Finance & Legal minutes: 2022-01-25

Minutes:

Minutes of 1-25-22 F&L Meeting

Present: Sharon, Becky H., Becky G., Jeff H., Amy

1. Managing future year-end budget surpluses - next steps
* Becky will meet with Mary King to run reports for the past few years to
get a sense of what is typical for spending, etc.
* They will start brainstorming and then will invite people to join in, not
just from F&L
* One idea is to increase the Steering Critical Needs savings account
* Could we put surplus funds from operating into the Reserve? We would
need to consult with our attorney. The Reserve is based on contributions
scaled to unit size, so some people might have a problem with that. And we
don’t even know if it’s allowed.


2. Bookkeeping updates
* Year-end process went smoothly. Updated everything. People who asked
for new fee info early got it.
* More people than usual didn’t pay their Association fees at the end of
December. Most have paid by now. Still a couple people we’re worried
about. All have been contacted by today.
* Khalid is our new-ish CPA since Len Pytlak retired and sold the business.
Neither Len nor Khalid raised their fees for years. Our monthly fee has
been flat for more than 5 years. Now they need to raise the rate. We
always budgeted a little more than the previous year’s actual, but not as
much as they want to increase. Becky negotiated a two year increase.
We’ll go up from $120/mo to $150/mo this year, and then up to $185/mo next
year.
* We have an external CPA because it provides a check & balance for our
internal bookkeeping. They send out our invoices and reconcile our bank
statements. And we have a separate GO job for depositing checks, separate
from the internal bookkeeper’s job, which writes checks.


3. New business
* Our attorney is not responding to our emails and pings. Becky will try
calling him tomorrow, and see if she can get through
* From last meeting’s notes: we need to give Jeff a binder. Jeff says he
has one. Patti must have left hers behind. It should include the current
Master Deed and Bylaws, along with a description of what needs changing.


4. Master Deed next steps - (Tabled, Debbi is absent)
* Amy committed to looking through the F&L minutes since the community
Skills & Thrills weekend when we went through the Master Deed and Bylaws
changes, to make a list of anything related to the MD and Bylaws changes
that has come up during our F&L meetings and needs follow up.


5. Planning info item for a community meeting about township zoning
* Waiting on our attorney’s response:
* MONKEY: Becky G: Rick is looking into whether we should change the
rental lease template we provide to landlords regarding access to interior
means of egress
* Rick said we should prohibit the creation of completely separate units
(per Becky G’s notes). This should be communicated to the community.

6. Ongoing items
CH Offices
* Becky G. has copies of the two leases for 2022. Paraphrasing: they
changed a line in the office lease template to say that the CH Com reserves
the right NOT to renew the lease for any reason. Taking our lawyer’s
advice, CH Com will give 60 days notice if they do not plan to renew the
lease.
* Becky G. strongly recommended that CH Com come up with a policy for
how office rentals will be determined. We’re not opposed to the lawyer
reviewing the policy, but we think it’s an internal matter, and it’s
probably not necessary.
* Syndallas and Melisa Schuster have both signed office leases for
another year. They both know they are not guaranteed a spot in 2023.
* We will take this topic off our list of things we’re tracking.

* Unit Modifications
* Buildings Com has signed off on the Unit Modification Agreements draft
* Debbi sent the doc to our attorney Rick for review. He acknowledged
receipt. She pinged him. He did not respond.
* Becky G. will remind Rick that we’re still waiting on this also.
We had asked him to file Willie & Katie’s UMA, and he hasn’t charged us for
that. So it’s probably not done. Becky will remind him of this also.
* From August’s minutes:
* When the UMA is finalized, Kathy will approach owners to ask
them to complete UMAs for the unit changes they have made. Our attorney
says we can’t enforce this, but at least owners will hear that they are
responsible for repairs and replacements to the modifications they have
made. (There are some exceptions, such as when some major changes are
added to the Reserve Fund.)
* Becky G. noted that this is in the Master Deed, we’ve just
highlighted a bit more detail.

* Reserve Fund Investment Policy
* MONKEY: BG will ask the Credit Union for advice on trying a “CD
ladder” for new Reserve funds. It’s after the holidays now, so Becky will
turn to this when she has time.
* MONKEY: Awaiting Mary’s return to A2 to invite her to meet with us to
discuss (tabled while the work on the surplus agreement is ongoing)

* Job Descriptions
* Counted Member, Admin Asst, & Check Depositor done
* Still need to do (Amy to remind relevant people): Internal Bookkeeper,
Convener, Steering Rep, Budget positions

* F&L Cooler Doc - finish reading through doc together, next step is to
prioritize


7. Next meetings:
* Feb 22
* Mar 22
* Apr 19
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