Finance & Legal minutes: 2004-07-12

Minutes:

7/12/04, 7pm Adi's house
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Attending: Willie, Adi, Jim, Judith, Dale, Patti


1. Technical problems
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Tentative solution - we have an IBM Thinkpad running Windows 98.
It sounds like this belongs to Dale, but will be on long-term loan.

Kathy has a printer, so by next month, we should be able to get
statements flowing again.

Current status, member bookkeeper ran April, lost May and hasn't entered
the June billing info. Patti has entered the check log through June
30th, but the account can't be balanced until we're up and running
again. Kathy had spent several hours entering the data, and didn't want
to risk losing several more hours entering data, only to lose that
again.


2. Member Bookkeeper's report
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There are notices posted about how people won't be getting statements
this month.

There are tardy bills for utilities that have been transferred and paid
off. We need help finding boxes of checks, supposedly this has been
taken care of - Elph had them.


3. Bookkeeper's report
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4. Budget Review Process
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Committees would like to know what they've spent so far.
Patti handed out a sheet with a bunch of numbers on it.

These numbers are balanced as of 4/30, and estimated after that.

Dale: not all of our units were sold during the entire year, we'll need to scale our estimated annual income to this.

CH is asking how much they have to spend so that they can fulfill their original
obligations that the contingency funds were to pay for.

At the steering meeting, JD has more cash now that they've closed on the final unit. We should be figuring out our share of the contingency rather soon, although we need to figure out the water connection fee. JD will figure out what he's reimbursed for contingency projects rather soon. It's coming, he's aware that money needs to flow back & forth due to rented units, taxes on wetlands that should be split with touchstone, etc.

When cmtys want to spend money, is it operational or contingency? It's both.

Should we scale every cmty's allotment? Should we tell everyone to only spend 60% of what they were given?

On the other hand, we do now know the closing date of every unit. We know when the grace periods end on all units, and we can figure out our total expected income for the year.

On the flipside of knowing exactly how much we'll bring in, we didn't take occupancy of the common house until March 1st. If there is additional info on expenses that we could get, we could take the annual budget and scale it.

What would be needed? printouts from quickbooks showing income expenses at least through June, and then refining the budget review numbers in order to present to the various committees.

We could come up with a scaled column, what cmtys have spent so far, and their monthly rate.

We should go with what we decided, and do a 6-month report, based on the end of April.

Dale will collect the data. It will take into account that the association has operated since Sept, but billed as far back as July, 2003. We need to take into account those initial few months. We need to be looking at 17 months, or whatever. What does this mean to not have a lot of people moved in?

It will show figures, such as a 50% point, and what you've spent as of April 30th. Dale will take into account the 10 months that not everyone was on-board. We had an earlier guesstimate that we started off with.

How do we want to present the budget review?

Dale handed out a writeup that described what types of things have been going on, and some proposed solutions. Dale will revise this a bit more and hand it out at the next community meeting.

Shall we make a decision as a committee and then present this to the community for questions and discussion?

We should have a description of what the scaled income numbers mean - perhaps right onto the spreadsheet.


5. CDC reimbursement of contingency funds
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We got an update, and JD should be able to get this to us before too long. We have reimbursed members in anticipation of contingency funds.


6. LCE liability extension
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MONKEY: We will read this and review it at the next F&L meeting.

We discussed an artfully crafted table with various elements that referred to sections of the master deed document.

We will pass this onto Dave G, and ask him to add to the matrix info from the master deed how it differs from what we're proposing, and also to double-check what Dale has prepared before the next F&L meeting.

MONKEY: Patti will ask Dave G to
MONKEY: Dale can send out the Excel document to anyone who asks for it.


7. Insurance point person transfer from Judith to KathyB
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MONKEY: Judith and Kathy B will chat about insurance


8. Caring/Membership and F and L interface for Association fee waiver/negotiation process
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MONKEY: Jim G has a copy of the proposal, and will send it out.

Affordability exists as an interested group of people, F&L should consult with them as soon as this goes through. This would involve either 2 book-keepers, or at least the member book-keeper will need to meet with them.

They will start soliciting donations to help cover these costs.

We passed a temporary postponement of association fees proposal that needs to be reviewed later.

We've used the late fees to pay for certain things.
We've collected $106 in late fees as of the end of April.

Caring, affordability and the book-keepers will be the ones to make the decision if a household asks for a waiver. Caring will solicit funding, and affordability should be called into play as soon as there is a request for the postponement. This will most likely be one representative from each group.

This is only for waiver, and doesn't apply to postponements.

MONKEY: Jim G will rectify whatever facts Willie has mis-typed on this issue.


9. LTCRF calculation spreadsheet
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Patti has invited Sarah, Jenny, Rod, and now Ted to attend the next meeting to talk about the next F&L meeting.

Patti will forward a copy to buildings and Sarah. We should start the next meeting with this item.


10. Property Taxes and Water bills
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Email was sent out about the property taxes.
The bill we've received recently is correct. After December 31st, it is all good aside from that we're being billed for 1.5 acres of unimproved land that we should be getting from TouchStone, right now we're paying for all 3 acres.

Perhaps touchstone should cough up the $2600 that we've paid for them. Once they're built, it won't be an issue.

JD is taking his time working on the meeting for the tap fee, but is doing homework so that he can go in and get this resolved properly. Touchstone has gotten their site plan approval. This could mean a difference between 13k and 34k, so it means a lot to us.


11. LCE Extension policy
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Now is the time to give input to grounds.

MONKEY: each of us should look at the LCE extension proposal and comment on it.

Grounds should be moved to allow people to "hand-off" their extra LCE space to be taken care of by one of their neighbors.


Next meeting:
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Monday, July 25, 4pm at sitting room.



Grills and fire safety
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The city of Ann Arbor says that Grills shouldn't be burnt within 10 feet of buildings. This is an international fire code.

MONKEY: Willie will include the link with the minutes
MONKEY: Kathy B should inquire with the insurance agent about this

F&L should inform the community of what our responsibilities are.


Freezer:
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- Malcolm didn't like the idea of the AED (defibrilator)
- how effective is it by untrained people?