![Minutes: Finance & Legal 2004-04-05 [Minutes]](display/images/gocohologo.gif)
Finance & Legal minutes: 2004-04-05
Minutes:
F&L meeting, April 5th, 2004
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Attendance: Willie, Adi, Patti, Kathy B., Dale,
(Heather and Jason were politely ignoring us in the other room)
MONKEY: Adi will follow-up with both Nick & JD about taxes. Adi will cc finance on this email.
MONKEY: Adi will contact CH, notifying them that there may be tax implications if we rent out the CH offices to non-community members.
MONKEY: Dale will ask cohousing-L how other communities have handled this insurance coverage overlap ambiguity, so that we can have some more info for the next meeting.
MONKEY: Jim should be insistent that his proposal will appear on the next meeting's agenda (2nd in April)
MONKEY: Kathy will modify the job description for "recharging for a bounced check" on the Wiki.
MONKEY: Kathy & Patti should meet with Heather wrt to the meal program billing.
MONKEY: Kathy & Dale should work together to work on setting up the Clark household's association fees.
MONKEY: Patti will look into whether our system accounts for a bounced check fee, and when credit is given, make sure it gets revoked.
MONKEY: Patti will ask for a check to be cut to bring up our balance to the minimum requirement.
MONKEY: Willie will check with Elph &/or Sarah what is required by Republic, and what are the status of our accounts there.
MONKEY: Willie will respond to Jenny, telling her that this is a larger philosophical issue that we'll start tackling.
REPORT FROM TREASURER
------------------------
Documentation provided for three households refinancing
DTE/MichCon? contacted to update billing info for GOCA
Two families contacted to update their DTE/MichCon? info
One has tried to change with no success.
REPORT FROM BOOKKEEPER
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Current Balance Sheet - viewable here:
http://www.gocoho.org/wiki/index.php?page=CurrentBalanceSheet
The undeposited funds are "undeposited" between the time that we send
the check, and when the money shows up on the bank statement. Bounced
checks and bounced fees should be accounted for, although we haven't had
many yet.
MONKEY: Patti will look into whether our system accounts for a bounced check fee, and when credit is given, make sure it gets revoked.
An email should probably be sent to households that bounce their checks.
The bounced check fee from Sunrise is $6, and then the check-writer's
bank will probably charge them a NSF fee.
One of the bounced checks has bounced from one of the households that is
catching up on their large debt. These things are being mailed to "us",
(500), and we need to make sure that someone is collecting the #500
mail. The bounced check fee will appear on our statement even if it
clears on the second attempt.
MONKEY: Kathy will modify the job description for "recharging for a bounced check" on the Wiki.
MONKEY: Kathy & Patti should meet with Heather wrt to the meal program billing.
MONKEY: Kathy & Dale should work together to work on setting up the Clark household's association fees.
Input data for Budget for FY03 (2 mos) and FY04 (12 mos)
Profit/Loss Statements for FY03 and FY04
REPORT FROM MEMBER BOOKKEEPER
------------------------
Patti will give this presentation to the community on wednesday. Helen
should have this information available.
We can generate a report from Quickbooks, and then stick that on the Wiki.
COMMUNITY REPORT BY F&L
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Patti will provide update to community at next meeting (Wed) including:
Remind larger community of reimbursement process and statement of Accounts--Judith?
Current Balance Sheet
TOWNSHIP TAXES
------------------------
Adi will provide update on Scio tax update based on follow up with Nick.
(They're taxing us for Touchstone for 2003)
Nick & JD are dragging their feet on this one, passing the buck to
steering. They all thought that Adi was moving forward, and that they
didn't need to do anything.
Dale sees that they had discussed it at Steering, JD paid for the TS
land taxes, and that it was a lot of money. He doesn't believe that we
were paying TS's tax, although this doesn't necessarily imply that we
were paying the wrong amount.
MONKEY: Adi will follow-up with both Nick & JD about taxes. Adi will cc finance on this email.
UPDATE ON GOCA TAXES FOR FY2003 INCLUDING IMPLICATIONS OF OFFICE RENTAL
------------------------
Update on FY03 taxes and Meeting with Accountant (Jim Birchler at Myler
and Associates: 477-9270)
In general, we only need to file when we have more than $100 in interest
income (interest income - prof fees or tax prep fees = our taxable
income). So, we don't need to file for FY03.
Jim recommends an annual "controller's review" of our books. In 6-12
mos, we should contact and ask him to provide us with approx $200 of
"controller's review." We will not need an "audit" (third party
verification and calculation of balances,) or annual "review" which
provides for analysis and comparison. We aren't large enough to warrant.
He will consult in 6 mos to make sure we're on the right track. He
seemed to think we were moving along fine, though our budget and expense
tracking could be simplified. Patti and Dale will keep this in mind for
the next budget cycle.
However, the common house loan prepayment could be problematic. We need
to show, in our books, who has prepaid and who must pay monthly. Patti
and Kathy may go back to talk spedifically with Jim about getting this
set up.
Some discussion about a "controller's review" vs. an audit or annual
review being needed on an annual basis.
Adi wanted an example of one possible simplification that he
recommended. Pattie said that we have childcare setup with each
individual's name. For ground's supplies, we have grounds rolloff,
garbage pickup, and enclosure maintenance which should all be
aggregated. We can still find out how much we spent on "ice melt". A
detailed report shouldn't be more than a single page.
Dale is concerned about being able to compare against the budget line
items if we "throw away" too much detail. There are some things that
Patti did collapse, because the budget categories don't match up
exactly.
Dale has heard the argument, and is absolved of responsibility from this
point forward. It's more important to know that we're paying money to
Sherwin-Williams for paint instead of the fact that we're reimbursing
Adi, or some member of the community.
The common house pre-payment may be complicated. This needs to be more
transparent, tracking equity and principle and interest charged.
Now that we've had the initial meeting, they should be available for
consultation before we set something up.
DONATIONS
------------------------
NOTE: Donations to common house (or Great Oak in general) are NOT tax
deductible to members.
OFFICE SPACE
------------------------
Since we are not renting to "outside, third parties," we have NO tax
liabilities from providing these offices to our members for a fee.
Someone should check the book of agreements regarding our preference for
GO office renters.
All guests (rooms and facilities) should give donations through members.
As long as we're renting out to community, or are sub-letting the
office, then we may be OK.
MONKEY: Adi will contact CH, notifying them that there may be tax implications if we rent out the CH offices to non-community members.
UPDATE ON MEALS CHECKING ACCOUNT?
------------------------
The money $3000 in Republic Account and $3000 in Sunrise account, has
been switched.
Waiting for checks from Sunrise... we now have them.
We don't know what the status is of the Republic account.
The current minimum balance requirement at the end of the month of the
Republic account is $2500. We need to make sure that we have enough
money for this deposited. What is our minimum obligation on this?
Heather doesn't know if the meals account is closed at Republic.
MONKEY: Willie will check with Elph &/or Sarah what is required by Republic, and what are the status of our accounts there.
MONKEY: Patti will ask for a check to be cut to bring up our balance to the minimum requirement.
Billing will hopefully go out April 6th. Dale wants to know if the meals
billing is being done with SQL-ledger. Adi insists on doing it by hand
the first month. The bill calculation and invoice generation was done in a
webapp he wrote but the ongoing accounting that is planned to be done in
SQL-Ledger hasn't been set up yet since SQL-Ledger is not obvious to me yet.
Have reimbursements started?
Reimbursements to cooks have indeed started and are ongoing.
UPDATE ON BUDGET REVIEW PROCESS
------------------------
Dale will work with Patti and Dave Butler (as part of contingency hours)
for working on resolving childcare stuff
Childcare budget as part of budget review
CH Loan fees (an addl $34/household) must be addressed in budget review
How much was left from GOCOHO Club? (acct has $1125)
Adi and Dale have talked about a revised online survey process for
gathering preference data for the 6-month review process.
This is not generating a brand-new budget, but instead a review, or
course-corrections.
UPDATE ON HARDSHIP PROPOSAL
------------------------
Will this be presented at Wed meeting?
Jim will send out a copy of the initial draft to finance.
This is currently relevant, as there are some households who are behind.
MONKEY: Jim should be insistent that his proposal will appear on the next meeting's agenda (2nd in April)
WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR WORK COMMITTEE
------------------------
Revisit the work requirements at the next F&L meeting.
We want committees to report by April 12th for the number of hours for
the next work season.
Will we want to adjust the number of work hours for F&L.
Tax consultation/coordination was not listed on the work requirements.
Member Bookkeeper as check depositer would give her more control over work flow.
Treasurer is more than 2 hrs/month as F&L convener (probably more like 4)
Bookkeeper is more when combined with budget and taxes (more like 6-8)
We should ask for more contingency hours. There are certain jobs that
require that the contingency hours person attend meetings and read the
minutes regularly so that jobs can easily be tasked off without a
separate thorough description.
Dale's email to the work cmty is repeated below:
F&L would like to make the following changes to our jobs going forward:
General bookkeeper, 4 hrs/month, all seasons
Member bookkeeper, 4 hrs/month, all seasons
Contingency, 3 hrs/month, all seasons -- we'll keep, but ask anyone
who does this to attend meetings
Check collector/logger, 3 hrs/month, all seasons
Convener, 2 hrs/month, all seasons -- CHANGE to 4 hrs/month
Reimbursement/checkwriting/paying bills, 2 hrs/month, all seasons --
CHANGE to 4 hrs/month
Tax/insurance point person, 1 hrs/month, all seasons -- CHANGE label
to "insurance point person"
Add the following seasonal jobs:
Tax point person, 4 hrs/month, Mar/April/May only
Budget process point person, 4 hrs/month, Sep/Oct/Nov
Here are our pre-loads:
general bookkeeper: Patti
Member bookkeeper: Kathy
Contingency: Dave G
Check logger: Probably Judith (we'll let you know if not)
Convener: Patti
Checkwriter: Helen
Insurance point person: Kathy
Also:
We need to add 1 hr/month to member bookkeeper so they can do the
billing for office rent and phone lines.
These roles should be filled by people who are attending F&L meetings,
and if these will be assignments, then we should ask to make sure that
these people are willing to serve in these roles.
There are feelings that it would be more efficient to give insurance to
someone for a full-year long term, and it would probably make sense to
give this to someone who is familiar with our books, etc.
GO-NET BILLING
------------------------
Send it back to Adi and Elph?
go-tech will propose that Adi & Elph will run the billing for go-net.
At this point, we'll keep it separate, just like the meals billing.
Perhaps go-tech might request work hours for this purpose.
CH OFFICE & PHONE BILLING
------------------------
Who should do? Member bookkeeper might be best since it's part of member
benefits
At least one of the renters preferred to have their account separate,
for business & taxing purposes.
Should we be handling this billing system, or should we spin off another
group for this? Feelings are expressed that the member book-keeper
should do it, since the receivables go to that person already. They're
generating the bills anyway. We'll add one hour to that position for CH
office billing, office rent & phone line.
MODIFICATION TO TO LCE WHICH CAUSES DAMAGE
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Buildings need to draft an agreement on what happens if something a
co-owner does damages a common element (example of wind ripping satelite
dish off house and crashing thru neighbor's window.)
Dale's Proposal: when the owner makes an approved modification (up to
workmanship manner) then the community should adjust LTCRF fees
appropriately, and should cover it. However, if it's not been approved
&/or done properly then the owner should take responsibility.
Perhaps the insurance person should read up on this. By the way, the
community covers windows. However, the deductible per incident would be
$1000.
Who takes care of the deductible if there is an identifiable person who
does damage? What if there is personal property damaged as well?
If this wasn't a condo association, then we'd go after the responsible
party... what is the reason for doing it any differently?
This is a big issue, we're run out of time, and should be digested at
the next meeting.
MONKEY: Dale will ask cohousing-L how other communities have handled this insurance coverage overlap ambiguity, so that we can have some more info for the next meeting.
We should also have the insurance policy in front of us for the next
meeting.
We could dig up how much the last window damage recovery happened, and
whether that was a good process or not.
MONKEY: Willie will respond to Jenny, telling her that this is a larger philosophical issue that we'll start tackling.
Master Deed
---------------------
JD still says that Sunward & CDC about working out the master deed.
Next meeting: Sunday April 18th at 4pm at Willie's, Willie will also
sub-convene
(Patti will likely be out of town--can someone else convene?)
Stuff that can wait for next mtg:
- Secure location for storage of financial documents
- CH loan is for 5 years, Dale suggests that we amortize this
over 5 years, and borrow this money from the LTCRF.
- LTCRF calculation - Sarah
- worker's comp - Kelly
- truck insurance - Kelly
-Proposal for Purchasing recommendations?
- re-evaluate F&L meeting schedule times