Management minutes, Tuesday October 4, 2023

Topics:  gmail account, welcoming, accounting, gutters, stucco, insurance, holding educational meetings

Present: Cheryl, Kay (notes), Scott, Jorge, Robin, Ben, Vicky until 8:20, Carol briefly, Kerry, 7:30 Vinnie, Mary

Common house sitting room * online

Action Items

Jorge will call Butler and get a ballpark idea of the cost of an audit.

Gmail Account

Used for correspondence outside the community, such as invoices, title company inquiries, prospective buyers, etc.  Linda, Cheryl, Jorge, Ben, and Vicky have access and monitor it. 

Some email accounts can have "categories" assigned.  Could assign colors for topics. If you look at an email and it is a topic someone else handles, mark it unread.

Welcoming

Emilie's unit is under contract to Hannah & Steven.  Closing November 1, although Emilie will rent the unit from them until she is ready to go to Brazil.  Management will need to grant an exception for the rental.

New owners of #25 are Michael & Emily.

Accounting

Report of meeting with Butler. They would charge about $400/month and we would still need someone in the community working with them. Even if we don't hand all the book-keeping to them, we might have them do an audit once or twice a year. They charge $150/hour.

If we keep book-keeping in house and split it up among a couple of people, the records will need to be in a central place so the different people have access. Scan all receipts.  Vinnie says online QuickBooks can embed pdfs or jpgs. That wouldn't necessarily work for bids, since we would have bids from suppliers that we didn't do business with (nothing in Quickbooks to attach to).

Ben has volunteered 2 hours of his time per week to work on book-keeping. 

Insurance

We now have an Ordinance or Law policy, premium ~$3600 year.  Gives us additional coverage in order to rebuild to code and other things. E.g., if one unit (half a building) burns down and the other unit is uninhabitable, it would cover demoing the whole building.  Many government mortgages (VA, FHA) require such a policy. 

Do we need to explain this to the community?  It affects the budget, so yes.

If we raise the deductible on the master policy, more claims will fall entirely on the unit owner's HO6 policy and won't require a claim on the master policy.  "Too many" claims will raise premiums and can cause a company to cancel a policy.  Unit owners may need to adjust their individual policies.

Maybe send out an information handout and then hold a community meeting, possibly with Justin, to acquaint everyone with the insurance and how it affects them.

Gutters

M&M Gutters has come but not sent a bid. They offer a 7-year warranty.  Have a bid from Roof Doctor.

LG Raingutters, bid for replacing all gutters, $35,000.  None of our gutters except the common house & carports have a warranty.  LG have a 12-year warranty on work and materials.   Does not include repair to damaged fascia, which we may have in some cases from the old fastener.  Old gutters are attached with a spike; new style attachment (past 15 years) is a bracket.  We have fifteen total structures.  We could spread work over several years and they would lock in the price.  They've been in business since the '80s.

Stucco

Robin called a bunch of people about color-matching.  They all said they don't do that.  Most use a silicone calk and then a primer and an elastomeric paint from Sherwin-Williams, 25-year warranty.  Patching with stucco can actually make cracking worse.  Unit 3 has a crack that goes all the way through the wall.

The CCR requires that expenditures over a certain amount require approval of the community.

Repainting the stucco will need to be added to the regular schedule.  It's suggested it be inspected every ten years or so. If reapplication is needed within the warranty period, we would have to pay for the labor but the paint would be free.

Need to educate the community of the necessity of maintenance, to get people to take things seriously. Management has never put out photos of the damage we deal with.  Might help the community better understand.  Have a presentation by a contractor?  Maybe a third-party facilitator.

Educate the community that we need the data entered in pay or play on how many hours maintenance actually requires. This includes calling for bids and supervising work.

Follow Ups

Haven't gotten an invoice from Roof Doctor for unit 22.

Crack sealing happening tomorrow, maybe noon.

We need to dig holes around Carol's to check how deep the footers are.  Need to be 36" deep for frostline.

Still missing keys for about five units. When a unit has a combo look and no key, we still need emergency access.  Could seal the paper the combo is written on in an envelope, etc.

Ask Vicky : Does the cohousing org have information on community management?

Two years on Management is too short a term for continuity.  People start to learn the ropes and then are off.

Question for Lawyer

Our CCR says the sewer line from the central sewer to an individual unit is the unit owner's responsibility.  How did the 2012(?) law change that?

Storage Bin

• root killer down drains
• relay uneven bricks

Emailed 10/29/2023.