Indications are that Dauphin Island will have a robust crowd of visitors this summer. We have hired summer staff to maintain control, as well as keep the grounds neat and orderly.

The pool area opens this weekend, 10-6 daily, along with a pool-side area for food and beverages. Daily fees are: adults, $6; children 10-17, $4; and children under 10, $2. By showing your new DIPOA family-membership card and ID with family name, you will get a $1 discount on all pool fees. Summer memberships are $300 for two adults and four children; monthly memberships are $125 for the same.

Our beach environmental fee is $2 for everyone over 12 years of age, 7 days a week. Beach goers showing a 2008/09 DIPOA family membership card will be given free admission. This modest fee will help us employ summer youth who will maintain the grounds and beach, and will pay the cost for our security staff on weekends and holidays.

Every Wednesday night, the pool and Tiki snack bar area will have an alcohol free youth/children's night with music. Children under 10 will have to have adults accompanying them.

Our grill and Pro shop building has new, clean and crisp flooring. Thanks to everyone who assisted in the task of moving furniture, etc. Now we just have to find everything and put it back in its proper place.

All the best for a great summer,

It has been a year since I took the helm of the Dauphin Island Property Owners Association. And although the learning curve for me and many of the newer board members has been steep, I think we have been successful in maintaining a straight course forward by jibing and tacking as demanded by the changing winds buffeting us. I’m am grateful for the able seamanship of our Board, our small, but hard working staff, and all the members that have helped us to make this year a successful one. Thank you.

On May 10th, at our Annual Meeting we announced the election of two new board members, Charles Gaba and Frank Leatherbury, and the re-election of Bruce Jones who was appointed to the board last May. My thanks to Phil Baldwin and Pam McDermott for their service on our board. Our new voting system went off well. We started opening confirmed ballots at 8:30 am Saturday morning, and just a little after 10:00 am we were able to tabulate the results. It was refreshing to be able to announce the results of the election promptly at 11:00 am at the start of the general membership annual meeting. While we only had three candidates running for three positions on the board, this was a good test of our new voting system. We received a tad over 300 ballots. While not a great total vote, this election was definitely not a controversial one.

With the election results announced, we closed the annual meeting and opened our regular monthly board meeting. For me, the best news of the day was Bruce Thompson's treasurer's report, announcing that our overall bank balances were slightly over what we had a year ago. While the final year-end income/expense reports are weeks away, it appears that we will end our first year in the black. I don’t have the figures handy, but I don’t believe that is something that has happened since some time in the distant, foggy past, especially not in the last few years with all the expenses associated with back-to-back hurricanes. Indeed, we’re in the black even though we had high legal expenses this last year. We’re optimistic that legal expenses will diminish this coming year.

We submitted an ambitious budget for this year, which includes a capital budget for numerous improvements to our properties. It will take hard work from us, and your support as members, to accomplish this goal. We are projecting income of $600,974 for the year, with running expenses of $470,247, and a $79,000 capital expense budget for major maintenance projects. Included in the latter is: asphalt work for our Isle Dauphin Club entry road (which is starting to remind me of my time in Albania); work on our irrigation system; new tile for our office, shop and grill; painting of the Club buildings; plus some minor roof work in our shop area and repairs to the tennis court surface.

By the time you receive this message you should be receiving your 2008/09 membership invoices. We need your support more this year to accomplish our goals and maintain financial stability, please pay these yearly dues. This year the membership card you receive will be more important for we will incorporate it into the beach-use system and are working on ways to use it elsewhere on the island.

Thanks to all who have sent checks for our Dauphin Island Political Action Committee (DIPAC). I truly believe that this is a prudent way to make our voice heard on the other Alabama Gulf Coast. It only takes a minute to include a small check to this fund while you pay your membership dues.

On the DIPOA/Pitts case, the Appeals Court ordered the local judge to find in our favor, but this ruling was appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court which has yet to rule on hearing it or not.