Finance & Legal minutes: 2004-05-03

Minutes:

F&L meeting AGENDA, May 3, 2004
at Jim and Gail's house
===============================

Attendance:

Treasurer/Bookkeeper reports:
Checking account balance. $19,494.53 - $13,810.90 (for CH to CDC) = $5,683.63.
Seems to me that we need to build up our cash reserves. If a committee decides
to spend its budgeted amount BEFORE we've collected it in fees--we're in
trouble...

We've just spent a lot on trees and other things, so we should watch our
pennies for a little while. We also have $3,000 split out into various
accounts, just for maintaining accounts.

The money that we collected for pre-payments on garages and common house
loan should just get passed on to JD.

DTE transfer to Association. Several attempts made to transfer to GOCA. Still
in process. It appears that the CH Electric Meter has not been set up, so no
bills have been produced and we CANNOT transfer what doesn't exist...

Are we exceeding our budget (deficit), or is it a cash flow problem? We
don't think it's a deficit issue. This is also due to some technical
difficulties, the most recent budget files were lost, and so we're set
back a month or so.

CDC reimbursed us $11,000 for the common house savings.

The meals program is supposed to be separate, but we still have set
aside the $6,000 into two pots. One is $3k at Republic, and one is $3k
for the meals program. Unfortunately, Patti doesn't have the statements
for these accounts.

We should remind people that we're just getting going, and committees
should just chill their heels for a little while on spending cash.

F&L needs to get the rogue committees who feel that they have an
understanding with CDC, or other outside entities. F&L needs to be
responsible for working with outside entities in regards to finances.

Standing Issues:
- water bill - not sure what it covers
- money sitting in accounts that may need to sit there
- meals is separate
- money spent out of contingency
- money that came from the club, and cleaning up some of that messiness.

Water bill: what have we been charged for, and how often will we get
billed, and how much should we expect?

We take in roughly $8,000 a month in association fees - this includes LTCRF.

Utilities--received first water bills. $7,900! Still trying to figure out the
cost basis. Looks like a variation of date and usage. Somebody want to study
them?

Sarah is asking about how much money is a good level to have around in
our account, and when we should start getting worried. The annual budget
is $55k, and we have about 6-12k sitting around.

How &/or why would CDC know to reimburse us? How does it get on our
books? If it shouldn't, then why is F&L reimbursing members? There was
mulch delivered today, who is getting reimbursed, and from what bank
account?

We should contact JD, and understand what arrangements are happening.
Perhaps Elph should be involved as well. We also need to understand the
deposit from CDC. Also - committees need to understand how & when to
spend the money from the contingency - we've spent $14k as of April 4th.
We've received something close to $11,584.28.

We're thinking of calling JD during the meeting - what agreement has he
made with various committees wrt to reimbursement? Dale volunteers to
talk with him.

MONKEY: Dale will clarifiy contingency reimbursement agreements

MONKEY: Adi will ask the meals billing people what the balance is...

Meals may be able to reimburse us some of that money. Perhaps they can
pay us back over time, but aren't they operating at a deficit? How can
they spend 5k, with only 3k in the bank?


CH & Garages gas metering:
----------------------------
We aren't in the DTE system. Somehow were not seeing any bills - are we
going to be smacked with a large bill?

MONKEY: Adi will note the gas meter reading as of this date.

Association Fee billing:
-------------------------
Done a little late.

There is one family that is $1,400 behind - they paid last month, but
their check bounced. They haven't paid in several months.

How can we engage a household in a frank discussion? Perhaps creating a
payment plan? What does this household intend to do since their check
has bounced?

Patti and Kathy B already know more about people than they want to know,
and the more the information is contained within people's heads, the
higher their comfort level.

Great Oak needs the money. We also need this household, and we need to
keep them as members, but we need the money.

Perhaps they could invoke the hardship proposal as part of a solution.
It doesn't solve our cash flow issue.

There were about 4 households that received late fees for April. Judith
makes a pickup on the 16th, which makes it real clear that they're
getting a late fee. Judith is currently out of town, so we don't know
what's in the box.

MONKEY: Patti & Kathy B will write down the bounced check process

Dale - here is a proposal: assuming that someone starts with a 0
balance, and then missed a month, they get a late fee. They can get a
hardship release, and get the late fee removed.

If they haven't paid by the second month, then they get a letter, and
get a second late fee. At this time they must either take advantage of
the hardship process, or create a payment plan. This letter could be an
invitation to talk with the member book-keeper.

If they haven't paid by the 30th of that month, then they get a personal
visit from the most appropriate people, at this time it is the member
book-keepers. They might negotiate a payment plan, or suggest they visit
a budget counselor as possible outcomes.

...this should go further, but we don't need to do this tonight.

We want to trust people, and assume that they have good intentions, but
we also aren't here to be walked on, and there needs to be a breaking
point where things go too far. Sometimes paperwork is too complicated,
and things get too stressful to deal with, perhaps

Maybe people haven't caught onto the idea that the ideas are coming in,
and we're starting to see a cash flow problem.

We have no idea if non-paying households also aren't paying their other
bills on time. This may just be the way they deal with things.

There are also households that haven't paid their meals bills. On the
other hand, Sunward is *really* slow on their billing process.

A strong way to convince people is through peer pressure. At the extreme
case of a lawsuit, the names would become public knowledge. Missing
payments creates an erosion of trust between the household and the
community.

Should there be a monthly community business meeting that announces
statistics, such as "there are 2 households that are 1 month behind",
and "there is one household that is $800 behind"? This wouldn't create
the best discussions, and some of the recent discussions have been
difficult.

At what point has the community trust eroded enough so far that someone
more drastic must be done?

We're not ready to start taking these more drastic steps? When will it
be the right time? At some point in the future,

Taxes & the township - Adi
--------------------------
JD is attempting to get an appointment with the assesor. It's perversely
interesting for him.

Meals billing
------------------------------
Do we want to get a periodic update as part of oversight, or are they
entirely separate? Perhaps the meals billing committee should report
during the community meetings.

On the other hand, they have representation on steering, they have their
$3k starter funds, and they don't need to come to us, unless they want
help on tracking down late payers.

Dale wants to find a way to get the $3k back...

Perhaps meals can come up with another way to deal with this? This is
not an expense, it's tied up.

MONKEY: Adi will talk with meals to find a way to return the money to the community.

Discussion about Clark household association fees have started
------------------------------------------------------------
Kathy created their statement the other day

MONKEY: Kathy will start billing for Meeghan

Bounced checks
----------------
Patti & Kathy have been working on this, and will report back, and make
note of what they did.

Republic balance
-----------------
These statements have gone to meals, but should start going to Patti
once it's reconciled. Patti hasn't seen one as part of April.

MONKEY: Adi will make sure the statements are going to Patti
MONKEY: Patti will make sure that it's at $2500

CH & garage loan
--------------------
We're going to pay JD soon.

MONKEY: Patti & Kathy will talk with the accountant about setting up a
process for tracking the pre-payment and loan payments to CDC.

Before we hand the $13k to JD, we think that CDC owes us money that is
coming out of contingency, but that we've already paid for.

MONKEY: Dale will get in touch with JD (phone|email) to clarify money
exchange with CDC.

CH office billing
--------------------
Kathy will bill for the CH offices once the leases are signed, these
will be separate from household accounts, and the CH cmty will be
responsible for forging and managing the leases.

Presumably we'll back-bill? OR maybe we'll just let Dale float on this...? :)

Master deed
-------------
JD has a May 10th appointment with Nancy Berger and Paul Conahan to
discuss this. Sunward has the exact same language - perhaps Patti or a
member of F&L can attend.

MONKEY: Dale will pass onto F&L the date & appt info about the legal meeting.


MONKEY 10: Budget Update Process
---------------------------
Dale will send out a short questionaire addressing these questions to the cmty
conveners.

Hasn't done anything...
Patti is back to square one.

MONKEY: Dale and Patti will sit down to definitively answer questions
about the budget.


MONKEY 11: LCE Liability Discussion and policy?
---------------------------
Judith should contact our insurance person asking for a professional's
reccomendation on LCE liability.

MONKEY: Patti will remind Judith to report on this next time.


NEW ITEM 12: Re-evaluate F&L meeting schedule times
---------------------------
Currently 1st Monday and 3rd Sunday. We meet shortly before a business
meeting. We'll just have to post when we're gone, and schedule things in
advance?

We're going to continue at the current schedule.


NEW ITEM 14: Quickbooks problems for file sharers.
---------------------------
Need a single computer (at the CH with file space?) or put on intranet
with password protection. We had a SYSTEM CRASH and lost data which
Patti, for example, had already entered twice!

Gremlins ate the file...
What can we do to prevent this in the future?

MONKEY: Willie could purchase a USB keychain drive, and share that. F&L will
discuss this further over email.


NEW ITEM 15:
---------------------------
Can we get the account signers (of all the various accounts)
listed on the WIKI? Who has this info?

MONKEY: Sarah will get this information out of Elph's head.

NEW ITEM 13: Clost GOCOHO accounts and transfer money back to GOCA?
Balance is $5 in savings and $664.55 in draft

Next Meeting:
------------------------------
5/16/04 at 4pm at Willie's place


Freezer:
------------------------------
Stuff that can wait for next mtg:
- Clarify tax implications and Agreement regarding non-member renters of CH
Offices
- Secure location for storage of financial documents
- CH loan is for 5 years, Dale suggests that we amortize the cost of the loan
over 5 years, and borrow this money from the LTCRF.
- LTCRF calculation - Sarah
- worker's comp - Kelly
- truck insurance - Kelly
- Proposal for Purchasing recommendations? - Patti