Bonsall Sponsor Group to change officers

All three of the current Bonsall Sponsor Group officers will be replaced when the sponsor group next meets.

Steve Norris will take over the role of chair from Margarette Schoendienst, who was Margarette Morgan when she joined the sponsor group in 1998 and became chair in 1999.

Larissa Anderson will replace Chuck Davis as the Bonsall Sponsor Group vice-chair. Dawn Apsley will be the new sponsor group secretary, although she will be unable to attend a mandatory training session prior to the sponsor group's Jan. 5 meeting, so current secretary Richard Hatano will be the acting secretary for that meeting and Apsley will take over as secretary as of the Feb. 2 meeting.

The new officers were approved on a 7-0 vote during the sponsor group's Dec. 1 meeting. Schoendienst and Davis did not seek reappointment for their terms which expire Jan. 5.

The Nov. 10 Bonsall Sponsor Group meeting included a recommendation to have Apsley fill one of the vacancies, and a 5-0 San Diego County Board of Supervisors vote Nov. 17 reappointed Norris to a new four-year term and appointed Apsley to a four-year term beginning Jan. 5 and expiring on Jan. 6, 2025.

Davis was the chair in 1998 when Morgan joined the sponsor group. "I dawdled. I waited a year," Schoendienst said of taking over as chair.

Davis became the vice-chair when Morgan became the chair. "I asked him to sit in as vice-chair and help me for at least the first couple of years. He was gracious enough to do that," Schoendienst said.

The 32-year tenure of Davis on the sponsor group thus included 22 years as vice-chair.

"He has done a fabulous job," Schoendienst said. "He has served the community well and for a very long period of time."

Morgan moved to Bonsall from the Shadowridge area of Vista in the late 1990s. "As soon as I moved into the neighborhood I became friends with Chuck and Elaine, his wife," Schoendienst said.

Davis was trying to form a homeowners' association. "Nobody else wanted to chair it and I became chair of that," Schoendienst said.

Morgan would chair an informal homeowners' association, as the residents soon learned that they didn't qualify as a homeowners' association under Internal Revenue Service rules.

When Schoendienst lived in Vista mayor Gloria McClellan appointed her as the chair of the city's Environmental Quality Commission and as the City of Vista representative to a joint powers agency for the Buena Vista Lagoon which had representatives from Carlsbad and Oceanside as well as Vista. Morgan also participated in the update of Vista's general plan.

"I had already been doing all of the same types of community involvement," Schoendienst said. "It was really quite easy to walk into it."

Schoendienst and Davis live in the Elevado area. When Morgan joined the sponsor group the seven members represented five different areas and no more than two sponsor group members from one area were allowed. "Last year we decided to change it from areas to at-large and found that to be more effective because, being a small community, it's very difficult to get volunteers from a specific area," Schoendienst said. "With Chuck and I off there isn't anybody from this area."

Elevado has a Vista 92084 ZIP code. The Bonsall community planning area has five different ZIP codes: Bonsall's 92003 and portions of Escondido's 92026, Fallbrook's 92028, Oceanside's 92057, and Vista's 92084. "That was one of the biggest issues that I saw coming in. It was a lack of community identity," Schoendienst said.

The Bonsall Community Planning Area extends east of Interstate 15. "When you put it on a map it's a very odd diagram," Schoendienst said. "Part of Lawrence Welk is actually in Bonsall."

Davis and Schoendienst made their decisions to retire independently. "Chuck's been talking for the last couple of years," Schoendienst said. "When this came up as far as being a reappointment he was ready for it."

Davis is now 76. "I knew it was time for new leadership to step in. I had had a long run," Schoendienst said.

"It was time for somebody else to step in," Schoendienst said. "After you've been chair for over 20 years it's time to move on."

Three new officers were found to replace Schoendienst, Davis, and Hatano (who will remain on the sponsor group). "It was really nice," Schoendienst said.

Schoendienst telephoned each sponsor group member separately to inform them about her planned retirement and query if they were interested in serving as a sponsor group officer. "I feel very capable leaving it in their hands," she said.

Norris has been on the sponsor group for more than 20 years. "I think it's wonderful. He has a wonderful amount of history, which I think is really important," Schoendienst said.

Anderson agreed to replace Davis. "She's a real go-getter and very, very smart," Schoendienst said.

When Apsley agreed to join the sponsor group, she also agreed to take on the role of secretary. "I feel very, very good that she's going to be available for the group," Schoendienst said.

Morgan and Davis spent 13 years working on the update of the county's general plan, which was approved in 2011. "There were a lot of things that we wanted that didn't get in," Schoendienst said.

After Morgan proposed a river park to County Supervisor Bill Horn, who retired at the end of 2018, Horn agreed that the San Luis Rey River Park was a project worth advocating. "I feel really, really good about it," Schoendienst said.

"It was just a real pleasure serving the community," Schoendienst said. "I learned a lot, met some interesting people."