Please peruse the information on this page and contact us if you have any questions or would like to get involved in Oakmont Forum. We will be updating our FAQs on a regular basis.
The Oakmont Forum is an approved club of the Oakmont Village Association. The core purpose of the Oakmont Forum is to engage OVA members to participate in deciding the future of Oakmont. In support of this purpose, our mission will be to facilitate and encourage OVA member education and participation on key issues facing Oakmont.
The Oakmont Forum is led by a steering committee, initially including Bruce Bon, Donna Hopley, Liz Moore and Lynda Oneto. Others may be invited to join the steering committee as time goes by. The steering committee decides on topics for future meetings, invites speakers, and handles the logistics of holding the meetings. It also maintains this website, and publishes meeting announcements and reports.
No, with the exception of issues directly affecting the power of OVA members to participate in the most important questions facing Oakmont.
For example, the Oakmont Forum will not take an official position on dues increases, whether or not to build a dog park or a “new Berger”. But we will advocate a larger voice for OVA members in making such important decisions. While we have no official positions at this time, we may decide to advocate for governance changes to, for example, require a vote of the OVA membership before embarking on very large or significant projects. And we may endorse OVA Board candidates who support such membership empowerment.
Individuals affiliated with the Oakmont Forum may, of course, take positions on partisan issues. Any article written by a member of the Oakmont Forum is the sole responsibility of that member, unless it is specifically noted as an Oakmont Forum position.
Yes.
A major purpose of the Oakmont Forum is to provide a place where all sides of partisan Oakmont issues may be discussed, with civility and respect for all sides. We expect to hold meetings focused on particular issues that are of importance to Oakmont, with the goal of helping OVA members to understand the “opposition” and to come to compromise positions that can be broadly accepted.
Of course not!
No one with any comprehension of the complexity of running OVA believes that it would be practical to replace all Board of Directors decision making with direct votes of the membership. There is a hierarchy of decision making within OVA. The OVA professional staff make day to day decisions about how to operate OVA facilities, including scheduling facilities, ordering routine maintenance, putting together the Oakmont News and the Oakmont Village website, etc. The OVA Board makes higher level decisions, especially those dealing with establishing policies and spending money. Currently, the OVA membership only makes decisions (i.e. votes) on elections of directors and amendments to the Bylaws, but the Oakmont Forum will advocate for policies and changes to the Bylaws that give the OVA membership more power to decide whether or not the largest changes to OVA should go forward.
Undecided, but probably.
The steering committee may present proposals to our members via Email and, if the majority of responses are affirmative, issue such statements or endorsements, noting the support of our members.
We may draft and endorse proposed OVA policies. These would have no force within OVA governance, but could start a conversation about the topic, and could serve as an initial draft for OVA policies later to be adopted by the OVA Board.
We are looking for Oakmont residents to become part of an Advisory group. Contact us at the email below if you feel that you can bring us a diverse community perspective to our initiative. This group will help decide on activities and how to create effective and meaningful engagement within the community for every type of gathering.
Additionally we want to encourage all our friends and neighbors to come to our in-person Oakmont Forum sponsored events to meet each other face to face and share ideas. We will facilitate this process by acknowledging people and honoring everyone’s individual perspective.
Contact us: info@oakmontforum.com
Join our email list: To get our newsletters and pertinent announcements fill out the form on this page, HERE.