Finance & Legal minutes: 2010-05-10

Minutes:

Minutes of F&L Meeting

5-10-10



Present: Aaron, Mary, Amy, Carl, Elph, and Gail



1. Welcome to new F&L member Carl!

2. GO Documents Project



Gail has taken on the job of organizing the GO documents as a Summer work
season one-time job. Since she is already GO Archivist, it is a good
match. She provided a handout showing what is already in the Archives and
what is already on line (a lot is on line already). Gail thinks of the
Archives as being primarily social, while the documents are everything else.




There was discussion on e-mail about whether to keep hard copies vs. on
line. Something for us to keep in mind going forward.



Things Gail will think about and make recommendations on the following:



- providing convenient access to documents

- dealing with sensitive content

- develop policy on what to save and where to put it; communicate this
to conveners (examples: Hobart service contract, lawnmowing contract, etc.)

- should some aspects of this job continue indefinitely? Should they
be folded permanently into the Archivist job?

- Where should the hard copies/Archive be stored for the long term? It
would be good if they were in a place where you could conveniently take
things out and look at them.

- What is in the locked filing cabinet in the exercise room besides
Meals Reimbursement records?



MONKEY: Mary will discuss with Meals at what point old Meals Reimbursement
documents can be destroyed.



- Protections for irreplaceable documents: scan them so we have two
copies

- Gail will talk with committees about what documents they generate
that need to be kept (e.g. copies of the three bids we get for projects)

- Anything burned to a disk could be stored off site (maybe at Barb
Young’s office?)



Gail will check in with us at the first meeting in June.



3. Plans for 5/17 Comty Meeting item about the Reserve Study



Begin by framing this item. The Reserve study was initially done in 2005. We
have several years of data now, so we should update our study to make sure
we’re saving enough for future capital expenses. Community members have
said they want to have input into this. We’re doing an education piece
first so everyone is on the same page.



Aaron and Elph will co-present. Start with education piece about what the
Reserve Study is and why we do it. What is the intent. Flip charts to help
visualize. Clarifying questions. 10 minutes.



Provide history of what has been spent already. Be prepared to talk about
paint.



Then get into discussion of anything we want to add/change/or delete. E.g.
Add woodshop. What else have we added?



Amy is gathering questions from community members and will work with Elph
over e-mail to get the answers written up over the weekend.



Leave the group with an understanding of what the reserve study is and a
sense of confidence that we’ve captured what we want to take care of for the
long term. Then the Reserve Study group can go away and do their work on
adjusting the numbers.



Questions for Paul Conahan: we save an extra margin above the basic reserve
amount determined by the study. Clarify whether this margin is for
unexpected new expenses, or just for unexpectedly high costs.



3. Update on Lien and Accounts Receivable



We will be placing a lien on one unit. We will be consulting briefly with
our attorney to make sure we do it right. Those costs will be applied to
the amount owed by the household to the community – we’ll do everything we
can to keep these costs to a minimum so as not to add to the household’s
burden. We’re not required to inform them in writing about the lien but we
are going to let them know face-to-face as a courtesy.



The lien will be for a certain amount. If the arrearages continue to
increase, how often would we need to update the lien and what costs would
accrue? We’ll ask the attorney.



Carl and Elph put in place a system of depositing Association fees on the 10
th, 20th, and 30th of the month, so they know more efficiently now who has
not paid in a given month. Elph makes a courtesy phone call to anyone who
is late in case they have forgotten.



We reviewed the status of accounts receivable. There were some unpaid
association fees in April.



We discussed the large arrearage and how that impacts our annual budget. We
budget assuming that the money will come in, but for some time now we’ve
been seeing that it is not. We’ll ask the external reviewers for
information about what other condo associations have done in this situation.



MONKEY: Mary will follow up on information Elph provided to help identify
additional candidate external reviewers. We need three bids before we can
move forward.



Starting next month, Elph will send F&L committee members a report on which
households are late on the previous month’s association fee payments. This
report will come out after Elph prints statements.



4. Response to Membership materials for selling units



Membership is preparing information for Realtors not familiar with cohousing
in case they will be selling the unit currently in foreclosure. We want
Realtors to understand what cohousing is.



Most of us were too tired at this point to contribute meaningfully, so we
will discuss this again at our next meeting. Elph had some comments:



- Use the term Condominium Association, not Home Owners
Association. This
is more typical in Michigan.

- Include information about the Common House and other common
elements. This is an important reason why our units are more expensive than
one would expect.

- Focus on how we are legally structured. Here’s what you’re buying.
Restrictions and covenants that a buyer needs to know right offhand.



This is a cover letter to go with the Prospective Member Packet. That will
answer quite a few general questions so use the cover letter to focus on the
core distinctions between cohousing and typical condominium associations.



5. Next meeting will be May 27 from 6-7 pm in the Common House Sitting Room.
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