Finance & Legal minutes: 2011-09-12

Minutes:

Minutes of F&L Committee Meeting

9-12-11



Present: Aaron, Mary, Amy





1. Unit 28 Sale

Michael Pryplesh and his family closed on the purchase of unit 28 – great
news! Special thanks to Kathy for helping out very promptly with the
necessary paperwork for closing.



2. Unit 29 Sale

Fannie Mae is going to sell Dorothy’s foreclosed unit to Syndallas.
(Syndallas said it was ok to put this in the minutes.) Today we received an
e-mail with a request for information, which Kathy is working on. There
were four questions she couldn’t answer. We discussed:



Q: Was "interest" applied to the property?

A: We’re assuming this means interest charged on association fees owed to
GOCA. No such interest was charged, but it’s possible that Carl charged a
late fee each month. Kathy will need to check Quickbooks to find out.



Q: Were there any assessments - and their purpose?

A: There were no assessments. We assume this means “special assessments,”
i.e. shared payments for repairs or improvements, etc.



Q: Is the property in collections?

A: GOCA did not attempt to collect any monies owed.


Q: Was a lien was placed on this property?

A: No lien was placed by GOCA. We don’t know if the bank or any other
entity placed a lien.



3. Bookkeeping transition



Kathy has not yet met with Carl – maybe this weekend. She plans to run
monthly statements tonight or tomorrow night.



We are eager to hear the results of Carl’s review because he intends to
determine whether there were balances at the end of 2008-2010 that
potentially could be rebated.



At its last meeting, F&L concluded that its proper role is to be very
conservative in safeguarding the community’s financial health, and we were
inclined to say that no funds should be rebated unless they exceed the
substantial outstanding debt to the community.



This led to a discussion about cash vs accrual accounting, and from there
the idea arose to obtain some financial training both for the community as a
Board of Directors and for F&L members. See next item.



3. Financial Literacy Training



It would be great to organize a one-time financial literacy training for the
community. A basic overview on the financial responsibilities of a
nonprofit board, how to read statements, etc. For this to be meaningful,
Finops needs to generate regular financial statements. This is something
Scott Bogard does for Sunward and which Carl intended to start doing after
he finished reviewing the books. We would like to see this happen – we’ll
find out after Carl and Kathy meet if/when it would be possible. And then
we can look at offering this training to the community.



Secondly, it would be great to have access to expert consultation for F&L
and Finops members, and possibly additional training beyond what the
community has. If we outsource the bookkeeping, consultation should be part
of the agreement. This would not be onerous, we just want to be able to run
our occasional questions by an expert.



Another scenario would be to keep the bookkeeping in-house but to have an
outside, expert advisor/consultant to answer questions and review the
bookkeeping periodically.



Amy found out via Elph that ZingTrain does not offer this type of training,
but he forwarded Amy’s request to the Zingerman’s accountant group. One
person responded, and Amy will talk with her next week (Lynn).



Amy also called the NEW Center and asked for a referral. They recommended
Angeline Smith of Angeline & Associates. Amy has looked at her website and
is impressed. Amy will follow up with a conversation with Angeline as well.
Angeline offers free initial consultations, which we might want to do with
all four F&L members together with Kathy.

4. Researching cost of outsourcing bookkeeping – urgent to have info for
budget process

a. Scott Bogard who does Sunward’s books– does he have credentials? Is
he interested? MONKEY: Amy to find out.

b. MONKEY: Aaron – will check with his church bookkeeper who charges
$40/hr.

c. Amy will check with Lynn and Angeline to see whether they would be
interested in this work and how much they would charge.

d. Another option is to hire Carl – Mary is ok with this if it is the
best deal for GO – though she might have to go off F&L. Carl is not a
professional bookkeeper but he is very knowledgeable and knows GO’s books
inside and out. He might be interested in continuing to do the work for
pay.



[Subsequent to the meeting Amy realized that a job description is needed
before asking for outside bids. She will ask the current and past
bookkeepers to review whatever job description is on the wiki.]



5. Budget

We had intended to invite Rod to the meeting to discuss the budget process.
Mary left a message inviting him to come to talk with us about the budget
process if he were free. If he can’t make it, Mary will check in with him
separately.


MONKEY: Mary will check in with Rod about the budget process.

6. Insurance info from Rusty at TS

Following the GO/TS Summit, Rusty from TS sent Amy some additional info
about insuring the shared garage. Tabled until Amy reads this and reports.
It did not sound like the information was different from what we already
know.

MONKEY: Amy will read the information about insurance that Rusty sent from
TS prior to the next F&L meeting.

7. New bank research



Meals and GOCA want a new bank. Old bank is unsatisfactory.



Mary recommended TCF. It may be the only bank free checking for businesses.
Kathy has concerns about TCF.



MONKEY: Amy will check out the U-M Credit Union, which now has business
services.



8. Master Deed changes

Next Monday, Aaron will spend a couple of hours reviewing old e-mails and
will prepare and send us a summary of what we’re going to send to Attorney
David Keast. Here is the familiar list of items:



1) GCE/LCE table – approved by community in past

2) Garages

3) Membership – want to have requirements in sales agreements



There has been a lot of discussion around these items over a long period of
time. The GCE/LCE table was approved by the community. We don’t think we
need to bring this back to the community. We want to get this done before
the end of the year while we have funds to pay Keast to do the work. We may
check in with one or two very concerned neighbors before proceeding
depending on what Aaron finds in the e-mail history.



9. Reserve Spending Proposal

This proposal came before the community at an August meeting. There were
some concerns expressed. Becky and Amy are going to meet with one neighbor
tomorrow night to discuss his request that we add language requiring a plan
to make up lost interest earnings when committees spend earlier than the
reserve plan indicates.



- Another neighbor asked a question at the community meeting: why not
just let committees spend their money, and avoid having F&L micromanage
committees?

- F&L’s role is to monitor and guard financial health of entire
committee – we hold the big picture. A committee operating in isolation
might make a decision not knowing what other actions are being planned.
They might not know what the balance/cash flow is for the reserve fund.

- F&L would only say no to committees if there wasn’t enough cash
available or if we felt for some other reason that we needed to take our
conservative position to guard the fiscal health of Great Oak. And then the
committee could go before the community anyway.

At any give point, any committee could be dysfunctional and may need
oversight. F&L could be dysfunctional. In this case, the item can be
brought before the community by the committee.



We observed that the community has a vested interest in F&L being a
functioning committee.



10. Committee Mandate review



Let’s schedule a time to get together and brainstorm about what needs to be
in the mandate. This will be helped by having food!


We decided to do this on 9/24. We are going to go through the Bylaws and
Master Deed with a fine-toothed comb to identify what financial and legal
actions these documents indicate needs to be done. We’ll compare these
items to the existing mandate and edit it/amend it.



MONKEY: Amy will sign out game room for 9/24 from 9-1 pm.

Eggs & Potatoes – Mary

Smoothies – Aaron

Fruit – Amy



MONKEY: Amy will check with Becky to see if she can make it.



We decided to ask Work Com if we could count this as a half-day of work for
a community work day. This is something we can’t easily accomplish in
regular committee meetings. We think that a four-hour block will make the
difference in getting this done.


MONKEY: Amy will send a message to Work requesting permission to do this
work as a Community Work Day project.



10.Meeting dates



Amy proposed finding an alternate night instead of 9/26. Thursday, 9/29
@7:30 pm was the best option.



MONKEY: Amy will check in with Becky on this.


Subsequent to the meeting we determined to meet on Weds 9/28 at 7 pm.
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