Open Letter
to Landowners of Timberlake Ranch
Timberlake Needs You Now

      A few years ago, Timberlake was in serious crisis. A group executed what was, in effect, a coup. With vote proxies collected before the annual meeting, they took over the Board of Directors and proceeded to take what a majority of landowners believed to be a series of illegal and unilateral actions to attempt to dismantle Timberlake Ranch.
       After an extended battle that included pleas to the State Attorney General, numerous sessions with a court-appointed mediator, and the destruction of trust and friendships, the entire board was eventually replaced. TRNews.info was created during that time in order to provide a method of communication for the majority of landowners who had a more positive vision f or the future of this place.
     We are relating this story now because that crisis occurred, in part, due to a failure of many of us landowners to remain vigilant and involved in the management of this wonderful place. We became complacent, relying on others to keep the ranch on a good course.
       We are at a similar juncture today. We have had the luxury of a competent, hard-working, inclusive, and trustworthy board for years. Linda Pederson has been president for six years, during which she and her crack team performed what we thought to be impossible. They put the Ranch on a sound fiscal basis, rewrote and obtained adoption of new CC and R’s, and preserved and beautifully restored the ranch house for pennies on the dollar. But most importantly, they built this place into more of a community, in part by listening to everyone without judgment and making decisions based on the wishes of the landowners and what was best for Timberlake as a whole.
       Some of those long-serving board members have left and others, including Linda Pederson, will be leaving the board at the end of their terms in May. This is the point where we all need to get involved. We cannot make the same mistake we made a few years ago, by sitting on the sidelines and assuming a new board, led by a new president, will somehow come together and function well without our participation.
       If you are willing to work (and this is very much a working board), please sign up as a candidate for election to the Board of Directors and help maintain and enhance the beauty and value of this place. Both of us are past presidents of TRLA and we speak from experience when we tell you it is highly rewarding and important service. Timberlake needs you now.

Tim Amsden & Roger Irwin,  Editors Timberlake-Ramah News