Finance & Legal minutes: 2005-01-03

Minutes:

F & L meeting January 3, 2005
Present: Willie, Patti, Jim G., Judith, Dale, Kathy B., Adi and Divya (she's beautiful)

1. Steering report - Willie. They discussed the easement and what needs to be done by the lawyers. The easement was not as straight as planned because they avoided the trees. Most people were at the BARC meeting, so steering didn't do much.

2. [[FinOps]]/reorganization - We need a new bookkeeper (maybe Bill?). Possibly more work hours. This can't start yet.

3. [[Bookkeeper]]s Report - Patti - The Cohousing Club account at Sunrise still has $655. Some of this should be transferred to Republic to bring that account up to $2500 (their required minimum).

4. Arrears - One member is seriously in arrears (about $1500). Should we take the next steps? A few others are somewhat behind.

5. Truck Payments - see Dale's handout - Grounds will add a line item of $2234, or $186.18/month, for the truck payments. This was in the 2003-2004 budget, but is not in the 2005 proposed budget. This will be changed. This is really not an addition to the budget, it's taking money from F & L and changing it to Grounds so that the truck payment appears separately. The truck payment should not be in the 20 year loan for the CH and garages.

6. Contingency Allocation - What went where? Let's compare this to the original CDC account and their reimbursements. We need to combine our documents with CDC's.

7. Scio tap and water fees - The developer fills out forms for the size of the pipes, etc. and the Township (in its wisdom) calculates the REU's. For the CH, they have calculated 1.0 REU's/1000 sq ft instead of 0.1 REU's/sq ft. The CH should be calculated at 5.2 REU's, not whatever humongous amount the TWP has calculated. JD will find his documents, and he and Dale will go to the twp and get this corrected. Dale has a very valuable document which explains all of this.

Our private house water bills are also wrong, but there will be no refunds since we have been paying the correct amounts.

8. Contracts and valuable documents - Can they go into folders and where is a safe place to store them?

9. Grounds has re-named their line items and they are working with us to consolidate Community Improvement Funds.


10. Six Month Review - bookkeepers summit - this will be scheduled on email and [[Elph]] will be invited, since he kept the books for the Cohousing Club.

11. CIC Proposal - The presentation will be postponed. A discussion of whether or not committees should keep their own books. Yes, and they need to keep good records and share them with F & L.

12. Emergency Assessments - Jim G. handed out a paper which basically says that all the processes are in place and that the community will handle this IF necessary.

13. Rescheduling meetings - We are going to meet the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 4 pm. [[Meeting]]s will be in the sitting room. Our next meeting will be Sunday, Jan. 16.

14. Final closing of the project books - Alicia and Dale are meeting on Jan. 4 to do this.

[[Meeting]] adjourned about 8:30.

Respectfully submitted,
Judith


Agenda:
* steering report - Willie
* finops re-organization / convener - all
* bookkeeper's report - Patti
* Scio tap & water fees - Dale
* 6-month review and schedule a bookkeeper's summit - Dale
* CIC proposal review for the upcoming biz mtg on wed, the 5th - Willie
* how to do emergency assessments - Jim G
* reschedule meetings so that they're more evenly spaced with steering - Willie
* work with grounds to consolidate community improvement funds - all
* moving the truck from F&L's budget to grounds - we need numbers - Willie

Stuff yet to clean up...
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== Pressing issues: ==
* Attorney retainer fees, and what we're trying to accomplish.
** How much do we want to spend, and where will the money come from?
* Issue with the master deed and garage ownership
** Amy H and [[Jenny]] will work on clarifying issues with mortgages
*** they will also create a short "how-to sell your garage &/or unit", and will work with an attorney to create a "transfer boilerplate".
* [[RestructuringFandL]]
** Should we plan on meeting more often to reduce our workload quicker?

== Other ==
* general bookkeeping questions:
** follow and adjust operation manuals for how things are currently operating ([[FandLOperationsManuals]])
** are we going to overspend, or break even this year?
** Many people in the community don't understand how this process operates. Perhaps we could assemble a skit to explain how money moves through the system to perform at a community meeting.
* presentation on the details of the final closing of the project books (Sarah & Dale)
** the final closing deficit amount will need to fit into our budget somewhere - how much will this be?
*** Perhaps we take out a loan, or maybe we pass this on to steering?