Finance & Legal minutes: 2005-08-08

Minutes:

[[FinanceAndLegalMinutes]]
Date: Aug. 8th, 7pm location: CH sitting room
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== Agenda ==

* visitors from membership: discuss new member requirements
* review master deed changes as a package proposal before it's brought to the community
* steering report
* finops and bookkeeper's report
* finops wants a new computer for book-keeping
* process would like a "committee communicator" contact
* team description (or mandate)
* project contingency lineitems to attribute expenses to where the funds have already been allocated
* mechanism for handling the payment of the CH solar hot water heater
* adding detail to the monthly committee reports
* community-wide financial report (6 month review)

Next meeting: Date, location, and minute-taker

== Minutes ==
F&L Minutes
8 Aug 05
CH sitting room

Attendance: from Membership, Heather, Jay, Katie, Malcolm; from F&L, Willie, Adi, Bill, Dale, [[Elph]], Kathy B [briefly], Tracy and Jim G. [Notice, 3 households are represented on both these committees.]

Monkeys: Adi will e-mail the committee with details about the on-line version of QuickBooks.
Bill will set up how to attribute expenses to project-contingency funds.
Willie will send a copy of our tax report to Republic Bank.

1. Requirements for new member-owners at Great Oak: To be included in the revised Master Deed, the requirement that, normally, new owner-members should - before purchasing - have attended a community meeting and a social event, such as dinner in the CH, and have consulted w/ someone from Membership about what is in the Book of Agreements. For sufficient reason, on an individual basis, the community may waive some of these requirements. It was also noted that our bylaws permit renters also to be members of GO.

2. Review Master Deed changes, as a package proposal: Language for any proposed changes in the Master Deed should first be developed in committee, and then vetted by our attorney, before being brought to the community, which always has the final say. Willie will cause the 3 elements which are proposed for change to circulate by e-mail for review. These include (a.) new member requirements, discussed above; (b) clarification of LCE/GCE; (c) how to transfer garage use between members -- this part being written by Tracy.

3. Steering committee report: Adi reported to us that the charges that had been leveled against Steering committee's emergency funds for 2005 should actually have been charged against Grounds' portion of the project contingency fund. With this, Steering's emergency fund is available to pay for re-grading the West end near the playing field.

4. Fin-ops and [[Bookkeeper]]s' reports:
Bill intends to post on the bulletin board a complete treasurer's report - probably by [[title]], indicating where in the Sitting Room the actual paper copy can be found. This will go into more detail, at the line-item level, that what has already been passed along to committees.
Kathy reports that there is 1 household seriously behind in dues. She will work out with that member a written, signed plan for how it is proposed to catch up. [N.B., by meeting's end, Dale had e-mailed the committee the Wiki link to our policy on how such situations should be handled.]

5. Fin-ops wants a new computer? George complains that the existing lap-top is slow & inaccurate; and Kathy complains that she has trouble getting easy access to it. Should we buy a new computer? Or should we get an on-line version of the web-page for QuickBooks, to make pdf reports. Whichever we do, it needs to be fitted into next year's budget. Monkey: Adi will get details for the on-line version of QuickBooks. [N.B., since the meeting, there has been considerable further discussion of this topic, via e-mail.]

6. "[[Committee]] communicators": Process has requested that we and every committee list people on the committee who can serve as liaisons with individuals in the community, who want to ask "What is going on in the committee on such-and-such a topic?" or want to give their own feed-back on a topic. From F&L, these communicators will include Willie, Adi, Tracy and Bill.

7. Team description, or mandate: This may be scheduled for a community meeting in October.

8. Project contingency line items: Since 1/3 of potentially available project contingency funds has already been allocated to Grounds, this needs to be reflected in how expenses are attributed. Monkey: Bill will set this up.

9. Mechanism for handling payment for the CH solar hot-water heater: Adi will provide the book-keepers, each month, with the amount to be debited from the CH utilities operating line item, and the resulting dividend to be credited to each investor-household.

10. Community-wide financial report, for 6-month review: Dale claims that this can be done in a compact formula.
Tracy reports that, according to our accountant, we do not neet to file Michigan taxes. Monkey: Willie will send a copy of our tax report to Republic Bank.

NEXT MEETING: Aug. 22, @ Tracy & Seth's home. Minute-taker, Adi.