Finance & Legal minutes: 2005-02-27

Minutes:

[[FinanceAndLegalMinutes]]
Date: Sunday, Feb. 27th 4-6pm, location: Graham's (unit #34)
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F&L Minutes
2/27/05

In attendance: Willie, Jim G, Kathy B, Patti, Dale, Bill D

There were delicious brownies.


Where to file official documents: The general bookkeeper will keep track of official documents. Can we add a lock to one or more cabinets in the sitting room?

Monkey: Kathy B will talk to CH committee about getting a lock on a cabinet.

1099's: Mary King is taking care of it--they're in the mail. Last year we paid $690 to Charlie and Lyndsey last year (just above the $660 threshold, unfortunately!). We don't expect to pay anyone that much this year.

Work

Pre-assigned jobs, other changes, any special information.

Convener: 4 hrs/month is okay but the actual work often involves more than just the regular convening. When things come up, it often seems like the convener ends up doing it. Fin-ops will take over some of this. Increase to 5 hrs/month.

Fin-ops convener: Bill D has accepted. 4/month.

General bookkeeper--not enough hours at 4/month. We'll go to 6. Our online description is up to date. We've heard from both Amy H and Mary King expressing some interest in the bookkeeping job. We'll email them both to see what they need from us to decide.

Monkey: Patti will email Amy H and Mary King.

Steering rep? Doesn't have to be the convener. Jim G. will be it. Steering recently has changed somewhat and is now a bit more forward looking and less centered on construction issues, for example. Jim will start at the next meeting--1st and 3rd Sunday, 7 pm.

Note--as long as everyone is not sharing committee work, it makes sense to us that folks who are on committees should get work credit. [[Committee]] work is important, and the community wouldn't function without it.

Do we have any contingency hours? No, we turned those down. Work is suggesting that instead of each committee having contingency hours, there's a general fund of them.


Budget coordinator: They'll work on the budget for 3 months of this work season. We had 4 hrs for 3 months before, but it took many hours to work on the budget. 3 hours per month for 6 months, which is 6 hrs/3months when they're actually working. They'll convene the budget sub-committee. Some possible names--Becky might be willing to take it? [[Rod]] did some great work on it.

Monkey: Jim will ask Judith if she will email Becky and [[Rod]] to see if either would be interested in the budget coordinator position.

LTCRF positions: It does not appear that the LTCRF work will be done this season. We messed up in not having continuity on the committee.

Monkey: Willie will organize another LTCRF meeting.

Insurance point person: 1 hr/month. It's uneven in terms of time. We feel it should be connected to another position--add to a job description, or a companion job. Clean, well-informed interface. Keep track of payments, point of contact for State Farm. Makes claims. Add to treasurer/F&L convener.

Check logger: We don't know of any problems.

Monkey: Jim will ask Judith if the hours are right for check logger and if she wants to continue in that position.

Member bookkeeper: Kathy B is willing to continue in the position. 4 hours seems sustainable and reasonable.

Check writer: Helen has been getting 4 hours. Reimbursements needs are dropping--maybe a reduction in hours. Kathy B would be interested. (F&L doesn't see any conflict here, since member bookkeeper deals with different areas.)

Monkey: Willie will ask Helen if the hours are reasonable.

Check depositor: It can be helpful for the member bookkeeper to review the checks. Keep at 1 hr/month. Kathy will continue to do it.

Legal liaison: what months do we need to have this done?

Tax liaison: Need, but probably can't fill with just anyone.

Monkey: Willie will send an email to the community about the tax liaison position. We need to fill this asap.

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Lawyers: There's been some suggestions that we consider Bob Meisner to do our master deed work, and use Susan Morrison for other work. In any case, we need to keep any legal work on a short leash.

Decision: We'll try Bob Meisner on a short leash, but we'll try to avoid any metaphorical pulled shoulders.

Monkey: Willie will ask [[Elph]] how much Susan Morrison charges.


Scio water/sewer charges for residential units: Patti will figure out how much we've paid for residential water up to now, and then with Kathy figure out the excess money we collected. We want to set up this refund (hundreds of dollars per household) as soon as possible.

Water/sewer tap fees: JD responded about the CDC tap fee credit (about $4,500)--we can keep it. This means GO will get around $10,000 more for contingency projects, though Patti has received more contingency-related expenses that might increase the amount we overspent so far. (See Monkey below for calculating the final amount.)

Question--is there a reason we should revisit the prioritization of contingency, or spend just as originally prioritized?

Monkey: Willie will publish a document showing what we've spent and what we allocated for contingency. F&L will ask if we want to reconfirm or change our priorities.

Monkey: Dale will work with JD to agree on the final contingency number, and who is paying the tap fee.

Note--F&L acknowledges that if there are units that owe "rent" money to CDC for their unit prior to closing, that GO will take on those accounts receivables so that they are resolved during closing.

Next meeting: (check with facilitator for date) in the CH sitting room.