get from the sales. Anyone interested? Fund raiser possibility? For this – let me know.
3. Unsolicited Emails – from our Webmaster and resident Computer Whisperer, Bob Havey (D2D Computer Services):
A customer asked “I started receiving erotic emails yesterday. My email address is not appearing in it. It may be addressed to Sandra Day and the content of the email is addressed ‘Dear Grace.’ I cannot unsubscribe since my email address is not listed anywhere in the email or address lines. What do I do?”
Knowing this customer (names changed or not used to protect identities) uses Outlook, the specifics below apply to Outlook. Here’s my response to my customer and to you as well:
DO NOT ever unsubscribe to that sort of thing - AND I MEAN NEVER. It is my understanding that if you unsubscribe, they are required by law to not send you anything else. BUT if you unsubscribe, you have just told the bad guys that you have a real email account - a valuable commodity in that world. After your email address has been sold a few times, you will be inundated with who knows what. Above all, DO NOT CLICK anything in that message, or you could trigger an onslaught of nefarious activity.
You can try to send everything to junk (right click the message, click Junk, click Block Sender, and click OK), but it's a bit of a waste of time. The sender address will keep changing.
Your best bet is to just delete them as they come in. Delete by selecting the message and pressing "CTRL-Delete on the keyboard. I don't know how effective it will be, but the claim is that the entire conversation as well as any future entries. The deletion will be immediate, there will be nothing in the recycle bin.
Note that this applies to Outlook. Thunderbird and the web-based services (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) will have similar procedures. Rather than trying to be exhaustive, I will address any questions next week.
If you have questions, comments, or perhaps an idea to stop this sort of thing, I can be reached at havey@dtwod.com
4. Free Shredding Event - Anna Ghen (SVD) is hosting a free shredding event this coming Saturday, 7 May from 12 noon – 3:00 PM on Surrey Hill Place in Cardinal Forest (a couple of miles up the street). It is free to drop off all your confidential documents and they will be shredded on site.
- There is not a limit and we have never succeeded at filling the truck - however you’ll have to load their individual items into the bins.
- There will be no certificates of destruction, however shredding occurs on site, and you can observe your items being shredded.
- Only paper will be accepted at this event. Paper clips, staples, file fasteners, credit cards, and notebook spirals are all fine. Binders, binder clips, paper clamps, big metal material, and any non-related paper materials must first be removed by you.
At the same time and location, I will be collecting donations for ECHO.
5. For Sale - Susan Cheney (Ontario Street) has the following for sale:
Oak table with leaf extensions plus 6 chairs = $100
Oak End Table - $20.00 Chair - $25.00
Interested? Contact Susan at susancheney@verizon.net.
6. Rolling Valley ES Rockin’ Around the Block Fun Run, Walk & Roll + Health Fair Pop-Up – 9 – 11 AM, Saturday, 7 May. Get details from last week’s enews edition (which can be found at our website (West Springfield Village) or visit the PTA’s website at https://rvespta.ptboard.com/home.
7. Calendar:
7 May RVES Fun Run + Health Fair
7 May Free Shredding Event (see article above)
8 May Mother’s Day
12 May Village Meeting
28 May Community Wide Yard Sale / Free for All
30 May Memorial Day (Federal Holiday)
4 June Rain Date – Community Yard Sale / Free for All
10 June Last Day of School (Early Release)
19 June Father’s Day (just saying..)
19 June Juneteenth
23 July Secure Document Shredding at Rolling Valley Kiss & Ride
If you are still reading this – thank you! Stay safe good people.
John Cooley
CAWSV