Finance & Legal minutes: 2017-03-15

Minutes:

GO Finance & Legal Committee

MINUTES of 3-15-17 Meeting



Present: Debbi, Becky H., Becky G., Amy





1. FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR PRESENTING PROPOSALS AT 3-20-17 COMTY MTG



a) Draft Proposal for an Audit of GOCA’s 2016 Books. Amy will request that
this be a one-meeting decision because the audit firm will also be doing
GOCA’s 2016 taxes, and we’d like to get this started to realize time
savings for Becky G.

b) Draft Proposal to Establish a Rotation for Official Audits of Great Oak
Cohousing Association’s Books. This could be a two-meeting decision.



Becky H. will present.



The Michigan Condo Law default is to do an audit. It’s only when we choose
NOT to do an audit that we need to consense to this effect (“by any means
permitted under the Association’s Bylaws”). We do not need to vote.



Becky will send out the proposals on Friday.



2. JOBS FOR SPRING/SUMMER WORK SEASON



We would like to create a new F&L position for someone who will be the
point person on insurance. This position would be expected to attend F&L
meetings and would communicate with our insurance professionals and with
community members.



We will deactivate the Master Deed special job for now; Debbi will try to
resume working on this in the coming weeks.



Amy will continue as F&L convener but not be able to do extra projects for
F&L for the next 2-3 years because of increasing demands at her day job.
She will do her best to finish the Truck Proposal and hand off the Truck
Administrative Assistant job to Gayle Turner. Gayle and Amy have met once
and have another meeting set to continue training. Amy and Gayle will
create a Standard Operating Procedure for this job.



3. REASONABLE TIME TO IMPLEMENT A PROPOSAL?



At the request of a neighbor, the Process cmtee discussed the question of
what is a reasonable amount of time to implement a proposal. This came up
because F&L has not yet recorded assessment liens for the ~8 households who
are still paying on the Common House Assessment. The proposal was passed
in 2015. F&L explained in the previous meeting’s minutes the rationale for
prioritizing other things ahead of this. Becky H. has agreed to take this
task forward when she finishes current projects.



We received this message from Process Com in response:



“The Process Committee believes that the Community is:



1. interested in knowing more details about what each committee is doing,
and

2. ultimately responsible for the priorities of the committees and should
be more involved in this than it is currently.



Given this, Process is going to ask all cmtees to prepare a written report,
that they email out as well as present at a community meeting near the end
of each work season (we will need to stagger this a bit though, not all
cmtees at one meeting). In that report, we plan to ask the cmtees to share:

1. What they worked on this past work season

2. What they know that they still have to work on

3. What they think the order of priority is for the items in 2. for this
next work season



And then give the community time to do Q&A as well as discuss if the
community agrees with the report - perhaps there is a task that the
community wants added; perhaps the community wants to change the priority
for what is worked on next.



Would F&L be able to share such a report at the April community meeting, as
a bit of a guinea pig?



And "report" is perhaps too fancy a word - these are lists, and hopefully
would not be very time consuming to generate since you are probably
juggling them all the time anyway.



Your list of to-do's would include the specific agreement question that our
neighbor has raised of course, and it would be an opportunity for F&L to
show the community everything that it is working on, and the community may
choose to prioritize differently, or it may not.”



We think this could be quite a bit of effort and are concerned that it will
just add to the workload of some of our struggling committees. On the
other hand, it would help make committee work more transparent, which we
agree would be good. Doing this every work season might be too frequent.
Once a year seems adequate.



We’re also somewhat concerned about the process of prioritization. The
committee might recommend a certain priority order, but there could be
conflicts among individuals about what are priorities. What is the process
for this? What about a committee like F&L, that has required tasks? The
process needs to be very simple.



Becky G is willing to present.





4. POSTING AND RECORDING FINANCIAL AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS



• Amy sent a request to Yi-Miau to update the BOA with links to the 2015
reserve study, spreadsheet, and reserve criteria documents.



• Links to the Garage Owner Master List and Garage reassignment application
have been posted on the WIKI on the Important Documents page. Becky is
adding the “How to Sell a Garage” doc to the WIKI Important Documents page.





5. INSURANCE



a) Follow-up re: onsite inspection



Our current insurance co, Michigan Miller, sent us a letter following their
onsite inspection, instructing us to make and document specified
corrections by a certain date. We have taken care of the requirement to
obtain and maintain fire extinguishers for the CH and workshop. Keith is
working on getting one household to remove their grill from their deck. We
have an extension until March 31 to submit photos documenting that we have
taken care of these things. CH and Buildings should send Becky photos by
March 25. Becky will send them a message to remind them.



b) Application for new association policy



Becky G. filled out/corrected the application to the extent she could. Amy
gave the application form to Ted Chesky, who is working on answering
questions about the buildings construction to the extent he is able. We
will submit this as soon as we can to keep the ball rolling.



5. BOOKKEEPING UPDATES & ARREARS

Becky H. will remind a household that is falling behind about our lien
policy. We are monitoring another household that will exceed $1000 in
arrears if their March payment is not made.



Becky G. is in contact with another household to get their payments
straightened out.



6. MASTER DEED UPDATES – no news



7. OTHER MATTERS carrying forward or arising



Unit 517 – GO is responsible for repairing the drywall in the bathroom
following water damage. F&L asked Buildings to inquire about this. The
unit insurance should cover the rest of the repairs. We want to be sure
that GO carries out its responsibilities.



CH Assessment liens – Becky H. will get in touch with Rick Delonis.



8. NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, April 11
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