Management Minutes July 17, 2025

Management Meeting, July 17, 2025 (Amended)
In attendance: Ben, Michael, Kerry, Joe, Cheryl

Private messaging to management within Discord
-    Ben will look into “ticket tools” to add to the server for this purpose; will try various options and see what works best
-    Alternately, could create a separate channel with management members and an individual community member
ACTION: Management in agreement that this type of communication is necessary and approves testing options in Discord

Donations / Earmarking of funds

-    Ben raises the issue that there is no consensus on policy about what we do with donations; over the past year we have put that into general fund, not earmarked for specific committees
-    Recently there have been donations from individual members to committees, or from guests to specific committees
-    Past members have also made donations for specific projects (solar panels, greenhouse) that have caused some rifts and perhaps those funds could have been used more effectively
-    Should all donations go to general community for a consensus process among management or in ACM
-    Kerry remarks that CH has changed policy about past practice of just dropping stuff off or buying random stuff; changing this mindset has worked well, so that the understanding that donations can also be a burden 
-    Kerry adds that an agenda can travel with monetary donations and power travels with that money
-    Ben recalls that Farmette specifically used to be funded through donations exclusively rather than community money; we can’t stop individuals donating directly to individuals
-    Cheryl remarks that having a sense of how much things cost through the budgeting process, and that budget should be based on historical usage rather than arbitrary and irregular
-    Kerry: if you’re going to be a committee, then you’re bound by the budget, at least loosely
-    Ben: Agrees that you owe some amount of transparency if you’re using community money; adds that it would be great to track donations so that we have a better sense of how much running the community costs
-    Kerry raises the question of the chairs, and whether that kind of thing would need to be tracked
-    Cheryl says that large sums of money may be slightly different, because we might not need what you want us to spend it on; transparency is a different/more important issue
-    Ben: but some people feel like they need to report to management or be transparent, and some don’t; perhaps this is an ACM topic? Should committees not be able to accept money?
-    Michael: donations could be distinguished between “in kind” and monetary, with them treated differently; another option could be to have a cap or a bar like the large spend process, above which donations are treated differently
-    Kerry: her initial thought is a $200 cap, but if the CH budget is $1000, that’s a large percentage that could translate to influence
-    Ben remarks that this is why large donations need to be tracked, so that we can be prepared for future years
-    Ben suggests that no committee member has the power to accept donations on behalf of that committee
-    Kerry compares this to past volunteer organizations, which prevented “earmarked” donations so that you don’t have outside people changing community priorities 
-    Ben proposes that this conversation in an ACM would have to be circumscribed to not be about the past, or about specific committees
-    Kerry clarifies that CH room usage donations go into operating budget rather than to CH costs because fundraising anticipated some issues with that
-    Cheryl comments that there are some people who are very passionate about specific issues, and we can’t necessarily control that
-    Kerry thinks the question is really about priorities and that priorities need to be set by the community not individuals, due to long-term and unanticipated costs related to donations
-    Ben asks that committees may not be able to host fundraisers to raise funds just for themselves, not the general fund; people need to be treated equally instead of some receiving 
-    Cheryl doesn’t think “in kind” donations should be treated differently, and that maybe this isn’t as much of an issue as we’re making it; in the case of maintenance tools replacement or upgrading, adds that this is going to be inevitable with or without a specific policy 
-    Kerry returns the conversation to the question of equity and Farmette being over their budget versus “counting on” donations in the case of overruns; CH tracking costs has been really helpful for budgeting 
-    Cheryl recalls that during previous budget seasons when HOA fee was raised, every committee except maintenance was told to be creative and reduce budget
-    Kerry asserts that knowing what it takes to run this community is more important
-    Cheryl suggests line items for budget and for donations
-    Ben also recalls that a certain amount of donation is in the budget, so donations that come in are already in the budget
-    Cheryl would like to talk to involved parties before raising this question in an ACM
-    Kerry recalls that previous CH years relied on fundraising rather than budgeted amounts, but that we’ve moved more into a budget focused approach with reasonable dollar amounts rather than loose donations
-    Cheryl asserts that non-negotiables have in recent budget cycles resulted in committees (non-maintenance and landscaping) being asked to drop their budgets, with the message being “get creative,” which is what Farmette is doing
-    Ben disagrees, that the message was instead “do without” due to insurance premiums going up and other factors; we’re not going to do what we wish we could but can we do without it
-    Ben asks if we can fundraise for something specific, at all?
-    Kerry says no, but it’s not black and white
-    Joe adds that because we are not a 501c3, we can’t be selling things like produce
-    Cheryl is confused by this, and asks whether we should receive donations at all
Management will continue to consider this and may come back to this issue in future meeting(s)

Maintenance update
-    Cheryl’s meeting with contractor (Tim) has been pushed back, and would like to have a maintenance meeting prior to that discussion to set some priorities 
-    Cheryl will discuss unit 19’s foundation spalling with Tim during his visit, and will request a quote to repair it
-    Ben suggests that those priorities should be walkway, corner window wood trim, and side door flashing
Continued insurance uncertainty
-    Insurance issues are still unresolved; Ben has been having difficulty getting insurers to respond about our requests about it
-    Cheryl will ask the office her HO6 policy was transferred to and see if they do master policies as well

Management vacancy
-    Cheryl asks whether five members is non-negotiable or whether that is an arbitrary number
-    Ben says that CC&Rs do not dictate a timeframe for replacing members, but less that four people can’t make decisions according to the CC&Rs
-    Cheryl asks whether this is a legal issue to have only three
-    Ben says we could change this in the CC&Rs, and that condo law likely doesn’t require five
-    Ben also reminds management that many responsibilities or tasks could be delegated rather than it being management; we could delegate to individuals or companies from outside the community
-    Kerry wonders if this is similar to what we’re currently doing with bookkeeping
-    Ben questions that CC&Rs might not dictate that management does the bookkeeping
-    Replacing treasurer is also crucial, and Kerry is worried about the bookkeeping
-    Four members can’t maintain a quorum, which makes it difficult to not maintain 
-    Ben says that either we find someone to take on that bookkeeping work, or we take it on ourselves
-    Ben says treasurer role could be more delegated to the bookkeeper and managing that relationship rather than actually doing the Quickbooks
-    Cheryl says it would be negligent not to stay on top of the bookkeeping 
-    Ben says we need a new process for submitting receipts 
-    Cheryl feels that we need to have Jorge fill us in on the process in order to figure out how to transfer more to the accountant
-    Ben concludes that the things we need to figure out things like how much is going into reserves, and talking to accountant about things that we need
-    Ben feels the processes could be much more streamlined, and there’s a lot of room for treasurer to define their own role
Management will continue to think about this, no decisions made