2022 Annual Neighborhood Meeting

Update: The featured speakers will be Nikki Conklin and Charles Tubbs Sr. Conklin is the City of Madison alder for District 9 (where Oakbridge is located), and Tubbs is the Dane County Director of Emergency Management. There will be opportunity for Q&A after each presentation.

The primary order of business will be electing members of the OCSA Board of Directors.

All Oakbridge Community residents are invited and encouraged to attend the Oakbridge Community Services Association annual membership meeting on Thu. Jan. 6 at 6:30 PM. This year you can do so from the comfort of your own home, via Zoom. E-mail secretary@oakbridge.community for the link, which will not be sent out until the day of the meeting to avoid Zoom bombers.

If you are unable to attend the meeting yourself but wish to have your voice heard and votes cast on your behalf, you may designate a proxy by contacting secretary@oakbridge.community no later than Wed. Jan. 5.

2022 being an even-numbered year, 3 seats on the Board of Directors will be up for election to a 2-year term. In addition, there is 1 year remaining in the term of a vacant seat. If you are interested in running for one of those seats, ask for a “Declaration of Candidacy” form by contacting secretary@oakbridge.community no later than Wed. Jan. 5. Directors serve without compensation and are expected to attend about half a dozen meetings a year.

Here’s the rest of the agenda:

• 6:30 – Call to order
• 6:31 – Overview of the agenda
• 6:32 – Introduction of Board members and other officers
• 6:34 – Announcement of proxies
• 6:35 – Introduction of, and brief remarks by, candidates for the Board of Directors
• 6:45 – Explanation of election procedures
• 6:49 – Polls open for election of Directors
• 6:50 – Guest speakers (to be announced)
• 7:35 – Polls close for election of Directors
• 7:35 – Officer reports on activities during 2021
• 7:45 – Open discussion
• 8:10 – Announcements
• 8:15 – Adjournment

The first meeting of the newly elected Board will commence 5 minutes after the adjournment of the annual meeting, via the same Zoom link. All community members are welcome to stick around for it. At that time, the Board will elect its officers for the coming year; the Treasurer and Secretary are not required to be Board members. The Board will also appoint the 5 members of the Architectural Review Board. If you are interested in serving in any of those positions, please e-mail president@oakbridge.community.

Brief history (optional reading)

Back in the 1970s, Madison developer James V. Burkhard set out to create 3 new developments in the southwest corner of the city: Oakbridge Apartments, Oakbridge Condominiums, and Oakbridge Community. The latter, comprising 145 private, single-family homes fronting on Oakbrook Circle and its 4 cul-de-sac courts, are the territory covered by OCSA. As a condition and benefit of purchase, each owner of one of those properties is automatically a member of OCSA and entitled to 1 vote at the annual meeting; if a property is owned jointly, the co-owners must decide among themselves how to cast any votes to which they are entitled.

OCSA has been set up as a representative democracy, not a direct democracy. The only decisions required of the 145 members are whom to elect as Directors and whether to amend the governing documents. All other OCSA business is handled by the elected Board. The primary responsibilities of the Board are care and maintenance of the common areas, preservation of community architectural standards, and organizing community social activities.

The Board is required to adopt an annual budget and present it to the members at the annual meeting. That budget was adopted at the Nov. 3 Board meeting and will be reviewed on screen during the annual meeting.