Finance & Legal minutes: 2005-03-27

Minutes:

[[FinanceAndLegalMinutes]]
March 27, 2005, Sitting Room
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Attendance: Willie, Bill, Jim G, Dale

Monkeys:
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Monkey: Bill will be getting in touch with the accountant on Monday and ask them if they can do the extension for us. If not, we'll do it ourselves. But start there.

Monkey: Bill and Willie will flesh out the end of year tasks notes so that we have something to discuss with the accountant about the special things in our books. They'll send out to go-finance for comments.

Monkey: Arrange a training session - Bill will arrange a training session for George with Patti. Willie and Dale will try to attend. We will emphasize the use of the wiki for operations manuals.

Monkey: Willie will write up and distribute for comments.

Monkey: Willie will contact the LTCRF group for a report for the next meeting.

Monkey: Willie will respond to membership re: requirements.

Monkey: Willie will ask buildings to send the LCE/GCE feedback to us again.

Monkey: Who currently receives the mail? Then we need to find out the steps to change the authorized signer and address. [[Elph]] set up the account. Bill will contact elph.

Monkey: Kathy will contact CH again re: a secure place to lock up records.

Monkey: Finops will discuss how invoices are paid.

Monkey: Jim G will track down who is numbering the garages. Jim Sweeton might have the best clean copy of garage ownership.

Monkey: Willie or Kathy will check with the insurance agent to see if there are any additional charges associated with having a workshop.

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Taxes: Willie researched the tax question - our taxes were due 3/15/05, not 4/15/05. Not sure about the Michigan state taxes. We will probably be on the line for a small fine for being late - x% per month of the unpaid taxes. We will continue working forward.

Suggestion from Willie's brother that we immediately send off an application for extension (7004) with $5k or $10k to the IRS, then do the 1120-H with our accountant later on.

Monkey: Bill will be getting in touch with the accountant on Monday and ask them if they can do the extension for us. If not, we'll do it ourselves. But start there.

Monkey: Bill and Willie will flesh out the end of year tasks notes so that we have something to discuss with the accountant about the special things in our books. They'll send out to go-finance for comments.

The 2003/2004 budget report: Bill will review the books, and finops will have as a high priority the budget report.

Another notice--George will be the new general bookkeeper.
Monkey: Arrange a training session--Bill will arrange a training session for George with Patti. Willie and Dale will try to attend. We will emphasize the use of the wiki for operations manuals.


CIC proposal--Jim G has talked with Judith, it's in progress. More later.


Re-affirming contingency priorities. Willie did talk to Tim from Grounds. They've been discussing contingency expenditures. They appear to feel that the community should feel okay about revisiting the contingency priorities. Do we propose using a streamlined process similar to the original prioritizing? We could start by reminding people of the amount we have, and the priorities we already agreed upon. Then we put forward a process. Willie will put together a streamlined version proposal. We do note that Grounds feels it is necessary to reimburse Adi for the basketball hoop.
Monkey: Willie will write up and distribute for comments.


LTCRF this summer. Willie talked to [[Elph]] and Rachel about the LTCRF. Some momentum was killed during the winter season when we didn't keep the same people on the group, a mistake we made. We're hoping that [[Elph]], Rachel, and Judith will be able to make good progress and finish up the project. We're told that Jeff could be an excellent resource for determining replacement costs.
Monkey: Willie will contact them for a report for the next meeting.


New member requirements. If membership believes a set of requirements would be helpful to incorporate into our bylaws or agreements, F&L could see if these would be possible (legal). F&L does need to finish our part of the new member packet (more information). We don't have any requirements we believe should be part of our legal documents.
Monkey: Willie will respond to membership re: requirements.


Buildings feedback on LCE/GCE. We can't find any evidence that buildings sent us feedback on the LCE/GCE proposal.
Monkey: Willie will ask buildings to send this feedback to us again.


Signer on the Republic Account. [[Elph]] would like to be taken off the account.
Monkey: Who currently receives the mail? Then we need to find out the steps to change the authorized signer and address. [[Elph]] set up the account. Bill will contact elph.


Requirements before a unit is sold.
Do we need to remind the community that when a unit is sold, there are financial hoops--such as settling any association fees due?


Lawyers. F&L had decided to use Meisner to changes to bylaws, and Susan for other things. We might have a conflict of interest with Meisner and the master deed easement for Touchstone. So we probably need to use Susan there, but Meisner for all the other MD changes.



Steering. The minutes have been out. The last meeting was with JD. We got the check for the last of the project contingency, and he paid the Township water/sewer. Touchstone is proceding as cohousing. Nick is being invited to the next business meeting to talk about Touchstone--where they're at, plans, etc. The major concern at the meeting was what's happening with the ground by Amy/Malcolm's unit and all along the tree line. Concern about drainage, need to be fine-graded and hydroseeded.

Finops & bookkeepers' reports. Finops had two meetings 3/26/05. More to follow. No bookkeepers were able to attend today's meeting.

Willie has been keeping a current topics on the wiki. A few topics--
Operations manuals up to date? Not yet, but will be worked on during training.
CIC proposal--see above.
Master deed and garage issue--Willie will talk to Kelly about this.
LTCRF--see above
Lockable cabinet: Kathy was looking into.
Monkey: Kathy will contact CH again.
Revise our committee description.
Combining all the different billings on one statement? We'll drop it for the moment.
Idea to have committees approve invoices before being paid.
Monkey: Finops will discuss how invoices are paid.
Create and track official list of garage owners.
Monkey: Jim G will track down who is numbering the garages. Jim Sweeton might have the best clean copy of garage ownership.
Need to develop guidelines for insurance claims--person, and level of damage.
Loan origination fee--how to deal with.
Separate LTCRF account.
Monkey: Willie or Kathy will check with the insurance agent to see if there are any additional charges associated with having a workshop.


Next meeting: Sunday, 10th of April, game room, 4 pm.