Finance & Legal minutes: 2014-08-11

Special Notes:

Planning for Visit from Paul Conahan re: 2015 Reserve Study

Agenda:

Visit from Paul Conahan re: 2015 Reserve Study
Proposed 2015 Budget Schedule
F&L Meeting Schedule
CH Solar Hot Water Loan proposal

Minutes:

Minutes of F&L Meeting 8-11-14

Present: Keith, Debbi, Amy

Guest: Paul Conahan, Michigan Reserve Associates, LLC (and Sunward
neighbor)
Minutes: Amy

1. Visit from Paul Conahan re: 2015 Reserve Study

Paul Conahan is available to work on our 2015 Reserve Study in September.
In preparation, he will send us paperwork to fill out to help him determine
where we stand with our Reserve saving and spending, and an invoice for 50%
of his $695 fee in advance, as is his usual practice. This price is higher
than the deeply discounted fee he gave us last time, but less than his
usual price to other condo associations.

Paul gave us a printout of our previous Reserve Study to review and mark up
with changes. Paul would like to have information about expenditures we
have made including the cost, date of work, etc., along with any scheduled
expenditures we have put off, any items we think may last longer than we
originally expected, and any line items that could be deleted. Keith will
look at this first, and Amy will bring an enlarged set of copies to our
next meeting for further review.

Keith sent him the link to our working Reserve spreadsheet, which has tabs
showing items that need to be added and updated this time around.

Paul will combine the information from us with observations he will make on
a site visit with Keith in September. Paul will then provide us with a
draft Reserve Study by the end of September. Then we'll have some
back-and-forth discussions as we respond to his draft.

Paul is willing to attend a future F&L meeting to which we invite any
neighbors who would like the opportunity to learn more about the Reserve
fund. We will generate some basic questions and submit them to Paul in
advance. Based on this list of questions, as well as the questions that
come up during the discussion, we'll create an FAQ that will be available
to all (distributed via e-mail and then posted on the WIKI).

Paul will send us a copy of a common Reserve investment policy document to
review as we develop our own (Elph is working on this as a special
project). Since safety is paramount, CDs and money market accounts are
about all we can do. We do need to try to match inflation. (E.g. our
previous Reserve study pegged our interest earnings at 3%, matched by an
assumption that inflation will also be 3%.) Paul suggested that we look at
brokered CDs, e.g. through Fidelity or Morgan Stanley. These are still
insured, but a broker would buy the CDs for us, saving us a ton of
paperwork every time we switch banks to get a good interest rate. We'd give
up a little of the return to the broker, but the tradeoff will probably be
worth it because of the flexibility and speed we'd gain by not doing the
paperwork ourselves every time.


In addition to adding the community-owned solar panels to the Reserve Fund,
we will also look at adding to individual household line items small
monthly payments toward the cost of removing and reinstalling
household-owned solar panels when it is time to replace the roofs
community-wide. Someone will need to call the solar panel companies to ask
for a price on this service.

There is no need for us to meet again until the draft is done near the end
of September.

Paul noted that Great Oak is unusual in that our list of items is longer
than any other group he works with; also that we're the only group that has
been concerned about spending ahead of time.


2. Proposed 2015 Budget Schedule

Mary King is coordinating the budget process this year, with assistance
from Dale. Based on the successful pattern last year, she proposed that
the budget meetings be held on the third Mondays of September, October, and
November, rather than using the first Wednesdays of October and November as
part of the budget process. (These could remain as regular business
meetings instead of alternative meetings, to keep other business moving
forward.) The advantage of the proposed schedule is that it gives
committees an entire month between plenary budget discussions to gather
further information. F&L is fine with this plan.

Amy will ask Mary about next steps. We need to alert committees of the
schedule and of what they need to do to prepare.

3. F&L Meeting Schedule

The next F&L meeting exceptionally will be on Sunday, August 24 instead of
Monday, August 25 because of Amy's travel schedule.

We'll resume our second and fourth Monday at 7 pm meeting schedule in
September.

4. CH Solar Hot Water Loan proposal

The CH Solar Hot Water Loan proposal will not be ready to bring back to the
community on August 18 because our CPA, Len Pytlak, did not get the 2013
tax return finished in time for Becky to revise the proposal before she
left on an out of town trip until 8/17.

5. Review F&L Statement of Activity, tabled until next meeting

6. Accounts Receivable, Debbi will review from home and send e-mail
with recommendations for follow up.


7. Special projects, no news to report.

8. Adjourn
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